Lake Michigan Walleye Fishing Report

Jumbo Walleyes!! The weather and conditions made for a cold and rough trip, but the fishing made up for it!!

Steve Lepic, Dad, and I took our annual trip up to Lake Michigan for our trolling for big walleyes run. Sunday night was our best night. On this particular night I was trolling over a finger shaped flat. I was concentrating on depths of 20-23. These particular fish, I believe were a moon driven feeding machine. They started feeding heavily after the sun went down, and completely stopped feeding after the moon went down. And I mean completely, we could NOT buy a bite after or around midnight.

Monday we tried a different area, for smallmouth during the day- the water was very rough, so that plan didn’t last long. Then we moved closer to shore, and we were debating on setting up to troll for the night bite… we decided not to, as it was a little too rough. We then headed to a more protected bay, and set up to troll, we caught a couple of eater size fish, but not much to talk about. I couldn’t seem to keep the baits out of the weeds. It is a pain to get six boards set up in a trolling run, and then get weeds on the outside board. You have to bring the first all the way in to get to the third one. I love trolling with boards, but I hate weeds! So after we had enough weed catching, we decided to pack it up and get some rest, and prepare for the next day/night. We awoke to 25-30 mph winds with gusts even higher. We got the boat ready and went and ate some breakfast. We tride to go out and set up to troll, but it was just too rough. We came back in and went to get another bite to eat. We waited around until the sun set and got back out on the water. The wind was still ridiculous. We trolled for about three hours, and replicated everything from sunday night, with zero success. This one has me stumped. I was using the gps and trolling the same speed, over the exact same spots from sunday night. The only thing I can figure out is the wind had something to do with it.

The baits that worked the best were Rapala Husky Jerks #12’s. We were trolling them anywhere from 25-125 feet behind the boards, depending on what depths we were targeting. Clown is always a consitent producer, and this trip it worked well. Rapala has a bunch of new colors, and we gave them all a try- in all honesty, I think if you put the bait, in front of the fish, and the right speed, they will eat it. All in all it was a great trip. I am not positive, but I think two personal best were broken. Steve caught his biggest walleye which was a 29 1/2" inch walleye weighing it at an even ten lbs. Way to go Steve. I think I caught the biggest walleye for me yet as well, although there have been many of these trips where we just quit measuring or weighing, because we want to get the fish back in and catch another one. Anyways the first photo is of my 11.1 lbs 30" jumbo walleye! It was an awesome fight. The third fish was a long fish at 29 1/2", but it only weighed about 8 1/2 lbs. if I remember correctly. The fourth picture was about 9 lbs. I had a great time, as always with steve and dad, thanks guys!!

Now it is time for Steve and I to drop the hammer on the boone and crockets down here Iowa!!!

All of the fish in the pictures were released!!

Good luck, stay safe and we’ll see you on the water!