A crankbait just keeps churning along at a steady depth, no matter how far the angler is rising up and down in the waves. And it can be done from an anchored or Spot-Locked position. In fact, it should be done from an anchored position in anything over 15-mph winds. If the trolling motor is out of the water half the time, making the right presentation can be tough.
The walleyes of PK Lodge in Ontario could not resist the tight, subtle wobble of a Yo-Zuri Hardcore Shad.
Walleyes and wind. Wind, they bite. Calm? Mow the lawn. Common affliction. But why is it true, and how is it being misinterpreted?
Wind alters feeding habits all the way down the food chain in shallow water. Wind drives waves that block light. Wind creates noisy seas that make it easier to approach walleyes (but harder to fish for them). Wind draws walleyes into the shallows to feed. Wind creates currents that redistribute bait and concentrate walleyes in key spots. But most of all, the wind cries crankbaits.
The fact that crankbaits are a staple in the walleye box still seems to elude a large portion of the boxes out there. Why? We wish we knew. We’ve been over this, people: When the wind cries crankbaits deliver everywhere, almost every day. In three-foot waves, bait rigs force you to be twice as good to keep the bait moving at a steady pace. A crankbait just keeps churn-ing along at a steady depth, no matter how far the angler is rising up and down in the waves. And it can be done from an anchored or Spot-Locked position. In fact, it should be done from an anchored position in anything over 15-mph winds. If the trolling motor is out of the water half the time, making the right presentation can be tough.
Some believe that walleyes need to be “finessed” all the time in the face of heavy fishing pressure, that something as noisy, brash and artificial as a crankbait won’t work. Sometimes it’s true, but not all the time. Few waters get pounded harder than Mille Lacs in Minnesota, yet crankbaits produce big walleyes and lots of them in September and all through the fall—especially when wind and waves provide overhead cover. Walleyes feel more secure, making them more aggressive.
I live about 25 minutes from the closest landing on Mille Lacs. Walleyes do need to be finessed on that body of water a good deal of the time. But, late in the season, as more anglers pick up guns and head for the woods, walleyes often feed shallower than they did in summer. Slip-bobbers represent the most productive finessin’ method on calm days. When to slip bobber, when to crank, and why?
The answers have a lot to do with wind.
The Rapala Shad Dancer is extremely effective for pressured walleyes under waves in clear water when coupled with a fluorocarbon leader.
Wind And Cranks
Even before the leaves begin to turn, wind is necessary to bring walleyes to the shallowest positions in the water column. It definitely moves the bite shallower by breaking up the light and moving baitfish within the “wave-action zone”—where smaller, lighter baitfish get buffeted about while heavier, denser predators like walleyes can better maintain stability. And it makes any presentation stealthier. Waves crashing against shore or rocks covers boat noises and enhances the ability to approach fish. It also establishes currents around shallow structure that position and concentrate fish. With slip bobbers, you’ll see the bobber actually moving across the path of the wind from the current that develops.
Early in the year, after walleyes spawn, they find many reasons to go shallow. Wind or no wind, walleyes will spend considerable time in 4 feet of water or less. But in fall, walleyes may go deep on calm days in clear water. In stained or cloudy water, they might feed in the shallows, but less aggressively on calm days. Time to drift and pitch slip bobbers tipped with jumbo leeches before the water drops to 50°F. Leeches curl up tightly in cold water. After that point, use minnows or crawlers.
Some of the best spots in early to late fall have rocks. Rocky shorelines and points, rock piles and reefs attract hordes of walleyes. In water less than 6 feet deep, wave action starts to move sediment and plankton, drawing baitfish well away from crevices in the rocks, making them more vulnerable than would normally be the case. Bigger meals become easier targets and walleyes won’t let the opportunity pass by.
Timing is key, too. After a calm period, the best time is to get on the water is right when the wind picks up. After a 3-day calm, walleyes can turn on quick, triggered by the increase in activity in the food chain and emboldened by the feeling of security under the sheltering waves. Another key time occurs after three or more days of winds from the same direction. The food chain is literally transported to the windward shores where waves are cracking directly in.
The Rapala X-Rap Shad suspends. Crack if off a rock and pause, giving walleyes time to locate it in dark water.
The Right Approach
Historically, larger crankbaits excel at this time of year, because the baitfish are running a little bigger. However, increased fishing pressure is happening everywhere, and smaller, less aggressive cranks often excel even late in the season. One of the most effective cranks for us in recent years has been the Rapala Shad Dancer. It comes in three sizes, but all are relatively diminutive and the middle size 05—with a 2-inch body—rips a lot of walleye lips. And it floats off wood and rock cover.
Shad-bodied baits, like the new Rapala Elite Series Shad Rap are always effective. Brilliant new finishes on this classic bait attract a lot of attention on windy days.
Elite Shad Raps run about 8 to 9 feet on the cast and quite a bit deeper when trolling with a lot of line out. It floats up after cracking a rock, giving walleyes a chance to turn to the sound and approach.
