It's been a great walleye Fall...

[OkobojiEagle]

There continues to be a consistent evening walleye bite on our local waters.  Shoreline wadding increased current and necked-down areas just at sundown for several hours.  Casting paddle tail plastics and shallow suspending jerkbaits.  I hope other upper-Midwest board members are taking advantage of this bite as well...

 

 

oe

[J Francho]

The bite is hot up here as well.  My friend has stuck quite a few over 9 lbs. and one over 10.  Same style baits, interestingly.  I haven't really done much to chase them, but they are out in full force, actively feeding on most lakes I fish.

[12poundbass]

Don't forget the cheek meat!

[J Francho]

Freshwater scallops!

[Gundog]

Its a shame they don't fight that much but they are delicious. I get a few every year when I'm fishing for smallies on the river. 

[Looch]

On 10/16/2017 at 1:05 PM, Gundog said:

Its a shame they don't fight that much but they are delicious. I get a few every year when I'm fishing for smallies on the river. 

snags that move! 

[Bluebasser86]

We must have different strains of walleye here. I've had them straighten trebles on jerkbaits when I accidentally catch one in the spring. They pull almost as hard as similar sized smallmouth and largemouth. The ones that don't fight are the small ones that are well short of the 18" keeper line. 

[OkobojiEagle]

Bluebasser you are correct, I have far more destroyed jerkbaits walleye fishing than bass fishing, however, the acrobatics of a good smallmouth, northern pike or musky fight really gets my blood moving...

 

 

oe 

[fishballer06]

I've never understood why guys say they don't fight either. They might not make runs and jump out of the water like a bass, but the one's we catch of significant size (20"+) love to stay down and give a really good head thrash. Such a fun fish to catch.

[J Francho]

1 hour ago, fishballer06 said:

I've never understood why guys say they don't fight either.

 

They're catching dinks.

[Looch]

For their size, they dont put up much of a fight, couple seconds of the fish freaking out, they give up and drag them in. Actually think the dinks and saugers give up more of a fight than big walleyes. Trolling Erie we catch 6lb + fish routinely and in less than 2 minutes, fish is in the boat(100+ ft of line out)

 

Walleye and Sauger are by far the species I catch the most of year in year out, last couple months I have only been using topwater baits and lures that stay off the bottom just so I can avoid catching sauger and walleye in the river I fish the most because there is no point, they aren't safe to eat out of the local rivers because of pcbs

[UPSmallie]

Haven't really had any pull drag but you still do have to slug them in as they make their runs.  You want to talk about no fight?  Try ice-fishing for them in 4-5 feet of water.  Literally have anywhere from 15-22 inch walleye on the ice in about 5-10 seconds after setting the hook.  Easy landing them, difficult getting them to bite.  Last winter had a walleye messing with my minnow for literally 15 minutes before I was able to get him to suck the bobber down.  Got him up in all but 5 seconds.

[Steveo-1969]

On 10/16/2017 at 1:05 PM, Gundog said:

Its a shame they don't fight that much but they are delicious. I get a few every year when I'm fishing for smallies on the river. 

 

On 10/18/2017 at 3:24 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

We must have different strains of walleye here. I've had them straighten trebles on jerkbaits when I accidentally catch one in the spring. They pull almost as hard as similar sized smallmouth and largemouth. The ones that don't fight are the small ones that are well short of the 18" keeper line. 

 

The 15"+ walleyes I catch on the Upper Potomac River put up a great fight.  I caught a 20-incher a couple weeks ago on a M-power baitcasting rod that pulled drag twice and gave big head thumps the whole time. I thought it was a flathead catfish until I saw it.

 

As the water continues to get colder I will start catching more and more walleyes and they will get me through until next spring when I'll start targeting smallies again.