A Walleye Fishing Story
By eCountryLifestyle Staff Writer
A walleye-fishing trip is not worthwhile if you treat it lightly.
You could return with an ordinary one-pound catch, if at all, if you embark on a casual walleye fishing vacation with time set aside for other recreation activities. Good fortune always plays a part in every sport, but it is best to gather all the facts about a walleye that you can, so that you can develop a strategy to make a grand success of your walleye-fishing trip.
Just as you would go to Asia to see tigers or to Africa for lions, North America is the place for a walleye fishing vacation. A magnificent beast, all of 11 pounds, caught in the 1960s, holds out a taunting challenge to all serious sports fishers of today. You have a fair chance of landing a fish over five pounds during your walleye-fishing trip, if your preparations are thorough and focused. A photograph of your success and memories of how you hunted for it will be just reward for your efforts.
Walleyes are nocturnal creatures, so plan to spend time on the water from dusk to dawn on your walleye fishing vacation. Rest by day and use the time to get sharp hooks, to check your lines for kinks and weak spots, and to search for new bait and tackles. There is no time for drinking, fine dining, sightseeing, or for fun things! A walleye-fishing trip is like war!
Satellite images of the United States and Canada show a great number and variety of water bodies rich with lurking walleyes. Early spring is a good time for a walleye-fishing trip since the fish put on weight at this time. Courtship starts at temperatures around one degree and spawning at around eleven degrees as ice breaks. Walleyes are passionate lovers, with many males for each female, and a great deal of circling and nudging before fertilized eggs sink to the riverbed.
State Departments of Natural Resources have scientific and reliable data on numbers and local conditions. Sports people can consult their sites or call them to select a spot for a walleye-fishing trip. Lake Erie has the best reputation, though there are many places further North that are less crowded, with good numbers of walleyes.
Trolling is generally a good approach to landing a trophy. Plastic bait with rattlers is effective as well. Keep in mind that your patience and detailed plans could fail if you do not have a skilled and committed companion to net a catch. Walleyes are dour fighters: you are never home until you have that prized photograph of a lifetime in your hands!
Walleyes are natty dressers, with green backs, yellow sides, and white bellies. Colors are especially bright in clear water. Younger fish sport dots all over, but even the most mature fish never loses a large one on its first dorsal fin. The large eyes with reflective retinas give the fish its popular name. Stizostedion vitreum, as biologists call this magnificent member of the perch family, is a sporting fish. It cheerfully feeds on invertebrates, larvae, crustaceans, and small fish. Northern Pike, birds and mammals as well love to hunt walleyes. Walleyes are ruthless and feed on others of their kind, if abundant prey is scarce.
Do not be discouraged if your first walleye does not land a trophy. You have a clever and ferocious foe that is as determined as you are! Walleyes are highly adaptive and have learnt over the centuries to survive in their most demanding habitats. Stay positive, listen to experienced sports people, experiment with a variety of movements in the water, and review every struggle that you lose. God willing, a trophy will one day be yours!
