Historical walleye grounds and tactics

[digitroll (ron)]

Post I put up 3 years ago I located in the search box:

January 2015 post:

With all the nice walleyes caught last year and the fishery biologists telling us there are a lot more than people realize last year at the February Winter Workshops I thought I would start with what worked for us in the 1980's as I am hearing these spots are coming back to life again in the past season at dusk. I don't have time to fish at dusk anymore but I don't mind reviewing what worked for us. Well here we go......


Hyde point north of Savage: Our go to spot in the mid-eighties at dusk. Fishing off this point near the sharp drop-off in 90-120 feet of water. Trolling time window was August.

Fishbladder trolling in 70 feet of water right in the middle east of the island.

South east corner of Savage Island trolling in 80 feet of water.

North east corner of Savage Island in deep water.

Deep water right in front of the Georgia launch trolling west - east to Savage.

Ball Island can: Casting. Anchor 50 feet west of can in 10 feet of water after dark and cast with Rebel deep diving. Crazy large Walleyes and big bass. Best time: August - September. Best time at 10 pm.

Buoy 19 Shelburne: Casting right near the 19A outside can anchored. Or trolling around it.

Juniper Island: Trolling the north side near the green can in 10-12 of water and deep water north west and west of the Island.

Sloop Island: Trolling near the edge of the west side drop-off.

Ferris Rock: Trolling over the reef and around it.

Stave Island can: Trolling and I would bet casting near the can anchored would work.

Colchester reef: Trolling south and west side.

Schuyler reef can?


Well there you go! Anyone can add.

[digitroll (ron)]

Follow-up to that January 2015 post:


With the new ramp at the Sandbar it will be a heck of a lot easier loading a boat and great parking!

It was wonderful they cut those trees down to open things up for parking.

Watch out for the boats with no navigation lights on engaged in fishing after dark when running on plane. Sometimes they turn them on when your almost on top of them while running especially on a dark new moon night.

Also the west side of Savage out in the middle trolling north and south can yield a big guy pulling planer boards with deep divers off Laurvick releases. This is a good 10 pm - 2 am run.

Typically late July - August has been the Inland Sea walleye window for trolling. Beginning at Fishbladder / Cedar and peaking up at Savage around August 10th thru the end of the month.

Late June into July can be good near Juniper.

4 Brothers north to Valcour over deep water flatlining rapalas all night (June-September).

Anchoring near cans can be deadly for casting deep diving lures from spinning rods in those spots listed above especially during September when the trolling bite dies off.

Keep your eyes open just like daylight for other boats fishing them after dark and look for patterns. More time on the water = Fishing success increase. It's a learning curve as it changes with fish movements following bait and winds. In addition to flat lines; run your riggers at 20 ft down and 30 ft down with floating Bombers. People fishing walleyes at night have specific trolling patterns just like the daytime fishermen or can be found casting off of buoys after dark.

If you happen to catch a walleye during the day by accident fishing salmon there is a good chance there is more around to fish at dusk that evening with stick baits and a 6 rod presentation. I will change over two rods to stick baits ie. Bombers after catching a bonus day time walleye to stick another walleye or two. This is where your Fish Hawk comes in handy to target the 62 degree water above the salmon.

2015 may in fact be the year of the Walleye.

[mudchuck]

Awesome intel Ron.
I'm new to trolling, and still getting set up, but will certainly give this a try.
Thanks!!!

[Reelyfishin]

Hey Ron, thanks for sharing your success. I made it over to shelburne from wilsboro over the weekend to look for the 19a can. Couldn’t find it, wondering if you had any clues? I have a lakemaster chart or whatever they call those sonar gps maps on the humminbird electronics … it has some cans listed and some have numbers while some have letters. Anyways couldn’t find 19a. I only have a 16 1/2 lund and was worried about fighting waves in the dark on the way back so didn’t spend much time around juniper. I Would love to catch a walleye, it feels like it’s been years. I’m usually by myself so it’s difficult for me to troll which is why I was looking for an anchor at a can type casting spot.

Thanks so much!

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Thanks for sharing all that information Ron.

[digitroll (ron)]

They renumbered the buoy's years ago. Here is a Navionics chart from Navionics.com I added the old numbers in red on a saved screenshot. They told us last night at the LCI awards event the state stocked 300,000 walleye this year. Walleyes are exploding on the scene!

