Post-spawn “lull”?? BS?

I’ve often been told it is a couple of weeks after the spawn before the fish will start biting. I find this hard to believe. If the fish are recovering, wouldn’t an easy meal make recovery faster??

Where should I be concentrating my efforts once the spawn is complete? I know where the fish spawn in the res. I fish as I go with the fisheries guys to net them to take to the hatchery. Will the fish move to the closest structure to the spawning grounds or will they disperse toward there summer hangouts?

What tech. do most of you utilize to target these fish? I would assume a slow moving jig or lindy rig with meat would make an easy meal for a recovering walleye. I’m not sure I could sit and watch a slip bobber, but if it would catch some fish I suppose I can try!

Thanks

Morning BT,

From my experience on Big lake walleye fishing there most definately is a Post Spawn slowdown for the females. Now the males can eat all they want!! Great being guys!! I don’t know if it last 2 weeks or not, but from what I gather the spawning females take some “Me Time” after the spawn to just kind of hang out. They might eat a Precision jig dropped in their mouth, but likely are not exuding a lot of energy in search of a meal. Heck they just gave birth to a zillion eggs!! Males will be pounding all they can find around the spawning grounds. If searching for those big females that have spawned they will likely be adjacent to spawning grounds maybe on a nice warming mud bottom a bit warmer than some of the other water. This is a great time to study water temps!!

My suggestion is to always “Not fight a tough bite”, rather attempt to locate fish that spawned out earlier. It is in my opinion there are a few cycles of spawning that take place on lakes such as Rainy. Now this may very well be different in the system in question. Some fish swim into inlets where their is a little water movement. Others come into some warming bays, while others spawn on shoreline small rock rubble. The big lake spawners will spawn last, while I believe many of the inlet/bay spawners are in and out while the big lake may very well have a sheet of ice on it yet!

Now that isn’t science, so take it for what it is worth. This is my opinion, and how I deal with the spawn cycle year in and year out!!

Post spawn female walleyes deffinately can not afford to take any time off. During spawning they exert a ton of energy and absolutely can not afford to take a couple of weeks off or even a couple of days. They need to replenish their energy as soon as they can. As females finish spawning they will scatter throughout a system in search of food. Keep in mind that they don’t all spawn at the same time. Two females could drop their eggs 2 or more weeks apart. One problem is that during this time of year food is at it’s lowest in any system. Baitfish populations are down and won’t come back up until they spawn. It’s been my expierence to fish areas that will be most likely to have a food supply. One of my favorites that time of year is shallow water on the wind blown side of the lake. The shallow water will warm faster and the wind blows in all the elements to start the food chain. In other words the baitfish show up. Another of my favorite areas on reservoirs are feeder creeks and rivers. Snow melt and rains this time of year wash in a lot of food to the lakes and where there is food there is going to be walleye.

A couple weeks into the spawn the females will all be done and finally the males will slowly start to disperse. This is when consentrations of walleye start to show up and they seem to get easier to catch.

I know on Pool 4 the last couple weeks of April are usually post spawn and it is a rough time for us mere mortals. Not sure how much of it is true post spawn and how much of it is that the females are in transition from the spawning areas back to their lake haunts. Post spawn the fish are moving and scattering so it is difficult to pattern them because they aren’t in any one location for very long. That’s about all I can say on it because I only scratch one out here and there during that timeframe and have never really found a consistent pattern.

I did some research on Post Spawn articles and found this one written by Gary Roach and published in Game and Fish Magazine. This is his opening paragraph for his article. There is a lot of good info in their if a guys wants to spend the time reading it through. Search Post Spawn Walleyes Game and Fish Magazine.

Post-Spawn River Walleye Tactics
Everyone knows walleyes go into a funk after spawning, but that doesn’t mean you can’t catch fish. Expert Gary Roach tells it like it is.

By Gary Roach “Game and Fish Magazine”

Gary Roach hits the river prepared for any scenario at this time of year.

“It doesn’t matter what part of the country you’re in, those river walleyes tend to hole up and get tight-lipped after they spawn. You would, too, if you had just swum for miles up a river and then laid a few thousand eggs. Fortunately, however, those big females don’t spawn all at once, so there’s always some good walleye fishing somewhere on the river for big fish. You just have to know where to find it”.

Definatley a few view points on what those big females do after dropping spawn. I think we can all agree that whether they are being tight lipped or scattering eating anything they can get their mouths on these fish no doubt can be tough to target in any numbers. If what Ben is referring to is indeed what is taking place then it will make sense to cover large spans of water quickly and efficiently to tag up on some of those bigger fish. Here on Rainy the perch are in abundance around spawning grounds, but the big females tend to not be caught in any numbers. Seems 99% of the anglers fishing during this period have a tough time leaving a male dominant concentration of fish during that period, but that may be what is necessary to hook up with some big girls!!

This is a really interesting topic. There are hundreds of articles written on this.

