Curious what you guys find are the most effective tactics for targeting walleye in heavily weeded lakes? Living in the metro it seems the majority of the lakes are thick with weeds already, and I’m an impatient fisherman so anchoring up and watching a bobber for hours doesn’t do it for me. Also, being newly married means a weekly trip up north is ummmm, lets say unrealistic. 
Spinners over the top of the weeds.
Curious what you guys find are the most effective tactics for targeting walleye in heavily weeded lakes? Living in the metro it seems the majority of the lakes are thick with weeds already, and I’m an impatient fisherman so anchoring up and watching a bobber for hours doesn’t do it for me. Also, being newly married means a weekly trip up north is ummmm, lets say unrealistic.
I have good luck with jig n minnow along the deep edges of the weedlines even mid summer…
Oh, the leash will get longer over time. For now your are stuck my friend 
…RR
We are in the same boat Werm, at least metaphorically for now ha. I do pretty well on eyes on the weedy metro lakes pulling spinners on different cabbage weedlines until about this time of year. Then the eyes bury in the weeds and that is that for me. I head to either the river for eyes, or fish bass and panfish until fall.
I bought some of these (pic below) from the UK early this year (thanks to a forum on IDO on them) and plan to use them to try to get at some mid summer metro weed walleyes. However, I have my doubts about them and they aren’t going to work in the pond scum areas anywhere. Gal dang that pond scum or blue algea or whatever it is.
Also, to the same boat comment…not married yet, but soon and kid on the way so my frequent up north trips are coming to an end/rarity for a year or so. Maybe longer who knows.
weedless-shad.jpg
When you say puller spinners are you saying you use basically a lindy rig without the weight and troll that over top of the weeds?
Casting swim baits or shallow running cranks can work well at times around weeds too. Fish them a lot like you would fish for largemouth bass when they’re in the weeds. Target areas in the weeds where walleyes can ambush prey such as little points, small changes in bottom contour or depth, changes in bottom composition, things like that.
You’ll clean a lot of weeds off of your hooks, but it can be well worth it.
These little buggers with a small leech work pretty well too. Both casting or dragging. And don’t forget to look shallow. All summer long.
http://customjigs.com/products/draggin-jig.html
I attended a seminar put on by Perry Good this past winter. He said most of the active feeding walleyes will be in the weeds in the shallows – for the majority of the year, not just spring. He targets the INSIDE weed line in 2-5 fow using a swim jig and plastic minnow type trailer. Hard to believe but said he has cashed many checks with this technique while many others are out in deeper water.
I am one of the guys that bought the Weedless Shad Rap from Europe. Have used it twice this year and had 3 strikes (I think all bass) and missed them all. The lure does not have a lot of action and doesn’t wobble very well on the fall (which I prefer) and I now have my doubts too about hook up percentage.
I am going to try the swim jig in shallow water technique next —
If anyone wants to go in and split a guide fee with me for a half day with Perry to figure this technique out I might be interested schedule permitting…
When you say puller spinners are you saying you use basically a lindy rig without the weight and troll that over top of the weeds?
Here is a quick explanation…
Do not overlook the thermocline over deep water.
Suspended walleyes.
Your Cline should be set up by now… And early Cline is best for eyes IMO.
I attended a seminar put on by Perry Good this past winter. He said most of the active feeding <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes will be in the weeds in the shallows – for the majority of the year, not just spring. He targets the INSIDE weed line in 2-5 fow using a swim jig and plastic minnow type trailer. Hard to believe but said he has cashed many checks with this technique while many others are out in deeper water.
Fish an East central lake regularly that has both weed walleyes and deeper, structure based fish. I have only hit this lake 5 times this year and the walleyes have been a real head scratcher. Weed walleye’s have a bad habit of moving and changing food sources or being way to reliable and susceptible to over harvest. On the normal milk run of spots that can keep a guy busy all day with fish on jigs and cranks, there’s been nothing this year. Finally found a few sticking right to the edges of the weeds on sunken islands and humps trolling crawler harnesses right on the edges of the weeds. On lakes with very distinct weed edge and basically a wall of weeds on the outside edge, have an ubber sharp edge, that edge is critical to keep whatever you are using in that tight, small area at the base of the bottom of that wall right in the crotch of the L. A lot of times the weed edge will be such a hard 90 degree edge it’s pretty much impenetrable. And 3′ away from the crotch of that L is to far away for a lure or jig to be from the 90 degree angle at the bottom. It’s a hard area to get a lure into and keep it in consistently. Jigs work good if you have two or more people in the boat casting to the wall. But you really have to keep at it and concentrate at casting accuracy and letting the jig fall straight down. Then a lot of times that initial fall is when you get a strike and that is a hard thing for even seasoned anglers to let it fall straight down on a 7-10′ edge and keep the concentration level where it needs to be to set the hook on a fish. It’s fairly exhausting. If you are by yourself you can keep the boat tight to the weed edge and increase the time the lure is on the edge of that wall casting parallel to it. Now inside weed edges, Minnetonka for example has a great inside edge with a great amount of hard rock, sand and rubble bottoms that skirt out to points or gut into inside turns, all great