Bowl Trolling Strategies for Walleye
By Jason Mitchell - July 26, 2021Weeds will hold walleye through much of the summer but this summer is different. We have seen little precipitation across many regions where we have been fishing and high heat with little wind. These flat hot temps combined with low water seem to change many patterns. Not to say that we haven't been finding walleye on classic deep rock locations but when conditions get hot, weeds do offer good oxygen and shade that will hold fish even when the surface temps are cooking.
Many of these large weed flats have troughs or bowls in the flat that are slightly deeper. Could be a twelve- or fourteen-foot hole or bowl surrounded by weed choked water that is less than ten feet. If the spots are small, you can slip bobber or jig the locations but for the bigger spots, we find trolling crankbaits can be incredibly effective. Almost seems like these fish just get concentrated into these locations late in the summer.
The program can depend on the weed profile. On Devils Lake, the bowl might be three acres and only ten feet deep surrounded by an eight-foot contour that slopes up to less water and everything less than eight feet is weed choked. The program is often as simple as running cranks down to eight feet of water and tracing the inside perimeter of the bowl. On Leech Lake, the program might be similar but the weed edge might not be so defined in that cabbage might come up in eight or nine feet of water whereas there is a twelve-to-fourteen-foot trough where the weeds come up three feet in the deeper water and we might be running cranks five to six feet down so the lures run just over the tops of the deep weeds.
On Saginaw Bay, the flats might be gigantic and the troughs or dips in the weed profile more subtle where you are looking for lanes or pockets where the weeds don't reach the height and the program is running cranks on a short leash behind a planer board.Water clarity will have a big impact on how these weeds set up and have a big impact on the trolling program. Stained water typically creates shallower weed growth with much more distinct edges where the weeds just quit abruptly. Clear water sees deeper weed growth where the weeds just linger out into the deeper water.
When trolling around weeds, the advantage is generally the shortest amount of line possible to reach the trolling depth so you can clean weeds off faster but clear water might dictate getting the lure further away from the boat or using planer boards. The reality is that we seldom can catch fish close to the boat anymore on water with zebra mussels.
What we so often see happen right now is that all the walleyes that have been using these weed locations all summer long seem to concentrate and pile into these locations during the dog days of summer. With a good contour map and some recon work, these locations can often be surprisingly easy to fish. You will get weeded up at times as you learn the spot but as you fine tune the location, these locations just get easier to fish.
From week to week, you might have to adjust your cranks and amount of line to run the lures higher as the summer progresses if weeds are starting to creep up out of the deeper water but when in doubt as to where to run the baits, run them high and make the fish come up for the lures. When walleye fishing gets tough, these weed trolling patterns often save the day for us.
Jason Mitchell