Metro Walleye

My father in-law and I decided to brave the cold yesterday and try a west metro lake for walleye. We setup on a weedline in about 12 feet of water and had pretty decent action(for the metro).

Had a low 20s fish come unbuttoned at the hole, heartbreaker. Had a few other marks come by but no bite. Then around 6:30 had a nice big red mark show up.

Pretty good day :). Don’t count out shallowish weedlines on these metro lakes.

What is everyone else’s experience fishing metro walleyes? For me, seeing 4-5 marks come by and getting a few bites in 2-3 hours is a pretty dang good night.

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Congrats! Gotta love putting together the puzzle which is metro walleyes.

philtickelson wrote:

What is everyone else’s experience fishing metro walleyes? For me, seeing 4-5 marks come by and getting a few bites in 2-3 hours is a pretty dang good night.

Been pretty slow so far on metro lakes for me…are you guys parking on a spot and waiting?

Been hopping around and I think that might be a mistake. Should also note that I fish lakes in the city of Minneapolis. I don’t usually hit any other metro lakes.

Chase pannies during the day, same time some scouting here and there for a good place to setup on around 3 and yes, park and wait for hopefully wandering eyes come through.

Metro area for me is 30-45min any direction from Robbinsdale. Use to driving alot for work so that’s my happy medium for commute time. Although I really want to start fishing Calhoun/Harriet which is about 10min south on TheoWirth Drive for me.

I’m kind of a fan of finding a spot and waiting it out, especially when it’s as cold and windy as it was last night.

I think the main thing is to really find the spot you want though. If you are going to set up shop and try to wait for em, make sure you are where you want to be. That usually means drilling a lot of holes. I drilled until I found the weed edge I was looking for. 12 feet of water in my hole with a tiny bit of weeds on the bottom, 7 feet of water and lots of weeds in the hole just ~15 feet in front of me.

We had some tipups setup last night as well, but no flags apart from a northern when we first got set up.

The last two weekends I’ve been at Harriet. First time out I had a spot picked out after drilling many holes. Picking a spot and staying has paid off. The bite has been good at and shortly after sun down.

TipUpFishOn wrote:

The last two weekends I’ve been at Harriet. First time out I had a spot picked out after drilling many holes. Picking a spot and staying has paid off. The bite has been good at and shortly after sun down.

What depth has been working for you? I tried Harriet for the first time last Friday and got a few smaller fish in 22 ft. I spent a bit of time shallower at 17 ft. and didn’t see anything.

I found the weed line at 12 fow and set up over 14 fow. The two holes were five feet from each other. Scenario was very similar to what philtickelson posted. I think I could’ve been a couple feet deeper or gone shallower to the weed line and saw fish. This has been at and right after sun down. I drilled a lot of holes, from that shallow spot out to 32′ feet, during the afternoon and didn’t mark a thing. Hope this helps.

You also mentioned you’ve caught smaller fish, where I’ve been I’ve seen most 14″-16″ with a couple around 20″ so not sure how comparable that is to where you’ve been.

Was out on a east metro lake yesterday. Got out and setup around 3pm. Drilled some holes to find the type of bottom I was looking for. Very slow for the first few hours only small perch and pike. Then 10 minutes after sunset I got a 15 inch walleye and a 26 incher. Very Very short windows.

TipUpFishOn wrote:

I found the weed line at 12 fow and set up over 14 fow. The two holes were five feet from each other. Scenario was very similar to what philtickelson posted. I think I could’ve been a couple feet deeper or gone shallower to the weed line and saw fish. This has been at and right after sun down. I drilled a lot of holes, from that shallow spot out to 32′ feet, during the afternoon and didn’t mark a thing. Hope this helps.

You also mentioned you’ve caught smaller fish, where I’ve been I’ve seen most 14″-16″ with a couple around 20″ so not sure how comparable that is to where you’ve been.

Good info! I think I’ll poke around a bit shallower next time out. I usually fish about 4 – 6pm so right in that timeframe. The fish I encountered were all under 14″.