Fishing guides employ a variety of techniques when fishing for Lake Erie walleye in the spring. Anglers can either troll or cast for these fish along the shorelines. Casting begins in late April as anglers fish the shallow shore lines. At the end of April these fish have spawned and are ready to replenish their lost energy of the spawn. Throughout the early season, fishermen troll and cast with trolling being by far the most productive.

A local fishing guide from Wall Hanger Charters explained walleye trolling techniques, saying, " We can run planer boards out the side of the boat and run ten lines off these boards. The jet drives can go down 10 to 50 plus feet depending on the length of the line. In the spring, we are typically running 10 jets back 30 to 40 foot leads in 20 foot of water with worm harnesses and flutter type spoons, the baits of choice. We also run crank baits at this time of year, typically back 100 feet."

He went on to explain mid-season fishing, explaining, "As the water warms, and summer is upon us, we move to deeper waters running 40 and 50 jets with leads of 60 to 125 feet back. This is also the time we start to use dipsy divers back the same amount of lengths. When using dipsy divers we run a 6 foot lead behind them with Michigan stinger spoons in various colors."

Some of the hot colors are perch, watermelon and chartreuse. Captain Jeff of Wall Hanger Charters likes to pick the speed up as the water warms. Spring fishing is 1.0 to 1.5 and early summer speeds are 1.5 to 2.2 miles per hour. As the water warms even more, they start trolling the deeper waters with down riggers and dipsy way down deep. During this time of year, the captain trolls up to 3 miles per hour, catching trout and walleye.

Trolling an S pattern really also helps to trigger these fish during the spring. The bait fish in the deeper waters are larger alewives, smelt, and emeralds. This is the time to use larger spoons in the 4-6 inch range. Up to 16 rods at one time are used in deeper waters. 8 rods are run on planer boats, 6 dipsy divers and 2 down riggers. The dipsy divers are set on different settings of 1, 2, and 3. The downriggers use 10 pound balls with leads of 25 feet.

For more walleye fishing tips and techniques, visit Lake Erie Fishing Charters.

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