spots. Especially if you learn how to fish the sun angles and shade of the weed edges. There’s a lot of little things that come into play and it reminds me more of river fishing or trout fishing than walleye fishing. The lipless crank bait is a wicked tool for walleye relating to weeds. So is just a simple shad rap. No need to over work anything, but most times speed can be a real trigger one way of the other. Working a hard bait insanely fast or dead sticking anything soft or live bait related painstakingly slow, is a must to consider and everything in-between. In cabbage, if you live by a lake lucky enough to have walleye’s in it with cabbage, a small bullet sinker on a lindy rig with a short snell swam over the top or right at the edge of the tops of the cabbage can be fun to fish. If you have a good set of polarized sun glasses and know how to sight fish and keep your eyes glued to the waster and your bait, you can actually watch the walleyes fly out of the cabbage and smack a leech, crawler of even a crappie or fathead minnow. Now that’s fun. I prefer crawlers or leeches when dragging anything around weeds but minnows do work but you’ll go through way more minnows. Lakes that don’t have that wall or sharp edge to the weed edges or a good inside edge are tougher to fish because of the constant foul ups no matter how hard you try to find an edge, there just really isn’t large expanses of edge cover. These lakes can seem to be tougher to fish with more of a walleye tactic thought process, but bass tactics can work great in these lakes to locate patterns and locations of areas walleyes prefer. The Chisago area lakes are prime examples of weed orientated walldo’s that have certain areas they prefer and if you can find those areas it’s just a matter of isolating likely areas and targeting them with slower techniques like slip bobber’s and/or jigs and lindy rigs if the conditions allow them to be fished efficiently without fouling up consistently. Probably the most challenging thing with weed walleye’s is finding what they are somewhat keying in on with miles and miles of similar weed lines that cover the whole shoreline on bigger lakes that seem insurmountable. Seems simple, but start with points and inside turns and go from there to what you find on the water which can vary greatly from what is expected. I’ve been fairly grounded to home country lakes the last few years and have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of walleyes in certain lakes. They are not Red, Leech or Mille lacs type of lakes, but when you hoist a decent fish you know you’ve definitely accomplished something. As to the impatient part, I have no patients. But Weed walleye’s don’t really need it. They are usually spread out more with certain things fueling their needs. Be it a food source of small bluegils’s or a current caused by wind and a small bit of shade at the point where that wind driven current is hitting that shady point. It’s might not be much, but usually there’s something like that, that holds fish and with weed fish it seems to change constantly. re-positioning the boat to cast at things from different angles and giving them something a little different helps. Even if it’s just a simple change in color, size, bait or tactics can make a huge difference.
thanks francis
If anyone wants to go in and split a guide fee with me for a half day with Perry to figure this technique out I might be interested schedule permitting…
I would be game if the schedule worked out.
Lakes that don’t have that wall or sharp edge to the weed edges or a good inside edge are tougher to fish because of the constant foul ups no matter how hard you try to find an edge, there just really isn’t large expanses of edge cover.
That’s what I’ve been finding, I spent a good deal of time driving around on the electronics looking for a good weed edge to work but couldn’t locate anything too promising. The inside or shallow weed edge ends shallower than I would want to run my boat/trolling motor especially in the wind we had on Sunday.
Do not overlook the thermocline over deep water.
Suspended walleyes.
Your Cline should be set up by now… And early Cline is best for eyes IMO.
Any advice on locating the thermocline? Are you just covering the deep water looking for bait balls and/or marks and going from there? Or is there a common depth that you will run over the thermocline?
Good info guys, I appreciate!
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>frydog62 wrote:</div>
If anyone wants to go in and split a guide fee with me for a half day with Perry to figure this technique out I might be interested schedule permitting…I would be game if the schedule worked out.
Well, me too but I guess arcticm has first dibs. frydog, I looked online to find information on if Perry Good had a website and guiding info. Couldn’t find anything?? Was just curious what a half day guide trip would cost. Do you know how to contact him?
I played black jack with Perry Good in Vegas about 10 years ago, great guy!
Great posts, a lot of this applies 100% to Lake Minnetonka mid summer. I think on Lake Minnetonka anglers call it “bass fishing for walleyes.” More Walleyes are produced by bass anglers fishing the weeds, than walleye anglers targeting walleyes on Tonka. Tom Davis and I won last summers Full Throttle Walleye Tournament last year where the rest of the field zero’d and all we did was maintain focus on pulling spinners through the weeds with plastic night crawlers to keep the panfish and bass away as much as possible.
Great posts, a lot of this applies 100% to Lake Minnetonka mid summer. I think on Lake Minnetonka anglers call it “bass fishing for walleyes.” More Walleyes are produced by bass anglers fishing the weeds, than walleye anglers targeting walleyes on Tonka. Tom Davis and I won last summers Full Throttle Walleye Tournament last year where the rest of the field zero’d and all we did was maintain focus on pulling spinners through the weeds with plastic night crawlers to keep the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>panfish and bass away as much as possible.
