The Mid Summer Slow Down
Unlike the hot mid summer smallmouth bites we experience here in the North East, nailing mid summer walleye can be a bit more difficult. By mid summer the early season action has slowed down dramatically, though this doesn’t mean things have dried up completely. There is still allot of good walleye fishing to be had. The trick to finding them and catching them becomes a matter of switching things up and changing with the walleye. If you caught in a rut of fishing the same baits in the same areas your chances of surviving the mid summer walleye slow down are slim to none.
When it comes down to mid summer walleye speed is a key factor. The slow rolling tactics that were so effective during the spring and early summer months become non effective. Now you should be focusing on speeding your presentation up and covering as much water as possible.
Some of my favorite mid summer walleye baits are spinning rigs. Spinning rigs are designed to present live bait at a medium to high level of speed. Spinning rigs come in all endless arrays of styles and colors, though a typical spinning rig is a harness with multiple hooks toped with beads and a blade. One of my favorites is
Northland Rainbow BaitFish Spinner Harness, tipped with a juicy night crawler.
Some other live baits that most walleye anglers overlook are shiners and hellgrammites. Yes try tipping your spinning rig with a hellgrammite, walleye love hellgrammites and they are a chosen food source to them when available.
During the summer months fishing deeper holes for walleye will usually pay off, not 100% of the time, but generally walleye will seek these deeper waters in the hot summer months. If your fishing a river system, riffles that dump into deep holes are an excellent hot spot for mid summer walleye.
The main thing here is not getting stuck in a rut, realizing that with each month of each season walleye feed and move differently. Spring time walleye fishing tactics will not work during the dog days of summer. It is important that you study and learn how not only walleye move and act during different seasons, but also how the food the eat moves and acts from season to season. Doing this will help you exceed during periods of time like mid summer slow downs.