The Rapala X-Rap Shad suspends. After cracking a rock, pausing the retrieve leaves it right there at the source of the sound. All these shad-shaped baits have a relatively tight, subtle wiggle—which isn’t always the right action, especially in fall when walleyes become increasingly aggressive as water temperatures drop. Wider-wobbling “bass-style” cranks kick out more vibration and sound, calling walleyes in from a greater distance. The Storm Arashi is a favorite when the water gets cold.
Spinning gear works best in windy conditions where baitcasters are less efficient and less able to cast for distance. I stick with 10-pound braid for that reason, and to get down a little deeper. Sometimes I go with 8-pound if walleyes are holding in that 10- to 12-foot zone. A 7-foot, medium-light, fast-action rod works fine. I like the St. Croix Avid series and Two Brothers Elliot Rods with those specs. A 5- to 6- foot, 10-pound fluorocarbon leader tied to the braid with back-to-back uni knots provides both stealth and better abrasion resistance.
On windswept shorelines, target water 10 feet or shallower. Walleyes are drawn to that zone even in really clear water, especially this time of year. And I prefer to anchor or Spot Lock most of the time, casting in every direction before moving a cast-length down the shoreline. Even from an anchored position, you’re running and gunning, covering more water and trying to trigger fish quick. It’s easier to be systematic, covering every rock and pebble, from an anchored position. Give it 10 minutes. If nothing happens, change position. Cover the area quickly with casts, experimenting with speed and triggering effects with two or three different lures and move. It’s critical to systematically cover a reef because big tribes of walleyes can group very tightly in this situation. A lot of fish can be in a very small area due to current creating ambush zones. Wind-driven currents pick up speed between islands, reefs, points and humps where such structures are fairly close together.
Walleyes move extremely shallow where the wind cracks directly into shore. Thinner minnow-style baits are most effective in that zone.
Wind-swept, rocky shorelines, rocky points, reefs and rock piles in 10 feet of water or less become primary targets from late August through October. It’s critical to note how long the wind has been blowing in the same direction (hours, days?), and where the waves are striking these structures. Currents established in a three-day blow are not going to change direction immediately when the wind shifts.
In 6 feet of water or less, wave action starts to wash sediment off the bank and cloud things up. Baitfish immediately rise to positions outside and above the rocks. Baitfish are in a more open position, more vulnerable because their food (plankton, insect larvae) is disturbed and raised in the water column. Baitfish have less control than walleyes in wave action, too. Larger, heavier predators can move through the turbulence easier. Add the increased sediment and the broken light and walleyes begin stacking up the advantages. Life seems easy and less dangerous.
Walleyes focus on prey and tend to trigger quickly at the merest hint of bait-fish moving nearby.
Anchor position is incredibly important. You can’t really patrol the outside of a dangerous reef in three footers with the electric trolling motor and deliver baits accurately to key spots. It’s better to lock the boat down on the right spot. For instance, walleyes tend to position just across the top of a reef or rock pile from the direction of the wind. The back of the boat should almost be nudging the top of the reef, so you can cast across it and bring the bait through walleyes positioned just beyond the shallowest point where wave action is strongest.
Walleyes tend to school up in key little spots in big wind. Maybe a little hook in the reef where current swirls in behind a few boulders or a rocky finger jutting out perpendicular to the wind. Current eddies swirl in behind and stir the bottom. The key is to find spots where the wind is forcing water into or around objects like high-rising boulders, points and quick rises in the structure—places where current velocity increases. Walleyes will be right on the fringe of that current, or right in the middle of it, waiting for distressed, tired or wounded baitfish to be swept to them. Put a buoy marker on the back of the spot, just beyond casting range, to create a target to cast to. It’s hard to control the boat in 3- to 4-foot waves and the fish tend to concen-trate, which points to anchoring. In light winds, work the reef up and down with crankbaits, working from the bow with a trolling motor, then anchor and drift a slip-bobber rig in there. Anything less than a 1-foot chop, it’s slip bobbers for a few drifts then off to deeper spots.
Select Shad Baits: Rapala Elite Shad Rap (top left); Yo-Zuri Hardcore Shad (top right); Berkley Flicker Shad (bottom left); Rapala Shad Dancer (bottom right).
Pick a spot where the wind is blowing directly into a reef, rocky point, or shore-line. Pull upwind, drop anchor and let out rope until the back of boat is right on the windward break so you can cast across the crest of the structure to the other side. The most aggressive walleyes will be there, on the backside of the crest from the direction of the wind. In heavy seas, you may want to anchor both ends of the boat, but anchoring so the boat swings in light to moderate winds allows you to cover more water from one anchorage.
On rocky shorelines. anchor with the wind at your back, allowing it to carry those light baits farther from the boat.
