The hottest summer tactics for walleye, bass, trout, pike & muskies

WALLEYE

During the summer peak, walleye will be delightfully gorging on the profusion of food, usually mayflies that hatch in astronomical numbers in mid- to late June across most of the country. These snacking walleye congregate in areas that many walleye anglers don’t usually associate with their favourite fish—soft muddy flats, humps and deep weedlines. So many walleye will be devouring protein-packed insects, in fact, that if you’re not matching the hatch in the right areas, you’re not going to catch them.

Now’s the time you want to snap on a bottom bouncer and troll a crawler harness or slow-death rig. I actually prefer a blend of the two approaches. I tie a barrel swivel to one end of a 32- to 40-inch length of eight- to 10-pound monofilament or fluorocarbon line, which I attach to my bottom bouncer. I then run one or two red, orange or chartreuse beads up the line, followed by a Smile Blade from Mack’s Lures.

You can use a Colorado, Indiana or willowleaf blade if you prefer, but I find there’s something about the distinctive sound, vibration and flash of the Smile Blade that makes it much more effective. Next, I slide two or three more beads onto the leader to serve as spacers before tying on a curved slow-death hook. Finally, I skewer a real or scented soft-plastic crawler to the hook and clip it so that only an inch or two trails behind the wildly corkscrewing set-up.

With so many mayflies emerging from the lake bottom, you’ll find the walleye spread out randomly, like barnyard chickens. So, rather than trolling slowly, I use a heavier than normal bouncer to keep my bait within a foot or so of the bottom while I troll relatively quickly— up to 2.4 kilometres an hour—to put my twirling bait in front of as many fish as possible.