Walleye vs Catfish Question

I have been fishing crankbaits on a spot for the last 2 weeks. This is a shallow water (12′-14′) lake. Lots of carp, catfish and a good bunch of walleyes in about 6 different year classes. The first 3 times I was there, we caught many walleyes from 8″ all the way up to 23″ in 4.5′ to 5.5′ of water trolling cranks around 2.5 mph. We also caught several sheepshead and several 12″ catfish. The last two times there, we have only caught a couple short walleyes and a lot more catfish. Some of the cats were as big as 5-6lbs. Talk about stopping the boat in 5′ of water!! This lake has a shoreline break down to the 4.5′ of water and then has a flat that slowly tapers down to about 7′. Then there is another break line that drops from the 7′ down to the “basin” which runs from 10′-12′. My question is do these bigger catfish push the walleyes out of the area? The only real change that has happened over the last two weeks is water temperature. Went from 69 to 75 still catching walleyes. Last couple times the water has been well over 80 (surface temps). Haven’t specifically targeted the deeper water yet (next on the list), but was wondering your guys thoughts on where they may have moved and why. With this lake being so shallow, I would think they would be used to being in shallow water all year around. Water is stained. There are no weed lines to speak of which is also odd for this type of lake.

Gerty,

I think you answered your own question. Those 80 degree water temps have very likely moved the walleyes out to that next break. They could also be following whatever bait they were eating in shallow. Find the bait, find the walleyes.

From first to last trip are you still targeting 2.5 mph.
Water in 70’s I’m fond of 3-4 mph. 80 don’t be afraid to go faster yet

I was going 2.6-3.3 when water was 63 but I do know that a whole variety will catch fish this time of year. Throw away your flicker shads above 3mph and put on a rap.

Catching the catfish may be as simple as their metabolism is a few 1000% higher at 75 than 69 degrees and they’ll hit a slow crank at 2.5.
Catch a sheep I always go faster.

It’s all about going to food. Anytime of year.

IMO when you fish slow in high metabolism times you must be more critical in selecting the right color, profile, action. I Just put on a JSR7 and give it gas this time of year!

FBRM – Did reach that 2.6 mph – 2.7mph range, but not much faster. That was also one of my next steps, to go faster. The crank of choice has been the Salmo hornet. Lots of vibration and handles the high speeds very well.

Loosen the drags and crank up the speed! But, that’s kinda the only way I target eyes in the summer cuz it works and fish are spread out. Now, that is NOT the only way to go of course and don’t work well to target small pockets… but trolling never is. Good luck

Probably caught eyes on 25 different cranks in the last two weeks (profiles, sizes, colors) and I contribute that to speed only. Got buddies running specific cranks and colors at much slower speeds too with success but they cannot throw any crank and catch one going slow either.

Agree with FBRM on speed and approach this time of year. I do catch some big walleyes mixed in with the cats. I think they push the smaller ones out because they are a meal for them. The cats are voracious this time of year, too.

I would move deeper but in some shallow lakes, especially stained water, they will be shallow all year.

One piece of advice…don’t assume you have a big cat. You can usually tell because they roll but my biggest walleye this year I was convinced was a cat and I got lazy bringing her in. A lucky net scoop otherwise I would’ve lost a big fish boat side.

Matt – totally agree on not assuming. Not sure this lake has anything in it over that 23″ class for walleyes but there might be a few stragglers from years past. All I know is that when you have the big cats on, you definitely know who is driving the bus and it is not you!

Gerty wrote:

Matt – totally agree on not assuming. Not sure this lake has anything in it over that 23″ class for walleyes but there might be a few stragglers from years past. All I know is that when you have the big cats on, you definitely know who is driving the bus and it is not you!

Big cats on walleye gear are a riot. I’ve almost lost rods out of my hands when they smash a crank. Good luck out there!

And those aren’t big cats

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Probably caught eyes on 25 different cranks in the last two weeks (profiles, sizes, colors) and I contribute that to speed only. Got buddies running specific cranks and colors at much slower speeds too with success but they cannot throw any crank and catch one going slow either.

Is this why I can’t catch fish on P4 after June ends? Just going too slow?

SoDak maybe this can help

You can get petty aggressive in the heat. I got a spot with pretty decent current flowing over 2-6′ of rocks, stumps. You can catch em with 20′ of line out and even directly in the propwash. Cranks banging bottom. Not boat shy in the least. You can cast cranks there too and I’ve had 24″ eyes hit with two feet of line out as I pause to lift bait out of water. I.e. if not aggressive they’ll just follow.

Last weekend I had white bass hitting cranks while I was tuning them just below the surface. I had some fun with that and just started thrashing the rod in the water to pull em in.

As summer heats up and flow slow down you’ll find a lot of fish towards the surface. They’re spread out in heat of summer from top to bottom enjoying ALL the food sources. Drag a crank in the mud you’ll find lots of worms. You’ll find small pockets of fish near structure. Thermoclines become structure.
Method of fishing is incredibly vast as a result of so many locations to find fish.

