Surface Feeding Walleye

My son and I were out on the Missi yesterday in search of a walleyes. Late in the day, just on the brink of darkness, we pulled into a spot and immediately started seeing fish foraging on the surface. One fish after the other was exploding on top, just like a bass would. We actually suspected these were bass, until a quick cast towards the feeding activity soon confirmed these were walleyes and lots of them.

Being fairly new to the walleye game, I’m wondering…is surface feeding unusual behavior? Has any one here seen this happen before? Can this type of bite be patterned in any way? Seasonally perhaps? Or, are surface feeding walleyes just something that anglers will only occassionally stumble across and need to exploit when they can?

Wondering what others know or have seen relative to surface feeding walleye.

Brian

BrianF wrote:

Being fairly new to the walleye game, I’m wondering…is surface feeding unusual behavior? Has any one here seen this happen before?

Yes, very unusual and no I haven’t seen it before. I don’t fish the river but still seems quite odd.

Even up in Canada it seems unusual when a walleye follows a lure right to the boat like a pike. Sounds like a very cool experience!

What type of water were you in? Color, clarity, temperate, depth, etc? Backwater or main channel? What presentation did you use to catch them? Was it one fish or many?

Not uncommon to catch them in very shallow water 2′ or less but I haven’t seen a feeding frenzy that I was able to identify as walleye.

White bass will often school minnows up to the surface — It’s possible that this happened and there were a few walleye lurking in the schools for an easy meal also.

Last Summer I caught a Walleye while fly fishing a deer hair pattern on the surface. We were targeting trophy Brook Trout in a very large river in Northern Ontario.

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We’re you amongst a pile of shiners?

Dem shiners are super think.

I had a similar experience to this in the Quetico (Lake Agnes) one time in late June. Evening surface feeding activity in 10sh feet of clear water. Turned out it was a mix of both Walleye and SMB. Caught several of each on floating Raps. I’m sure the activity is related to baitfish location although not sure how you could pattern it.

If you were south of Alma, there was a train wreck that was spilling thousands of gallons of ethanol in the river. Might have been fish just trying to breath! If not, ignore this idea.

Yes, I have seen this more than once, especially at night and right before dark. There’s a pretty good reason that I like to night fish.

I was out Saturday late afternoon into the first few hours after dark. The first fish I caught near dark came right next to shore where I could see minnows being chased. 2nd lift of the jig, and I pulled a Sauger just under 19″

I specifically target those fish being chased in shallow water. I’ve cast jerk baits and got them just under the surface and twitched them with good success more than once. I also have walleyes follow crankbaits all the way to the boat all summer long. I do however, believe that those fish followed that crank from a little deeper water, they weren’t necessarily on the surface.

I’ve seen what I know is Walleyes chasing bait on top of wing dams right in the middle of the day. You see the bait go airborn, and the swirl of the fish, then on the next cast in the same area with a crank, you catch an eye before the crank has even touched rocks. I’m not claiming this is the majority of the time, but it does happen.

I’ve caught eyes on Pop-r’s, chug bugs, Dahlberg divers, musky surface baits…and so on. Had walleyes in the spring in 42 degree water breech the surface chasing cranks. Does it happen frequently? When the conditions are right. That’s only as frequent as mother nature allows it.

Every fish we hooked and caught during this frenzy was a walleye. So, no white bass were involved. Water temp was 51 degrees and the boat was sitting in 10′ to 12′. We were casting towards shallow water near shore, which is where the action occurred. Right on the breakline. We didn’t see any piles of baitfish in this location. Just the normal bait blips you see on sonar when fishing the river. Water clarity was the usual ‘murky’ and there was some current flow on this spot. And, yes, this was one of the more exciting experiences we’ve had walleye fishing this year. I can think of a few others, but this was right up there!

