By Bob Jensen

People who started fishing at a young age probably were introduced to fishing by a parent, and oftentimes that parent had been introduced to fishing by their parent. One generation learned from the previous one. They learned that when fishing, there are certain ways to fish, certain “rules.” Following are a couple of “rules” about catching walleyes that you might want to reconsider.

When I was young, I was taught that we should fish on the bottom for walleyes, because that’s where they lived. I caught a lot of walleyes while fishing on the bottom, but on one fishing trip I broke the rule of walleye location and was glad that I did.

It was summer in Ontario where I broke the rules to achieve a high finish in a tournament.  At the time, I knew that walleyes spent all their time on or very close to the bottom. Or at least I thought they did.

Jigs and rigs on the bottom had resulted in a decent catch of walleyes. I had driven across a large deep bay several times while traveling to different areas. Each time I saw suspended fish twenty feet down over eighty feet of water. “They couldn’t be walleyes,” I thought.

Eventually I decided to give those fish a try. I tied on a crankbait that ran deep enough to be a foot or two over the marks that I was seeing on the sonar. I quickly realized how wrong the “rules” were sometimes.

We trolled maybe 50 yards, had a strike, and brought a six pound walleye to the boat. We did this time and again during the tournament and got a high finish. What was happening was baitfish were suspending over the deep water, and since the baitfish were there, so were the walleyes. In the summer, walleyes and other gamefish will be where the food is.

Another broken rule for walleyes. It was fall and we were casting eighth ounce jigs to water eight to ten feet deep near a wind-blown point. Experience had taught us that on that body of water, in the fall, eight to ten feet was the best depth for walleyes.

I cast a little too far and got snagged in shallow water. The jig broke off so I picked up a rod that had a sixteenth ounce jig on it. I cast the smaller jig into the knee-deep water, caught a walleye. Made another cast, caught another walleye. My partner tied on a sixteenth jig, cast it into the shallows, same thing.

We caught more walleyes that day in water shallower than four feet than deeper than four feet. Because of the wind blowing into the shoreline, minnows were there. Because the minnows were there, so were the walleyes.

Last one for now. This was several decades ago when jigging spoons were starting to become popular for catching walleyes through the ice. It was late summer and we were on a large lake that was known for good walleye fishing.

We were again pulling jigs and rigs tipped with live bait. The walleyes didn’t know that they should be eating these offerings. One of my fishing partners was one of those guys who didn’t pay attention to rules.

He had a couple of those jigging spoons that were made for ice fishing in his tackle box. He tied one on, tipped it with a piece of nightcrawler, and dropped it over the side. Within five minutes he had a walleye in the net. We didn’t tear’em up, but that jigging spoon made for winter fishing produced better than traditional walleye presentations on that late summer day.

The most successful anglers have learned that when the fish aren’t doing what the traditional “rules of catching fish” suggest they should be doing, doing something different often gets them to bite.

(photo by Bob Jensen) This walleye was about 15 feet above the bottom when it ate Bruce DeShano’s bait.