Trolling for me is absolutely the busiest I can be in a boat. Generally using leadcore and am adjusting depths, cranks, speeds on usually 3-4 rods. Preferably with someone else in the boat to reel in fish while I take care of the rest. If I’m not busy I’m not making an effort to catch fish. Some say Trolling is boring but it’s incredibly busy for me and a little tiring after a day of that energy. Running 3-ways in the winter is about the most relaxing to me in comparison.

I’m not a one trick pony so I do enjoy targeting multiple species in the summer as well and frankly post spawn eyes don’t do much for me so unless someone else wants to I tend to take less walleye trips in the summer and will mix in flatheads or channel cat trips.

Takes a lot more work to catch fish in the summer because they’re spread out. In cold water periods they move around little and congregate. Easy targets despite an incredibly low metabolism. Complete opposite in summer where they’re eating more than ever and traveling distances Quite regular. Keeps you on your toes. Take time to figure out every season.

Trolling this time of year I tend to be off bottom. Under 10′ I’ll either be banging or 3′ up.
10-20′ I may be 3-10′ off bottom. There are times I’m banging bottom in those depths too. Over 20′ deep and I’m generally not deeper than 18′ down.
Certainly caught eyes 5′ down over 50′ of water going 5 mph. Guess there’s about anyway to go about it because fish are all over. Give er hell.

Great stuff. Picking up the new boat on Monday so hopefully more electronics than just a vexilar will help in the finding of fish as well. Then I can focus more on the things you mention to make them bite. Thanks!

We get bit a lot in the summer casting cranks to structure and absolutely burning the cranks back…I’ll bet its 5-6mph. Many times they hit as the crank rises up near the boat. Always finish the cast.

Like FBRM mentioned, sometimes you’ll see them follow as the crank gets the surface. Had one hit last weekend as the crank was coming out of the water.

Caught an 18.5” eye on a crank today (at about 3.1mph) in 14’ of water. As that was coming in, I assumed I had a snag on the other rod. Turned out to be a 33” channel catfish at 3.1mph also. To say that rod holder nearly snapped isn’t an understatement.

Once water hits 70 on the surface, 2.8mph is my starting point. I run Flicker Shads until now and switch to Shad raps nearing and exceeding 3mph as they do better staying tuned/being tuned out of the box for higher speed. We caught 1 sheepshead in a half day fishing the river. As previously said, go faster if that’s what you’re catching. If you’re casting cranks, it’s quickly becoming the time to move fast and displace as much water as you can.

When you have following fish start ripping your crank instead of a straight fast retrieve. When I say rip your bait I mean as fast/hard as you possibly can while reeling in slack so your pauses are very short. The walleyes will crush the bait on the momentary pause. Last weekend they were dang near pulling the rod right out of my hand once I started doing this. Before that I had multiple eyes follow to the side of the boat. Walleyes can be surprisingly aggressive this time of year. Take advantage of it and make them react instead of letting them think about their next move.

Does that speedy approach work in lakes too? The walters are faster than the river rough fish so it works on Pepin-but what about natural lakes? Thanks

I feel like I need to pay for a subscription when I read FBRM’s breakdown.

Yes my experience is that it absolutely applies to lakes as well. Unless I had a major drop in temps the cranks are getting burned at 3-3.7mph right now. I attribute it to aggression/reaction strikes. Give it some erratic motion too, drop that line back slack and rip it forward three times. Then throw in neutral on a pause. Almost like clockwork.

Alot of major walleye tournaments are won with the hyper aggressive approach of ripping a heavy plastic thru weeds, which is a lot easier than a crank. And more fun.

And it catches less bass….

Thanks Gander

ganderpike wrote:

I feel like I need to pay for a subscription when I read FBRM’s breakdown.

Agreed he is a wealth of knowledge

As an FYI, I fished this spot last weekend just to try and test out these theories. I started out in my normal spot trolling at 2.6-2.7mph (I wanted to start there). First fish caught was a small catfish. Immediately pumped the speed up to 3.1-3.2mph. Caught 2 walleyes and also did catch a sheepshead at this speed. No other fish. I had previously caught around 8-13 walleyes each time out. I tried the deep side of this piece of shallow structure with no luck. I do believe the speed kept the catfish off my lures. I also believe that the baitfish or whatever else had kept these fish on this shallow structure had moved….somewhere. I can’t find them so I am not sure where. In any case, I do believe that speed was a factor in keeping the catfish and some of the sheepshead away.

Gerty besides keeping other stuff off was bumping the speed worth it? Sounds like your Waler catch went down.

It kept other stuff off. Walleye catch had already dropped before this while using the lower speed. The fish have definitely moved and I haven’t been able to relocate them.

tim hurley wrote:

Gerty besides keeping other stuff off was bumping the speed worth it? Sounds like your Waler catch went down.

He mentioned the bait fish moved as well so the walleye probably followed and were not there to be caught