Some questions for eye experts

So I only get to fish for walleyes maybe 3 times a year since I live in a place that doesn’t have any near me (I am a lake trout guy at heart). This coming weekend we will be making the trek to go after them and meet up with my brother. We will have 3 days on a large reservoir (20000+ acres) to find them. What is the best method to be used this time of year? I am assuming that they will be deeper this time of year so would pulling cranks be the way to go at least until I find some to target? I have a small but adequate selection of jigs, cranks and harnesses/bottom bouncers at my disposal. I also have dipsys and planer boards that I can use.

I also have not invested in walleye specific rods so will my lake trout rods work for trolling? They are mostly 7′ medium and medium heavy action coupled with okuma convector linecounters. They are all spooled up with 30lb braid with 15lb floro leaders. I also have a small selection of spinning rods that are mostly light actions with 4-8lb test on them that I thought I could use for jigging? Will this stuff work or should I try to find something else?

Any help that you can give to a walleye novice would be greatly appreciated! The lake we are going to has a very healthy population of 18-22″ fish with 10+ pound fish caught every year. If we can bring home a handful of fillets I will be happy.

Thanks in advance.

Your gear will work if there are fish there. Find a local source of information like a bait store or, better yet, hire a guide for day one.

try dragging leeches or crawlers, up the downwind edge of aggressive drop offs. Hold on top (anchor), cast off and drag bottom coming up the reef. Good luck !

Never really had the patience to troll all day. Flat calm days are tougher to get them shallower, but if she’s blowing even a little I can usually pick off walleyes in the weeds all summer. Find clumpy weeds, rocks nearby with deeper water available and you should be able to find smaller ones for fish frys.

Dragging jigs with crawlers, or lindy with weedless hooks and leeches work crawling through the green. .3-.5 is good speed to let them find them.

This is kind of off the wall information by default but the other day A guy offered me a job. Turns out that this guy lives in Harpers ferry Iowa and is a professional walleye fishermen but also drives from harpers ferry down to Iowa city to work there and works 4-10’s to get his 40 hrs in and leaves there at 3 AM. The job site being in serious need of good smooth wallers he offered me a job and 5 years worth of work, with darned good wages.

This guys name is Marty Steufen and won The Detroit river open last year I guess and $80,000 top prize. Maybe I could hire on with him and then Id be able to tell you what you need to know. He showed me pictures of the walleyes he was getting up there and everything was over 12 pounds and he had the heaviest stringer(s) for the one or two day catch I guess, he said he took home around $60,000 that day.

Boy I am by far NOT an expert but I sure like to pull spinners/crawlers & spinners/leeches with a bottom bouncer this time of year. The fish seem to be scattered so I like to cover a lot of ground. Very your speed and depth until you connect up. 1oz of BB per 10 down going 1.5mph is a good rule of thumb. I always fish the windy side if possible. Good Luck!

I’m no expert either, but if I was hitting a new body of water with very little intel I would start by pulling cranks, both shallow and deep, but this time of year I’d start deep. Use different size and color cranks and keep switching until you get it dialed in. To me there is no faster way to find fish. Once you find them you can modify your presentation to find out exactly what they want.

Your gear will work fine. If you happen to have any lead core rods that might be a big bonus for pulling cranks deep. Good luck!!

Thank you all for your responses. I do have one leadcore rod and could possibly get one more set up. I just thought that pulling cranks would give me a reasonable chance at some fish while letting my electronics work for me to find some fish.

I have never fished leeches so how do you rig them? I have some lindy rigs and slip bobbers that I can use as well. I have always used a crawler on a spinner/harness but am intrigued by the leech idea. I know this lake in July is a spinner/worm kind of lake for most people but it also has a ton of structure so I am feeling a little overwhelmed on where to start.

It is reassuring that at least my gear will not be too much for them though, that is a plus. Hopefully we can find some, thanks again!

Leech on a jig or on a lindy rig set-up, hook em right under their chin, from the bottom and out the top ! (stings a little but they get used to it)

Hi For me I troll bb or cranks first, find the fish then rig and jig them.big water ,might take some time to get on a bite.
DK,

Well I am definitely not an expert but I managed 18 walleyes, 3 sauger, and 9 big perch on Saturday which is a win in my book. I caught them in a combination of trolling bb on ridges or sitting on mid lake humps throwing jigs.

Thanks for all of the help guys now it is time for the fish fry!