One of the toughest challenges we as modern anglers face is finding success fishing highly pressured water such as most of the metro area lakes near my home base in the twin cities. Not only do you need to trick a few fish into biting but you’ve usually got to outsmart your fellow fishermen just to get a chance at a decent spot.
Under pressure finicky walleyes will quickly adapt to avoid the crowds and we as fishermen need to follow suit. Frequently metro lakes are a prime example of what I call the Taco Bell effect – Not many hungry customers during normal dinnertime hours but they’re still serving dinner late into the night!
Looking to take advantage of these late dining fish I met up after work with friends Tov and Danny Rezabek last Friday evening. By the time we made it to the lake just after dark we were greeted by headlights already heading in. Arriving at our spot we found a couple other sets of fishermen but by the time we were set up and ready to fish they too were packing up and making a beeline for shore. I actually talked to one guy and he said nothing but small perch for his group… I wonder how surprised he’d be if he knew I was pulling fish out of the exact holes they were nice enough to leave for us barely more than a half hour later?
A couple key tweaks that I make to my presentation after dark. First, I fish almost exclusively with glow colors when fishing spoons after dark. Second, I modify my jigging technique to use a more subtle and slower approach as opposed to jigging during daylight hours. Almost as if it were designed to meet these exact specifications the 3/16 Tingler spoon is quickly becoming my go-to after dark lure. Combining it’s slow fluttering drop with glow colors (my favorites are Glow Goldfish or Red/Chartreuse Shiner) make it deadly for late night walleye missions!