Walleye fishing hot across region

After chasing bass for much of the summer, it was nice to change things up over the past week and spend some time fishing for some of the other species we have available to us across Sunset Country.
Without any bass tournaments on the schedule, I was able to fit in a few guide trips and spent some time fishing for walleye and lake trout on Lake of the Woods.
I usually get out for walleyes at least every other week for a day or two, so I usually have some idea of what the fish are doing. The fishing this past week was the best I’ve experienced all summer for both numbers of fish and big walleyes.
Down on Rainy Lake, my friend, Kent Ballan, told me the walleye fishing on the north arm has been excellent over the past couple of weeks, as well.
The good thing about walleye fishing at this point in the season is there are a lot of fish in predictable locations. Main lake structure is where you want to be looking for walleyes right now.
Over the past week, we caught fish on a number of humps, as well as points that had long extended flats on them.
The hot water depth was between 28 and 34 feet. That was where the numbers of fish were showing up on my Humminbird and where most of the catching was going on.
When you start looking for places to fish, the best spots have large flats on them in depths that walleyes like. In other words, you want find those humps that have good-sized flats in the 30-foot range.
The humps that are very steep (we call them “volcano rocks”) are never as good. It’s good if the flats are located next to a ledge that drops off into deep water but you want those flats for walleyes to school up on.
The hot bait for us over the past week was just a regular quarter-ounce jig tipped with a minnow. For those of you who are big on jig colours, chartreuse and orange were the two best.
I’ve been using the new Northland Fishing Tackle RZ Jigs—they come with nice paint jobs and high-quality hooks.
Of course, there are other ways to catch walleyes when they are in deeper water. But when we’re on these guide trips, and there are two or three anglers in the boat plus myself, it’s easy to mark the fish on my electronics, throw a marker buoy over to mark the spot, and then just drop jigs over the side of the boat to catch fish.
Those of you looking to try a new technique, trolling bottom-bouncers with spinner rigs over these spots will catch fish, as will rigging with a leech or minnow directly under the boat.
Lindy rigging with a large minnow is a great way to catch a big walleye.
Summer is winding down, so get out there and catch a few more walleyes so you can squeeze in a couple more good dinners before the long wait for the ice season to start.
Meanwhile, the bass tournament scene continues this weekend with the International Falls Bass Championship taking place on Rainy Lake and the Rainy River.
This event started way back in 2005 and continues to be a popular event for Borderland anglers.
The tournament, which is full with a 60-team field, gets underway Friday and continues through Saturday.
Look for my tournament report next week.