Walleye in the weeds

I have a home Lake here in northern ND that regularly gets stocked with a pile of walleyes every year but I can’t manage to find them. I’m not the only one with this trouble. The lake doesn’t have much for structure other than the odd point or two but there is nothing special about those areas (like rocks or drop offs). Most of the bays have a lot of weeds in them and on occasion a person may hook one but it’s rare. There are large mud basins that are 17-23 feet. I noticed that in the summer when the sun is right and it’s calm I can see holes in the weeds at 8-10 ft where the boat traffic must make enough current to keep weeds from growing. Are places like that a good starting point to try and find some eyes pitching jigs and such? Is it worth trolling the mud basins at 23 ft with cranks? I’m lost with this lake and very frustrated. Any help or tips would be great.

On some lakes weeds are the main “structure” walleye use. Lake Darling in ND is an example of such a lake. The best bite mid summer is trolling 8-12’ on weed lines or even in the weeds a little if you can find a nice run that isn’t too thick. Fish the weeds my friend, you’ll be surprised by what’s living there

Pitching jigs into pockets may be tough, id go with a bobber and a leech. Someone else may have a different opinion

This is encouraging. I’m in Bottineau and fish Lake Upsilon quite a bit. May I ask what lures you are trolling?

Trolling spinners with lighter bullet weights can be effective for walleyes in the weeds, especially if you pull them along the top of the weeds. Tossing jigs and a big paddle tail has worked too, stays surprisingly weedless. Once you find fish, slip bobbers can be extremely effective in or along the weed edge.

Use your sonar to find the depths of weed edges in your home lake. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing walleyes on the shallow weed edge throughout summer. A lot of people assume all walleyes move deep when the water warms, but that simply isn’t the case. The follow the food, not what your walleye fishing book says.

Lindy rigging along a weed edge can be very productive. You will have to stick with minnows though otherwise perch and sunfish will take up all your time.

Look up threads regarding Winnebago here in wi. I suspect It will fish the same way other vast “featureless” lakes with big mudflats. Don’t be surprised if you find summer time walleyes suspended in the top 5 to 8 feet of water over the mud

I fish one lake that has a great weed bite that most do not realize is there, it is a stained lake and weeds are normally 1-2 feet below the surface in 10 feet of water. How I fish it is Beetle Spins they work great trolled above the weeds we have caught 28 inch Walleyes and a bonus of large Pike and Crappies. If early enough in the season then stick baits trolled above the weeds most times we only have about 25-35 feet of line out.

One mid summer day wind was pounding into a weed area trolling stick baits on 10 foot rods with 12 feet of line out and pounded the Walleyes, was a pain constantly cleaning weeds off but with the short line out was not bad and worth the effort.

tbro16 wrote:

Trolling spinners with lighter bullet weights can be effective for walleyes in the weeds,

tbro16 wrote:

. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing walleyes on the shallow weed edge throughout summer. A lot of people assume all walleyes move deep when the water warms, but that simply isn’t the case

Spot on

Thank you for the input guys! I’ll definitely give it a shot this late spring/summer. They stock the lake with 50k+ walleyes every year so they have to be in there.