Shallow water walleyes

I was fishing the Team Supreme today before i had a breakdown and had the weirdest darn thing happen to me. we were in 4 feet of water, sand bottom fishing a weedline somewhere near lansing, and i was throwing a white swim jig. i had a bite, set the hook,and knew it wasnt a bass. got it in, here i had a 22″, 5 lb or so walleye. 2 casts later, my dad nailed a 19″ 4 lb’r on a spinnerbait. All in 3 or 4 feet of water. They always hang out that shallow at 9 in the morning??

Yes, especially in the early morning and late evening. And on the windier days they can be in shallow most of the day. One day on Pepin around noon there was a strong wind and about 2.5 foot waves and three of us caught a walleye at the exact same time in four foot of water off of Long Point. It happens, more often then you would think.

I’ve frequently caught walleyes in Goose Island (shallow weedy bays) throwing spinner baits for bass. I also just read an article in In-Fisherman magazine about spinner baits for walleyes in the weeds. So bass tactics for ‘eyes certainly can work, just be careful when you go to lip them!

This time of year always has a hot bite in the right set of weeds. Usually the windblow edges are the best. We pulled a ton of eyes out of the Croix last year doing the same thing and had no one near us! The are usually extra agressive in these areas also. Can be a blast on plastics.

I fish pool 8 year round and find that I catch the majority of my eyes in less than 5 feet of water. I caught 3 over 24″ in 15 minutes yesterday trolling in 3′ near weeds. In my opinion, these are the fish that you should target because they are agressive feeders when they’re that shallow.

Dustin caught a 30.5″ walleye today in 1.5″ of water in a running slough on upper pool 4. There’s a bunch of big fish to be had in shallow water under the right conditions.

The big fish today was in less than 2′ of water. Best part about it was my customer caught it, not me. Anyone who says walleyes don’t fight has never caught a 5lb plus fish in less than 3′ of water . They pull like a freight train when you hook um up that shallow

Like James said, the walleye bite has been very……very good. We had 10 fish over 21″ today not including the 30.5′ fish. Bait was good for me today but cranks were best for me yesterday.

Get out and get fishing

Let’s see some pics D!!

KNelson, check out my report on pool 14. Tons of eyes in less than 6 feet of water, with virtually no wind, bright sunshine, loads of pleasure boat traffic, AND no weeds. These fish where just up on a large shallow flat feeding like there was no tommorrow. Midday till evening. All the old “lore” about ‘eyes being deep, not liking shallows in the daylight, etc., is very much not true in summer.
If food is there and easy for the walleyes to catch, they will be in a foot of water in midday!

John,

I’ve been finding them shallow as well in many instances less than 3′ of water. Not just one here and one there but good numbers of them. When they get this shallow casting crankbaits probably provides the fastest action. Last week was the hottest bite I’ve seen in a while right up through the weekend. However, the river has dropped considerably since and the fish have moved from a few of the locations I was getting them last week. The current is dropping faster than the water level and the water is getting warmer by the day. I have found that when this happens the fish tend to move to deeper haunts during the day (ends of wingdams and such) but will still feed very shallow in the mornings and again in the evenings. I love casting crankbaits on the insides of wingdams in the very early morning.

Eyehunter