[raz]

They renumbered the buoy's years ago. Here is a Navionics chart from Navionics.com I added the old numbers in red on a saved screenshot. They told us last night at the LCI awards event the state stocked 300,000 walleye this year. Walleyes are exploding on the scene!

Nice!

[digitroll (ron)]

Always like an accidental catch while trolling for salmon on Ric's maiden voyage of his 22 Islander.. This one last August taped out at 29" weighed 8 lb. 14 oz on Shoot-Out scales tying a personal best of mine from 1985. Yup..It ate a Blue Moon CI! Likely a 20 plus year old fish.

[Reelax]

I predict this thread will explode. To give interested walleye fisherman this depth of info in one place is a missing solution in the Champlain fishing community. I’ve often said I would switch to walleye when the salmon bite dies off in August and have even tried each year:( The mixed results have made me keep on the salmon every month and September can be very boring. (Although some of my biggest salmon and browns have come in Sept, you have to work hard for em.

With this info I’ll have a much better chance to fish walleye more than 1 and done this year.

While letting out some serious walleye secrets and probably not make many friends in the hard core walleye ranks….. you have given other folks who want to learn walleye a chance to see some success.

That is the part of the mission of this site and to see it done with Walleye and not just salmon could be life changing for many folks.

Below is a pic from 2019- Andy “Bottomdollar” on the forum.. who we lost a few years back to cancer. He was lucky enough on this trip to land a rare walleye on Reelax in July that year.. Miss fishing with him to this day.. RIP

Thanks!

[digitroll (ron)]

It's a patience game. Many will fail. I think adding the casting to the process of trolling edges of reefs once you catch one will make a big difference. Not easy in the dark fishing a reef and dealing with weeds at times. Once you tag a weed with your deep diver it's game over. The deep diver's run 8 ft normally and back 75 feet. Two rods is plenty in the dark when fishing a reef. Keep checking them. Try new spots and use the Navionics to locate suitable flat small areas adjacent to reefs. Buoy fishing isn't required. There are at least 100 places to try. It's a blast hooking a walleye on a spinning rod casting with a deep diver hard bait on. The guys placing in the derbies are casting for those big giants and going reef to reef on a hunt! Not a big secret. It's a stealthy and more productive way to fish without trolling. Like bass fisherman going from spot to spot. Goes back 40-50 years what a few of the successful old timers did. Nothing new! The art of jigging or casting is another way to fish. Guys in Magog are catching rainbows and salmon this way around bait balls.

Try fishing 30-40 fow of water adjacent to reefs or islands. Add more rods now with inline boards or big boards. Riggers too!

These days I like fishing in the light for salmon. I still have lots of spots and stories to share but you get the gist of it. It's a starting point for those want to try a different species.

[Wallyandre (Andre)]

I use to fish lake St-Louis at night (near home) from September to end of November. November was incredible; catching big walleyes in 5-6 ft of water with frontal light! But it’s tough and I don’t have that drive anymore. On Lake St-Pierre we were also trolling for monster walleyes in October along weed edge in 7-12ft of water on the day, so a lot easier. I made a day with my brother with 60 walleyes many 5-7 pds and 2 10.5 . Fishing along weed takes some patience because sometimes you put your Rapala Tail Dancer in the water for 2 minutes then you need to retrieve it to clean the herbs but they bring big walleyes in the boat

[Princess di]

That’s great up north but when it comes to the south end of the lake we keep getting cheated with the stocking.

[Bearcat]

I predict this thread will explode. To give interested walleye fisherman this depth of info in one place is a missing solution in the Champlain fishing community. I’ve often said I would switch to walleye when the salmon bite dies off in August and have even tried each year:( The mixed results have made me keep on the salmon every month and September can be very boring. (Although some of my biggest salmon and browns have come in Sept, you have to work hard for em.

With this info I’ll have a much better chance to fish walleye more than 1 and done this year.

While letting out some serious walleye secrets and probably not make many friends in the hard core walleye ranks….. you have given other folks who want to learn walleye a chance to see some success.

That is the part of the mission of this site and to see it done with Walleye and not just salmon could be life changing for many folks.

Below is a pic from 2019- Andy “Bottomdollar” on the forum.. who we lost a few years back to cancer. He was lucky enough on this trip to land a rare walleye on Reelax in July that year.. Miss fishing with him to this day.. RIP

Thanks!

I knew Andy had cancer, but I didn’t know he had passed, I’m sorry to hear it. Nice guy, we were both boat yard rats from eastern Long Island as kids.