Tony Roach: Walleye Adaptations for clear water
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Believe it or not 👀 even with forward-facing sonar (LiveScope, MEGA Live, Active Target) it can still be a bugger to get fussy, clear-water walleyes to bite. This write-up from Virtual Angling dives into exactly how MN guide Tony Roach hunts ‘em down with slip-bobbers and FFS, but there’s a lot more that goes into it than you’d think.
This “bobberscoping” technique is the exact way many, MANY walleye derbies have been won the last few seasons....
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> Many MN walleye lakes are notorious for having exceptional water visibility. In particular, many lakes have zebra mussels which increases the clarity and ultimately change walleye fishing dramatically....
> According to Roach, aggressively using slip-bobbers to cast at fish away from the boat is a key method for catching walleye right now during the dog days of summer.
> Roach is using slip-bobbers in conjunction with forward-facing sonar. ...stresses that there are many days where fish are spooking...if the boat gets within 40’ or 50’ of the fish.
> In light winds, Tony will ease within about 60’ down wind of fish and spot lock, casting the slip-bobbers past fish and let the wind push the slip bobbers into the fish.
> In stronger winds, Roach will look for a school of fish and actually drive around the fish in a big circle and spot lock upwind of the fish and cast back at the fish behind the boat. On many of today’s MN walleye fisheries with clear water...you have to sneak up on fish.
> Walleyes are adapting to the clearer water but also adapting to forward-facing sonar. ...there are becoming more times when fish are spooking from forward-facing sonar. If fish dart or move to the side or hunker down when you hit them with the forward facing sonar, turn the transducer away from the fish as soon as you find them.
> ...typically uses both crawlers and leeches on a slip-bobber [but leeches can get really difficult to find later in the season]. With a crawler...thread on a 1/2 or 3/4 of a crawler onto a long-shank jig. In deeper water, use a heavier sinker to reach the fish faster. On really tough bites, Roach will experiment with a 1/32-oz jig or plain hook [otherwise he typically runs a 1/16-oz jig].
> When fish are positioned higher off the bottom, Roach likes to cast right at fish and let the jig fall down on them. For fish closer to the bottom or for fish that are more difficult to trigger, Roach recommends casting past the fish and drag into them watching the jig drop down into fish as you get above them.
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What Korey Sprengel is looking for up shallow 🎯
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Not all shallow walleye spots are created equal...here’s some insight from Korey Sprengel on exactly what he’s looking for now that water temps have crept up. Dude knows his stuff!
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> ...early summer getting into June, weed growth is coming up and has now been up and established long enough to have bait and fish.
> I will scan and look for 1-3’ tall new weed growth. It has to be there long enough for something to congregate there.
> If the weed growth is only 6-10” tall there might be some fish there, but it hasn’t been established enough to keep them there. Needs to be tall enough for the baitfish to hide, or to create a canopy for the walleyes to relax in.
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> A lot of people don’t realize there are soooo many bugs on weeds. Pull in a weed stock and there’s snails, bugs, all sorts of life crawling on there. That’s another reason the baitfish, bluegill, perch are hanging there...for food.
> I’m looking for new weed growth as deep as I can find it. The depth varies...might be 5-6’ while other lakes it might be 10-12’. The term shallow varies depending on the lake...it all comes down to water clarity for what shallow is. Clear lakes shallow might mean 7-8’. Dirty lakes with 1’ visibility shallow might mean 3-4’.
> The best spots have a mixture of weeds, rock and sand.... Anytime you can put multiple things together....
> Clean sand pockets in between the weed and rock are more important than the rock a lot of times...those clean spots are often right on little breaks...sand depressions can form over time with the current wearing ‘em down. The clean bottom allows those fish to rest and lay down right on bottom where they’re going to feed.
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How Korey Sprengel knots-up his dropshot rig 🪢
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Walleye pro Korey Sprengel breaks down his go-to knot for dropshotting – aka the Palomar – and how adding one extra step of running your line back thru the eyelet will make your hook stand out the right way:
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Same exact way I rig mine, including tying those expensive tungsten weights on instead of just clipping them. 🤑
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Which reminds me: I have a new favorite dropshot weight since last season.... It’s called the VMC Tungsten B.E.T. Drop Shot Weight, which has a ‘Big Eye Teardrop’ design so you can tie ‘em on directly (versus the clip).
It also has a 1) built-in swivel to reduce line twist, 2) the weight is laser etched on the side so you know which exact size you’re throwing, 3) it’s tungsten so it’s more compact and the harder metal is more sensitive for feeling bottom or bites, and 4) I dig the matte black finish because I don’t want fish going for the weight, I want ‘em keying in on the bait that’s up above.
My favorite all-around size is the 3/8 oz for further casts and to get the bait straight down fast.
I can’t imagine how a dropshot weight could possibly get any better. 🤷♂️
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Ever heard of ‘Sago Pondweed’ before? 🤔
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Me either lol. But Jason Mitchell says you should be fishing it right now for walleyes:
> If you fish walleyes, particularly in places like Devils Lake, Bitter Lake, Waubay Lake or any of the prairie dish bowl lakes, walleyes can be found in weeds. Not all weeds are equal however!
> A top weed to look for is Sago Pondweed. This tall weed has long stringy leaves and often has berries or clusters at the ends of the leaves. Sago pondweed is easy to recognize and we included some underwater video and illustrations to help you identify this important weed.
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There’s always a bigger fish... 👀
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Wild pic posted by Lyle Piper on Rafferty Reservoir, SK. He had a huge “jack” call dibs on his 19”-ish walleye and was able to snap this pic about 20 seconds before she broke the line:
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Yup, this is real life! We’ve teamed up with Humminbird to giveaway their award-winning XPLORE 12 CMSI+. 🔥 This fish finder series won best of category for ‘Electronics’ at ICAST. The amount of features + processing power + ease of use + at the price point = absolutely incredible!
Takes just 10 seconds to enter below and can share the link you get for bonus entries. 👊 Good luck!
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It ain’t much, but it’s honest work:
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I had to do a double take 🧐 but this is NOT a Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba “greenback”...it’s actually a zander caught over in Germany by a fella named Christoph – nearly 5,000 miles away!
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Know you caught a good one when you can hide behind it! Tanner caught this big ol’ gravel lizard 😤 throwing a Berkley Gulp! Minnow in WY, and said:
> “A smaller fish followed my lure in, so I casted right back out and this one ate it instead."
Heck of a consolation prize lol:
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And he might be the reigning walleye hide-and-seek champ:
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Thank you for reading! 👊 Back atcha in a couple....
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FRIENDS OF TARGET WALLEYE
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Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jay Kumar, Chris Philen, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
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Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He's in it now, but still can't answer that question.... Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a "fishing degree" at the time.... Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com
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