It’s what we’ve been waiting for those hot, lazy, crazy days of August and then someone says it’s too “hot” to catch any walleye! The excuses start: too hot, too calm, too much humidity, too many fish (walleye) and not enough days to fish them!
If your looking for a time of the year when the temperatures are hot and the fish are biting, it’s those so-called “dog-days” of August. There’s always some non-believers but let me tell you that these warm days are definitely hot fishing days. Let’s concentrate on the methods used to capitalize on some excellent walleye catches.
Where to Start?
When it comes to locating mid summer walleye in order to be successful an angler must think of several important factors: cover, food and a comfort zone. It’s easy to understanding how to fish these fish if you take these three things into consideration.
The starting point is doing map work of the waters you intend to fish. Hot spots listed on our map are without a question the first place to start with not only their detailed descriptions of the waters but also the complete documentary telling you about the entire “waterworld” you are about to fish. Challenging as it may seem map preparation will simplify your fishing and put you into fairly good spots and allow you to fine tune presentations as your fishing continues. At Wawang Lake Resort we have a good idea of where walleye will be at any given time throughout the fishing season through years of collecting data, and therefore we provide a detailed map to our guests upon arrival. We also outline specific areas where the walleye have been active and pass on information such as: depth, baits, lures, colors and presentation. It’s important to us for our guests to successfully catch fish and therefore as we collect this information all season along we pass it onto them.
Weedbeds inhabit the bays and surprisingly large, healthy populations of weeds are present. Cabbage, milfoil and coontail weeds are three of the most prevalent weeds found here and all have the capabilities of giving the 
necessary ingredients in finding good groups of walleye. Understanding weeds, especially that the greenest plants give off extreme amounts of oxygen that attract the plankton, baitfish and consequently the gamefish of the system. Locating these weedbeds are a simple matter as many of these beds are shoreline orientated making it possible for a very easy fishing approach. Giving you places to look for could include; fishing the ranges of depth from several feet of water right into 12 to 15 feet of water; and reefs hold some excellent weedbeds.
Wawang Lake abounds when it comes to weeds and it’s good growth of cabbage has walleye written all through it. Look for structure of reefs have a combination of gravel, rocks, shale, sand and weeds that make up the basis of the reef systems. Amazingly here too will be a certain population of walleye that inhabit these reefs throughout the entire year.
The Basin or “Deep Water” fish probably are the most commonly fished areas of water of any system during the so-called “Dog-Day’s of August”. No doubt about it deep basin fish do exist and locating these fish in summer takes mobility and electronics viewing of the lake content. The key to these basin fish is finding two groups of walleye; either the bottom dwelling fish or the suspended fish. Deepest waters to check out is relatively easy to find and quite recognizable on our map.
Electronic knowledge is important in spotting schooling fish. Combining schooling baitfish and marking fish you should be able to pattern basin fish in this water area.
The Selected Methods to Catching these Summer Walleye
One method of fishing walleye is jig fishing. Jig fishing is fun, easy to learn and one productive method for these summer fish. A weed fishing presentation and jigs can be deadly in getting hot, summer bite walleye. Sizes to start with are 1/8 and 1/16 ounce Fireball and Lip Stick jigs of high Vis colors tied to 6 or 8 pound XL line. The 
new Fire Line with it’s low stretch and small diameter makes its a great jig fishing line.
Fishing presentations consist of 6 foot medium action spinning rods like Berkley’s Gary Roach’s model and matched with a the new Cardinal Center Drag Spinning Reel with superb drag and casting qualities and its time to present the bait. The two methods most used are a livebait attached to the jig head; minnows are a favorite producer and nightcrawlers complete the bill. Using a plastic tail like a Power Grub has outstanding results many times while fishing the weeds. A hot bait for trying this year should be the Northland Buck Shot Rattle jig with the added noise factor and fishing heavy weeds you’ll many times alert fish into seeking out your baits.
Boat and bait presentations should be off these weedbed edges to be able to place casts into the weeds letting the jig combination settle slowly pop the jig keeping the rod tip at a high point retreive position, if your getting hung in the weeds pop the jig free and let it again settle. Many times strikes will occur when the jig is free falling to the lake floor. Remember fishing fairly fast through areas will let you find aggressive biting fish and once found you can slow down and concentrate on schooling fish.
Number two method of fishing these summer walleye and another fun bite is using and casting crankbaits. Two choices and a straight minnow bait with its erratic motions along with deep diving baits like Berkley’s Frenzy’s deep Diver to work closer to the bottom you are fishing.