The Arsenal
Covering reefs and rocky structure in wind with crankbaits requires an arsenal as systematic as your coverage. Some days, some lakes, you just know what’s going to work. Seems that way in cloudy water, especially, where wind consistently brings walleyes into the same depth zone. But in moderately clear to very clear water, the bite could be happening anywhere from 2 to 12 feet down.
The Yo-Zuri Hardcore Shad 75 is an amazing bait when walleyes are 10- to 12 feet down. On a fly-in trip to PK Lodge in Ontario last summer with Mark Martin, Hardcore 75s pulverized walleyes both casting and trolling. Two years ago at Makoop Lake Lodge, also an Ontario fly-in lodge, the same lure terrorized walleyes all over the lake. Walleyes are definitely tuned in to the lure’s unique action and vibration. And I’ve never lost one on a snag as it deflects off rock and wood better than almost every other crank on the market.
The Hardcore Shad 60 is deadly in shallower water. It features a magnetic weight transfer system which improves casting distance and accuracy by transferring a weight to the tail during the cast, which results in long, accurate castsup to 30% farther than other shad-body baits. It dives to 5 or 6 feet on braided line.
To cover the shallowest water without constant hangups requires minnowbaits. Floaters work. The Rapala Original Floating Minnow casts very well with light braid and a tail wind. It’s a great tool for walleyes in wind. In fact, it’s one of few crankbaits that can work through 3 feet of water with braided line, which cuts the water a little better. It’s constructed with balsa, so it pops up after it hangs.
Sometimes a plastic minnowbait, like the Yo-Zuri Twitchin’ Minnow, or Smithwick Rogue makes a better choice. Although the Twitchin’ Minnow—a suspending bait with a tiny lip—only dives about 2 feet, the medium-long floaters get down 4 feet or more on the cast in most cases. The key is to hit rocks occasionally at the depth walleyes are using. Quite often, the strike comes during that short pause after making contact with a rock, another reason plastic makes a moderately good choice in the 4- to 5-foot zone. Plastic minnowbaits rise slower. The Twitchin’ Minnow, and other shallow-diving suspending baits, rise extremely slow. Unweighted or un-doctored balsa baits may rise out of the strike zone too quickly if walleyes aren’t making up their minds in a hurry.
In the 4- to 8-foot zone, suspending minnowbaits really shines. My go-to baits in that zone include the Rapala Husky Jerk and Smithwick Suspending Rogue. With braided line, these baits drag a little too much on a level 4-foot rock field. Better to use a plastic floater or shallow-diving shad bait. But where the bottom is uneven, going up-and-down between 4- to 8-foot depths, suspending minnowbaits absolutely shine in the wind. They cast downwind extremely well. Ones with added noise (rattles) can be a major plus most days in big wind. And suspending minnows maintain the longest hang time in the strike zone of any porating pheromones from shad, smelt, alewives or shiners, (depending on the time and place).
Select Bass Cranks: Storm Arashi (top left); Bomber 6A (top right); Rapala DT 6 (bottom left); Norman Middle N (bottom right)
Still in that 4- to 8-foot zone, shad baits have a crucial place. Baits with a thin, deep, long profile, like the Rapala Shad Rap or the Berkley Flicker Shad tend to imitate the things walleyes like best. The body shape roughly approximates shad, ciscoes and alewives—which walleyes tend to choose over most other forage types, when available. But probably more important is action. The way these baits disturb water drives walleyes nuts—subtle approximations of the real thing in motion. All those shad baits with multiple perforations adorning our collective boxes proves it. Shad baits walk through rock pretty well without hanging.
Sometimes the best baits on rocks aren’t designed for walleyes at all. On reefs in lakes or rivers, some of my favorite walleye crankbaits have been designed with bass in mind. The Bomber 6A, Norman Middle N, Rebel Deep-Wee R and Rapala DT series are examples of “bass cranks” that can really clean up on walleyes, too. These are the best baits to throw when it’s really snaggy down there, because the wider wobble of a “fat” bait deflects away from more crevices than other designs. The action actually throws the bill side-to-side so it acts like a cow-catcher on a railroad engine, deflecting off rocks and staying out of crevices.
Finally, long-thin divers such as the Storm Deep Thunderstick Jr., the Rapala Tail Dancer and the Smithwick Deep Rogue are must-haves around reefs and humps. At times, especially in very clear lakes, active walleyes in big wind prowl fingers, points, humps and rock piles that top out at 10 feet or so. These baits can get that deep, and deeper, on the cast—especially with braided line. But spots like this can be trolled across in wind, too, and these remain the baits of choice in water 10- to 15- feet deep. The long-thin profile of a deep diver seems to appeal to walleyes the same way minnowbaits do. Long, thin baitfish, like smelt and young perch, always make an attractive meal for walleyes. Easier to swallow? If that’s what makes you throw long-thin baits, go right on believing it.
Doesn’t really matter why. Walleyes just bite ‘em. As they bite all manner of hard bodies, especially (apologies to Jimmy Hendrix) when the wind cries crankbaits.
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