Last fall I encountered the same thing on pool 2 one night.Fish breaking the surface allover-from a couple of feet deep to ten feet deep.I was allready catching walleyes and nothing else in the same area so I stopped near the commotion and started throwing a stickbait.Caught alot more walleyes and nothing else.Just by the commotion made when they surfaced and fed there was no mistaking them for white bass,smallies,or crappies.Had them follow baits to the boat,hit rite next to the boat,follow baits to shore while shore fishing,but hadnt seen walleyes surface feeding before until then.Looking forward to the next time I happen upon it becuse it sure was fun.

kwp wrote:

Last Summer I caught a Walleye while fly fishing a deer hair pattern on the surface. We were targeting trophy Brook Trout in a very large river in Northern Ontario.

You must have been using magic flies

I have seen this but only while the shiners are moving here in the fall. I heavily believe that walleyes spend more time looking up and feeding the surface right now than we give them credit for. Matte hit the nail on the head and made the right move to catch those fish!
This behavior is just starting here and usually continues till we have ice on and the shiners stop moving.

We saw this occur on Pool 4 about 3 years ago in October, I think it was. Was kind of a slow day, and the three of us had a half dozen eaters in the boat before setting up for the last couple hours of day light. We were anchored to pitch an eddy in about 3 to 5 fow, and saw bait fish surfacing, and immediately cast plastics and blades into the area. Didn’t take long to start reeling in sauger and eyes, most of them eater size but a few dandies as well. The bait fish surface action would subside for a bit, then restart. We guessed that the surface action kicked in when the eyes started feeding on them, causing all the commotion. We enjoyed the frenzy well into dark, and rounded out our three man limit of eaters after some catch and release. Oh yeah, they were small shad, as evidenced by the ones snagged by the blade baits. Haven’t seen this since, but one can only keep hoping.

When I was a kid all we did was fly fish on a small lake east of Minocqua. We used deer hair bugs meant to imitate mayflies, now I know we were fishing a hex hatch. We used to cast to the fish dimpling on the surface and we caught more SMB, but there would be some really nice eyes in the mix too. My dad called them trash fish back then.

Mark

mbenson wrote:

My dad called them trash fish back then.

Mark

I still do.

I think you’re both related to Brian.
DT

Late summer pool 7 early evening Walleyes had chased a school of baitfish up against a steep bank the serface was of the water was boiling. 35 casts and 23 Walleyes most in the 14- 17 inch range….What a friken hoot that was.

Another time was on Pool 5 upper side of a wing dam below the dam fish had pushed baitfish up into the up stream corner. That mess had everyone involved Smallmouths, Stripers, Northerns, Saugers, and Walleyes. That episode lasted a good 45 minutes I think that was due to all the different fish involved. It was like waves of each species took turns hitting those minnows. It was one of the most unforgettable times I have been on the water.

When the conditions are just right I’ve fished walleye just like I fish smb, twitch a rap on the surface and wait for the hit. It’s very cool and lots of fun but rare. I’ve had it happen 4 times in 39 years. Not that I fish all that often, maybe 30 to 50 times a year (summer only, no ice for me).

Reflecting back on the open water season, my son and I had an experience I’d like to share. It was very unique and falls nicely into the subject of this older thread. Perhaps some may find the experience interesting or of benefit in the future when faced with similar conditions. If you have an interest and a couple of spare minutes, allow me to tell the story.

The setting was early July in northern Minnesota. The day was sunny and warm. More importantly, the lake was in the middle of a massive mayfly hatch. Carcasses and mayflys were floating in slicks everywhere the eye could see.

That morning, we got on the water early and already had had a couple hours of very good walleye fishing, primarily rip-jigging flukes. Since we were up at the cabin with our significant others, we decided to return for breakfast to fulfill our social obligations.

We made one last stop near the cabin when we noticed seagulls, lots of seagulls, excitedly diving on a 13’ flat nearby. We decided to check it out.

Approaching the area, we noticed quite a bit of surface activity going on. Besides all the birds diving, fish of some sort – we didn’t know what species or think much of it – were obviously feeding in this area. The food chain was definitely in high gear.

Idling thru this zone of life, the side imaging lit up. Stopping the boat, we stood up and fired casts with big swim baits in the direction indicated by the birds and our electronics. What happened next shall not soon be forgotten.

My swim bait hadn’t sank for more than a second or two after splashdown when it was engulfed by a big walleye. My son had a similar experience. For the next 45 mins or so, we hooked or caught walleyes on nearly every cast – big walleyes for this body of water. It was almost heaven.