What types of techniques would be best in getting a bite?? I wouldn’t think you would want to be pulling cranks trying to cover ground locating fish. Would you try to give structure more time to produce a bite or would you move a lot? I give the fish about 20 mins. a structure in the summer trying to find biting fish.

luckily, in our area most walleyes dont’ spawn at the same time, so when the fish are slow after spawning, there are still a good number of prespawn fish being caught and when the late spawners slow down the early spawnings are hawngry.

most that say they don’t notice are in these types of areas i think.

Hey Bt,

I wouldn’t be pulling cranks with early season cold water temps. Too aggressive for that time of year. “HND” hit it on the head if you seeking big females best try locate earlier spawners. Very true that on complex fisheries such as here on Rainy fish do not spawn all at once. I believe that after the females drop spawn they scatter and lay low. You will see 95% of the fish being caught during this period to be smaller males. For me this is classic jig pitching times. Work shoreline rubble and river inlets. Also remember that if the opener has you in a pickle for walleyes due to a late spawn you will likely drop the hammer down on big pike. Can’t go wrong there!!

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What types of techniques would be best in getting a bite?? I wouldn’t think you would want to be pulling cranks trying to cover ground locating fish.

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I like to look for shallow areas in close proximity to known or suspected spawning grounds,preferably with remnants of weed growth from prior year.The temps in these areas can be a deg. or 2 higher which can hold some of the smaller baitfish – panfish which you generally see this time of year.If the baitfish or smaller perch – panfish are holding there the females walleyes can sit here to recoup & feed.I generally fish this with a slower subtle approach with various cranks & or plastics.Swimming plastics along 3′-4’with a couple turns of the handle & pause for a sec. or 2 with maybe a small twitch at the end can produce.I really like throwing cranks this time of year also using a similar fashion slow reel-reel small twitch pause.There are quite a # of baits that can produce with this method,keeping actions small & subtle can be key in producing fish.Lures such as the Rapala HJ,GSR,RS in the smaller sizes.Also regular shad raps,floating raps & countdowns can produce.When I use the balsa style bodied lures I like to put a suspend dot or suspend strip on for neutral buoyancy,that way it doesnt float up & away from a slow following fish.With the slow reel-reel pause or reel-reel twitch pause method fish wont use alot of energy to pursue your lures.But when it stops in front of their face they cant stand it & can be lights out! They will at times simply CRUSH a crankbait!I find this can work very well in the 48-55 deg range.But can work well in other water temps & conditions as well.

Other lures to consider using might be the Berkley Flicker Shad,Smithwick Rogues, Matzuo Fantastic Minnows,Prism Shad & Zander Shads.I have also found the countdown Rapala & smaller lipless style crank baits to work under these conditions as well.With a quick twitch slow reel-reel short pause,on these last 2 lures mentioned as they tend to drop or sink after the pause.Allmost any lure that will sit suspended or almost suspended can work at this time.I’m not saying your going to put the big on a bunch of fish.But this method can produce some better fish,under a generally slower time of year for the mid to upper 20″ class fish. After temps reach above 55 deg. is when I find its time to break the trolling rods back out,after their short rest,to cover water again.

The big girls still have to eat helping in their recouperation process from the spawn.You might find small windows that they become actively feeding.But if a person gets impatient you can usually go some smaller males & keep checking back to these shallow water haunts. Best of luck fishing ! WHITE TIP

I catch nearly as many walleye post spawn fishing the front end of the Bass run as I do during the spawn … Some years they overlap…. most years one has just finished as the second starts… generally on pool 9 the last “numbers” of walleye are finished around the third week of April and the Bass run starts that week or the following and continues until they actually spawn weeks later.

So that means I am either catching the walleye on dark tubes or rattletrappie type baits on the wingdams and rock humps, or like was mentioned by someone else in shallow bays very very very near spawning areas usually on the same two baits… in the shallow bays I usually downsize to the smallest rattle trap type baits.

I actually think one thing that makes the two week lull thing have such legs and keep being repeated is that… for 3-5 weeks the walleye have been packed into a few relatively small area where you actually don’t have to go find them, and all of a sudden they spread out over 28 miles of pool…. really though they usually are quite, quite quite close for sometime.

The second thing that I think adds to the 2 week thing is fishing pressure… the big sheebas I catch the last week of the spawn and the weeks right after the spawn that are still there are either caught after dark, or in deep water just away or off the spawning beds…

You learn to appreciate how much pressure affects the big ones when you fish Erie and even more accurately on Green Bay when you are fishing the reefs… It takes about an hour for fish in a pressured area to get pushed out and I can remember I think without exception my very best weights coming from the outside of all the other boats, ( around the perimeter of the masses).. An even better scenario is to be there all by yourself… but with the exception of maybe Pellee on Erie and some of the west side reefs in the Oconto area on the Bay, it always seems that there are at least three boats in your area and that is enough to move the fish. So considering how relatively small the spawning areas are on the Mississippi it only seems to make sense that some of the incredible pressure the Sippi fish get they will move too.
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