Slow Death Walleyes in the Weeds

I have heard a lot of reports of fisherman having trouble finding numbers of walleyes on smaller lakes in the summer heat. They know the fish are in the weeds but don’t quite know how to get them out.

If you are looking to increase your daily walleye catch ration here is a little technique I have been working on as of recently and have had some success with not a lot time spent trying it when I can slip away from work for an hour or two.

As the heat of the summer raises the water temp the fish are looking for oxygen and head to the weeds. wherever your favorite early summer walleye spot was chances are you probably aren’t graphing the same number of fish because they have moved into the weeds. Try using a 4 to 6 ft leader with a slow death hook and half a crawler 1/4 to 3/8 slip weight and troll/drift the weedline at .7 to 1.1 mph. seems that the 12 to 15 FOW is the target depth and let out about 25 to 35 ft of line so you are on the bottom. The half crawler will increase your hookup percentage. This technique also works with spinner rigs (but I personally catch more northerns with the spinners).

This little change in technique should help increase your daily walleye numbers with a good mix of other species ranging from Pike, bass and BIG bluegills and of course the annoying little perch.

GOOD LUCK FISHING!!!

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Mike LeClaire

That’s good info Mike. I do alot of the same and even in shollow waters.
I’ve also had good results with the slow death hook, and a small bead or 2 along with a real small smiley blade.
Has actualy turned me onto more of this style fishing based on some recent results. This can be dealy on Winniebigoshish!
of course, when it’s 100, or close to, I just leave them alone.

I have had very good luck with that pattern also.

One of my favorite things I always did with my Night crawlers was to keep them in a container with lake weeds instead of bedding.

It kept the worms fat and sassy and kept the bottom of the boat clean. So now with the AIS laws I am illegal.

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I have had very good luck with that pattern also.

One of my favorite things I always did with my Night crawlers was to keep them in a container with lake weeds instead of bedding.

It kept the worms fat and sassy and kept the bottom of the boat clean. So now with the AIS laws I am illegal.

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That’s an awesome idea what kind of lake weeds did you use, I hate cleaning up that mess. Have you ever tried soaking your worms in water before using them to keep them fat, just learned that this; and normally I blow them up if I am slow rigging anyway but they definately swell when they are soaked in water.

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That’s good info Mike. I do alot of the same and even in shollow waters.
I’ve also had good results with the slow death hook, and a small bead or 2 along with a real small smiley blade.
Has actualy turned me onto more of this style fishing based on some recent results. This can be dealy on Winniebigoshish!
of course, when it’s 100, or close to, I just leave them alone.

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I am going to have to rig one with a blade that sounds like a deadly combination. I just know on Pokegama where I do most of my experimenting; anything flashy and its hard to keep the northerns off. That is the only reason I started trying the slow death because I was sick of retying spinner harnesses every third fish.

I wonder if trying a slow death hook with a blade on a steel leader and wacky hook a minnow how many northerns you get in a day?

I would pick up cabbage and coontail along the shorelines, rinse off the crawlers and then place them back in the container with the weeds as bedding.

Keep them cool/ refridgerated and your good to go.

It keeps things clean.

Mike, this sounds like a fun technique that I need to try again. Do you get many perch or other small fish while you are pulling slow death in the weeds?

You will pick up some nice bluegills and of course the ever annoying perch and rock bass. Maybe it is the infrequent amount of time I have spent using this technique but I haven’t caught as many perch or rock bass as I thought I was going to when I decided to try it. I thought for sure I was going to have a hard time keeping those species off the line. Maybe I just got lucky and those fish weren’t as active when I was out.

I have used similar techniques for bluegills and crappies with a feathered jig and worm/leech/crawler and have done really well; so I guess it makes sense it works for walleyes.

In most cases for me if the bite is decent and the perch are being a pest I switch to Gulp 4″ crawler. With this it has the small paddletail that can actually trigger a few more bites and you don’t need to worry about rebaiting the slow death hook after every nibble.

For blade techniques take a look at the Swedish pimples in your ice tackle and you’ll see something worth trying.

I will have to try the plastics with this technique, because rebaiting is a pain.

Anyone know how this works along the drop off at the edge of the river?

I refer specifically to the Mississippi and the drop off along her banks… 5 to ~20 feet over about a 10-20′ span…

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Anyone know how this works along the drop off at the edge of the river?

I refer specifically to the Mississippi and the drop off along her banks… 5 to ~20 feet over about a 10-20′ span…

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I don’t do a lot of river fishing but I would think the same concept would apply as you would on the lake.