Techniques for Targeting Walleye WITH Spoons

By Lisa Roper

 
I find these two methods work, for me, when it comes to fishing for Walleye with spoons.
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1. I find trolling for Walleye very productive and this is usually the technique I use to start. I do not have a separate trolling motor, so I travel at the slowest speed my boat will go. 
   
   When I am considering a new area to begin trolling I look for a few things – visible rocks on the shoreline, structure at the bottom of the lake, as well as drops and rises as Walleye like to rest in those pockets and are usually hovering close to the lake bottom.  I toss out my line and let it drop back about 30 feet as I begin to troll.
   
   The pathway of my boat is a very loose zig zag pattern which I feel is more effective than travelling in a straight line. It stirs up the water and changes up the action of the spoons which can encourage fish to strike. For the most part, the areas I troll are a mixture of rock, sand with some vegetation, so I like to keep the tip of my rod close to the water which drops my spoon closer to the lake bottom.
   
   
2. If I’ve found a hot spot while trolling, I will throw the anchor. I like to make a short cast followed by bouncing the spoon off the bottom of the lake. When using this technique, I find that casting out about 20 feet from the boat and allowing the hook to sink to the bottom with a very (very) slow retrieval, has proven successful to land some beautiful Walleye.   

As every angler knows, each day on the water can be quite different. There are so many factors that effect fishing in open water; when the ice melts into the lake, the depth of the open water, the outside temperature, the water temperature, and the amount of feed influence how the fish are biting.

Five of Diamonds TM -- Super Glow

Grey Ghost -- Dimpled Series

The day I caught my personal best Walleye in mid-June, we had 3 days of rain prior to that morning.  We headed out fishing at 7:00 am and by 10:00am it was already hot -- the daily high hit over 30 degrees and there was an active heat warning. The fish were hitting hard in 7 to 9 feet of water. In the morning I was having success catching Walleye with a No. 2 Len Thompson Super Glow Five of Diamonds. When we returned that evening the temperature started to cool down and the Walleye (including my personal best) were hammering down on the No. 13 Grey Ghost from the Dimpled Series – single hook. Both hooks had muted colours with pops of orange which we found very effective at the time.

I am beyond blessed to have landed a Walleye that I will always be proud of. ​

It has been an incredible 2.5 days of fishing with Jessica from Len Thompson Lures. I am glad I had the opportunity to take Jessica fishing and I thought I would share a few of our memories. ~ • • • #albertafishing #tightlines #fishing #ladyangler #fishinglife #fishing #northernpikes #jackfish #fishing□ #walleye #walleyeslayer #walleyefishing #fishon #lakefishing #bassproshop #fishlenthompson #lenthompson #lenthompsonspoons #fishinggirl #fishinggirlsrock #girlswhofish #ladiesofangling #multispeciesfishing #angler #fishbig #laclabiche #laclabicheregion #catchandrelease

A post shared by Lisa Roper (@alberta_roper_girl) on Jun 21, 2018 at 12:15pm PDT

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Lisa's story and the video (above) was picked up by CBC News in June 2018 when an Edmonton reporter saw her photo getting a lot of attention on an Alberta based Facebook fishing group.

​​He was 28.5 inches and unfortunately I didn't have the scale on the boat with me so I was a little disappointed," she said. "I would have loved to get a weight on him but I know I can tell you he was really heavy." Roper estimates the fish was well over 10 pounds but she doesn't believe it would have beat the 15.8-pound record for the heaviest walleye caught in Alberta. Still, Roper's smiling face was evidence that this was a big deal. Read more...