Before leaving the weedbeds this is where the cranking methods can pull some additional fish. Equipment check list should include the preferred baitcasting rod/reel combination. Again Abu Garcia’s line of bait casters like the C-3 spooled with 10 pound XT or Fire Line worked with a medium action 6 to 7 foot Touring rod will give you those long casts and still have the needed backbone for good hook sets. Cast, retrieve, pause and retrieve across weeds and the results will be there. Deeper diving baits work well when sliding off the breakline just reaching the weeds and covering the bottom structure where walleye’s so often are.
WOW, the gang of six just isn’t quitting at all and has pushed their walleye trophy total to 30! Way to go guys!
Crankbaits and the reefs should be worked and a prime time is when prevailing winds are pushing against structure areas. The shallow north end reefs of Wawang Lake excel in results on days of high wind and don’t overlook the EARS potential when it comes to casting crankbaits.
The third method of finding summer time “eye’s” in hot August is a finesse method of live bait fishing. The Roach Rig, a favorite rig that let’s you fish all three areas that hold walleye in the summer with probably the most subtle method of catching sometimes lock jawed fish. A sliding sinker that has an adjustable snell length of which you generally can start short and increase to longer lengths of which at the end is a bait hook.
Tackle choices here would be a medium action spinning rod like a Roach’s Livebait rod with a Cardinal reel and 6 pound ultra-clear XL line should give you a very natural presentation and yet able to fight and land large fish. Livebait – use either a minnow that you can lip hook when looking for fish and tail hook when you’ve spotted fish. We also have our own method of hooking a minnow that’s very popular with local fishermen in the area. We provide this information to our guests and show them just how it’s done!
Nightcrawlers seem to be the favorite diet of these walleye and nose hooking a healthy crawler and placing a tiny bubble of air in it’s collar should keep it right off the bottom and in the face of Mr. Walleye! These rigs can be fished effectively in all water areas and should be used when other methods fail. This makes a successful day sometimes out of a slow day. Edges of weedbeds, reef drop-offs, and deep basin waters should be watched for and seeing walleye positioning above them and working these rigs should net results.
The “Trolling Method” by no means boring if done right is a very effective method during the summer doldrums. The importance of locating active schools of walleye and remembering the factors of cover, food and the comfort zone and trolling is an optional method of catching a consist amount of walleye.
The three methods of trolling presentations are using a single spinner, a spinner nightcrawler rig and crankbaits. The areas west of the lodge offer good trolling for walleye at this time and generally you’ll want to work these methods either all the same presentation or mix it with spinners and cranks. These Basin fish or “deep water” fish can sometimes be more consistent in biting and here’s the approach. Floatn’Spin’s with a nickel blade and healthy fat crawler worked off the bottom with a Rock-Runner Bottom Bouncer will cover those bottom hugging fish.
Speed of trolling these spinners should be slow! Keeping the blades revolving is key and using a thumping or larger blade while fishing these deep waters of the basin will attract and get some real aggressive hits. Running Off-Shores In Line Planer boards do a great job from a boat. Simply pinch on and then off makes their application a simple one and it’s easy to fish three and even four people from the boat.
Crankbait trolling bangs some good hot, summer “eye’s” and structuring down to find them is fairly easy. Again choosing rattling cranking baits gets the job done, picking the natural colors most common in the lake and shad colors, perch and blues are a good start. Finding correct depths and Off-Shore’s Snap-On Weights are great and easy. After one or two trips using these tools and you’ll become efficient in trolling too.
Using all the Optional Tools for better fishing!
Live bait is one of the most importance tools on any fishing trip, Frabill’s minnow bucket and worm containers are a must for the liveliest bait not to mentioning having a quality fishing net and the Power Catch is the best walleye net used.
When fishing our lake you should always watch weather conditions and being safe always as winds can make for choppy conditions. Boat control for fishing all these conditions and a MinnKota trolling motor will get you into the most fishy’ spots and power that lasts all day.
Tackle picks and choices in selecting the best equipment you can, and, one thing for sure is using fresh fishing line, this in itself will help you in catching more fish.
Hot, summer, sultry day’s of August by no means are fishless days and Wawang Lake without any question can prove just this. When looking for walleye don’t let the summer months discourage you remembering you’ve got many good alternate locations for finding fish; weeds, reefs and the deep water basins should be able to point you in the right direction.
Versatility is so key in becoming a more successful fisherman and when we go fishing
we always want to catch fish on the days we go fishing!
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