Sounds like a couple of us should hire you for a half day guide trip! Who knows…maybe Perry Good is still in Las Vegas playing blackjack. 
focus on pulling spinners through the weeds with plastic night crawlers to keep the panfish and bass away as much as possible.
Did you do anything special when hooking the crawler?
Fished with a guide on Gull lake last year who showed us spinners with plastics and a bullet weight out front. This time of year we ran it over the weed tops.
Tried it last Saturday on Gull on my own but with live bait. Weeds were up about 4 feet from the bottom. Managed one walleye and lots of rock bass. Will try it again the next two weekends before the weeds are essentially hitting the surface.
Love this thread!!! This topic is the top goal of the season for me to learn.
Frydog nailed one of my best tactics. I browsed through most of the posts, but one thing needs to be specified.
Are you wanting to go INTO the weeds after them???Or just pass a bait over/through the weeds for the ones that will rise up?
For those that have done the early weed bite in my boat can testify that it looks like we are bass fishing. We’re pitching a ringworm/plastics to every little hole in the weeds – from 2 fow to 12 fow. Just methodically picking apart the weed bed. If weeds are sparse enough, then cranks. But on daytime/sun days, you need to pick them apart.
Take a close look at how shallow of water we are pitching to in this pic
Night pic is ripp’n lipless Gizzard shad over the weed tops in 2-5fow
Here is an article I wrote in 2013 that has a lot of good info in it
https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/articles_1258565/
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The weedlines on Tonka have been going deeper each summer (it seems). So each year I feel like I’m trying to put together a different plan. The one that usually works, pulling spinners right outside weedlines and depending on the type of weeds you may pull right through them with weedless rigs.
So many guys who fish bass in the big milfoil patches on these metro lakes also catch nice Walleyes. It’s nuts!
The past few seasons we have been doing really well with slip bobbers in the cabbage weeds. 1/4 oz jig with no additional weight, straight down and straight back up. Make sure the jig and leech is just inches from the bottom. Let it sit for 20 seconds, pick it up and pitch at the next clump. The key is to move it often and never let it drag, or you will snag. It’s very easy an effective once you learn to do it right. Once you find a productive area, mark it on your GPS and check it often, these are some of my best spots for summertime keeper walleyes.
Why is the link that Francis provided disabled? Does the site have a virus or something? I’d go find it myself, but don’t want to find out the hard way that it’s a bad site.
The past few seasons we have been doing really well with slip bobbers in the cabbage weeds. 1/4 oz jig with no additional weight, straight down and straight back up. Make sure the jig and leech is just inches from the bottom. Let it sit for 20 seconds, pick it up and pitch at the next clump. The key is to move it often and never let it drag, or you will snag. It’s very easy an effective once you learn to do it right. Once you find a productive area, mark it on your GPS and check it often, these are some of my best spots for summertime keeper walleyes.
May I ask how you bobber rig for fishing in the weed beds? Do you use a heavy braided line and a mono leader?
The past few seasons we have been doing really well with slip bobbers in the cabbage weeds. 1/4 oz jig with no additional weight, straight down and straight back up. Make sure the jig and leech is just inches from the bottom. Let it sit for 20 seconds, pick it up and pitch at the next clump. The key is to move it often and never let it drag, or you will snag. It’s very easy an effective once you learn to do it right. Once you find a productive area, mark it on your GPS and check it often, these are some of my best spots for summertime keeper walleyes.
May I ask how you bobber rig for fishing in the weed beds? Do you use a heavy braided line and a mono leader?
Yep. I tie a 12′, 10# mono leader on the end of my braid. If you don’t make long casts, you can land every fish. The braid is nice because it floats all the way to your bobber, so it’s a bit easier to manage.
The other thing that I will do is vertical jig with my 8-1/2′ steelhead rod. Pick the jig up and set it down, repeat. In the thick stuff you can catch them really close to the boat at times.
I’ve been having real good luck with the drop shot in weeds. I use flukes in different sizes and colors and any opening in the weeds I fish. It’s a slow process but the results can be amazing. Don’t like to promote any specific lures but have been doing really well with 3 inch black ribsters this year. If you watch the action of them it looks a lot like a leech. Biggest thing I had to overcome was putting to much action in them. Just small twitches of rod is all you need. Another idea and good luck.
Here is what I am wondering specially the metro lakes using the above techniques, mainly pulling spinners over weed beds and the inside weed edge.
I’m sure I’m not he only one experiencing this but I can’t seem to keep the metro sized sunnies and crappies off. Lip-less cranks as well long lining and going fast produce the same results.
Any tips to this or is this the way it’s going to be.
I’ve been having real good luck with the drop shot in weeds. I use flukes in different sizes and colors and any opening in the weeds I fish. It’s a slow process but the results can be amazing. Don’t like to promote any specific lures but have been doing really well with 3 inch black ribsters this year. If you watch the action of them it looks a lot like a leech. Biggest thing I had to overcome was putting to much action in them. Just small twitches of rod is all you need. Another idea and good luck.
Hey Art, how far off the bottom is your hook?
Great stuff guys, thanks for all the info! Sounds like I have some homework to do, hopefully my wife REALLY wants to work on her tan in the back of the boat this summer!
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