by Captain Marty Papke
Summertime and walleyes go hand in hand with hot conditions and warming waters. Walleyes like all game fish don’t like to expend too much energy cruising for food or chasing it down. They would rather hold in areas with high concentrations of food sources and then gorge themselves when the opportunity arises.
The ends of large flats, main lake points and offshore humps are always good binge feeding areas, but just about any area where large quantities of bait fish school up can be a potential hot spot. Large basin areas like our waters of Little Bay de Noc hold schools of different baitfish like alewives, emerald and spottail shiners along with perch and sucker minnows. This open water can prove an excellent fishing grounds during heavy feeding times, the key is locating these areas with our electronics.
Bait presentations during these times and “matching the hatch” so to speak, whether the flash of a large spinnerbait used for bass with large nickel willow leaf blades can imitate the flash of alewives, casting minnow style baits in perch and sucker patterns and don’t forget using live bait as a productive way when these fish get frenzied!
This fast and furious action of feeding can happen at any time and can be over in an instant. When it happens, drop everything, get your bait in the water and take notes when this bite ends and believe me the notes although may not repeat this particular area and sequence the methods you used in catching these fish can and will usually repeat themselves.
For a fishing adventure contact us at: Little Bay de Noc Fishing Charters at: 800-708-2347 or email us at: martyp@littlebaydenoc.com Good luck and good fishing.