At one point, we doubled-up. I got my fish in more quickly than Jeff and fired another cast, immediately hooking-up with another fish while he continued to fight his original fish. A ‘triple’ by only two anglers. Yes, it was that ridiculous. We had stumbled onto something really, really special and feel super grateful for having somewhat lucked into this experience.

Once we had stopped the boat, it became quite apparent that the surface activity we saw was being caused by walleyes. These walleyes weren’t acting like the walleyes we’re all a custom to reading about and catching using bottom bouncing presentations. These walleyes were literally somersaulting completely out of the water while in pursuit of high-riding perch, who themselves were feeding at the surface on floating mayflies. Surface explosions were happening all around the boat, for a hundred yards or more in every direction. On another body of water, you could have mistaken it for a huge school of stripers or white bass feeding on the surface – except these were walleyes.

At one point my son turned to me and said, “Dad, there’s 10 acres of walleyes around us!” He was right. The spot now has a new and permanent name…the 10-acre shoal.

Preceding many of these surface explosions, the walleyes would be pursuing perch just under the surface, creating large wakes similar to when muskies follow a surface bait. We could actually ‘lead’ these waking fish with our next casts. Seeing this, Jeff got an idea and tied on a Zara Spook in an unsuccessful attempt to catch these walleyes on a surface bait. The fish’s indifference was surprising considering how aggressively they were feeding. We theorize the Zara Spook would have been more successful if perch patterned – which it wasn’t. Back to the swimbait and back to catching.

Peering down into the water, we began to actually see big walleyes hunting. They were swimming under and around the boat in small schools, just under the surface pursuing yellow perch that were on the surface and fleeing for their lives. Just having eyes on big walleyes actively hunting was a very cool thing to witness.

While we had the boat in 13’ of water, the hot depth zone was 0’ to 3’. If our baits were allowed to sink beyond that depth, we were fishing under the fish and not getting bit as well. The best presentation was to cast that big swimbait and, upon splashdown, immediately begin retrieving at a high rate of speed to emulate those fleeing perch. The strikes came easily and were bone jarring.

So, while we were having the day-of-all-days on ’The 10-Acre Shoal’, there were no less than three or four other walleye boats in the immediate area, fishing quite close to us. They were all slow trolling or drifting with live bait on the bottom. They caught nothing while we were there. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the anglers in these boats thought we were Muskie fishing, given the size of our baits and the speed of our retrieves.

Later, general fishing reports around the lake for the weekend were along the lines of ‘slow fishing due to the bug hatch’. Well, the walleyes weren’t full from eating all the available bugs. We knew first-hand they were feeding heavily on the smaller fish that were eating the bugs – primarily yellow perch. The food chain had simply shift to the surface and was in very high gear due to the bug hatch. I’m guessing most walleye guys did not make the vertical or presentation speed adjustments to capitalize on this unique opportunity. They were fishing underneath the walleyes, with baits too small, fished too slowly.

In summary, this is now our second experience with surface feeding walleyes. Can it be repeated and patterned? Maybe. Time will tell, but this story may contain some nuggets that could help make that happen in the future. Hopefully, you enjoyed reading about this rare experience as much as I enjoyed re-living it. We were very fortunate that day no doubt. To be there with my son made it extra special. That’s him in the photo, holding a couple of typical fish we caught that magical hour.

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BrianF wrote:

Hopefully, you enjoyed reading about this rare experience as much as I enjoyed re-living it

I absolutely did, thank you for the write up

Imposible!
Ok where exactly

Great read again,Thanks Brian.Sure makes me want to hit the river one night and see if I can manage to run into another surface feeding school.I Will never forget that night,what a blast!

Deuces wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Brian Fitzpatrick wrote:</div>
Hopefully, you enjoyed reading about this rare experience as much as I enjoyed re-living it

I absolutely did, thank you for the write up

X2 Thanks for sharing. I am sure it is the type of days you guys will remember forever.

That’s incredible, I’ve only heard of one other instance where something like that happened, my grandpa was up in northern Ontario during a huge mayfly hatch and he said that pike and walleye were just gorging on them like trout.