By: Mark Romanack
In the fall, cooling water conditions force walleye anglers to slow down on trolling speeds and also to selectively use more subtle action crankbaits. Mark and Jake Romanack designed the Bill Lewis PWC and PWC Lite crankbaits to excel in cool to cold water trolling applications.
With cooler weather and dropping water temperatures on the horizon, now is the ideal time for diving deep into the transitions walleye anglers will face in the coming months. Any way you slice it, fish are cold blooded creatures that are prisoners of their environment. As water temperatures naturally decline in the fall of the year, walleye become more and more lethargic.
Historically, walleye anglers felt that cold water put an end to the fishing fun. These days we now know that cold water is not the kiss of death, but just another opportunity to test your fishing skills. To set the record straight, you can catch walleye in warm, cool and downright cold water. The key is slowing down presentations to match the water temperature conditions.
GRADUAL TRANSITIONS
When it comes to water temperature transitions it takes time to see significant results. In early fall water temperatures may well be in the upper 60 degree range and fish will be acting much like they did in late summer. The same lures and trolling speeds that produced in August are going to work in September. But as the weather continues to cool, so will water temperatures. Once the water temperature has dipped to 50 degrees or below, anglers should be thinking seriously about modifying their fishing strategies from those employed in the summer months. Slowing down trolling speeds and instead of trolling with lures like spoons, fall is the ideal time to invent effort into crankbait trolling.
When the water temperature dips below 40 degrees an even greater milestone has been reached. Slower trolling speeds yet will be required for consistent success and the list of crankbaits that will consistently produce bites starts tapering off dramatically. In short, once that water temperature gets down near 40 degrees, crankbaits with a more subtle action tend to out produce those with more aggressive actions.
Eventually, water temperatures are going to dip down into the high 30’s and you guessed it, yet another milestone has been reached. The icy cold waters of late fall call for even slower trolling speeds and even more subtle action crankbaits.
WARM, COOL, COLD
In warm water conditions a lot of crankbaits will consistently catch walleye. Some classics include the Reef Runner 800 series, Berkley’s Flicker Minnows, the Berkley Flicker Shad series, Yakima Bait’s Mag Lip and the Storm Hot n Tot are a few of the baits that have proven themselves over the years.
Once that water temperature dips down into the 50 degree range, a much smaller list of crankbaits do the heavy lifting. The Rapala Deep Husky Jerk 12, the Bandit 5/8 Walleye, the Bill Lewis PWC and PWC Lite are the top picks for trolling in cool water.
As water temperatures fluctuate from cool to cold, the Deep Husky Jerk, Bandit 5/8 and PWC will continue to catch fish so long as trolling speeds are slowed up. A few other baits with subtle actions start to become important at this time of year. Smithwick’s Perfect 10, the Rapala Husky Jerk 14 and the Rapala Original Minnow 18 are three must have baits for fishing walleye in the coldest water conditions.
TROLLING WEIGHT SYSTEMS
Besides becoming more lethargic and less likely to strike at fast moving baits, the deeper we get into the fall walleye tend to show up in deeper on average water depths. Reaching those fish with traditional diving style crankbaits can become a problem.
This is precisely why so many anglers depend heavily on the Off Shore Tackle Snap Weight when targeting walleye in deep water during the fall. By simply adding a Snap Weight to the line, the diving depth of a crankbait can be increased 40% or more!
The most popular trolling system for using Snap Weights is something known as the 50+2 Data produced by the Precision Trolling Data phone app. This highly specific data delivers incredible accuracy when combining diving crankbaits with Snap Weights.
The 50+2 Data is found in the “line type” options on the PTD app. Select the 50+2 Data option and then let your desired crankbait out 50 feet behind the boat. Next, place a two ounce Off Shore Tackle Snap Weight on the line.
Now consult the app again and using the “feet down” picker wheel select the desired target depth. Also, use the MPH picker wheel to select the desired trolling speed.
The app will now spit out the “feet back” number including the initial 50 foot leader to reach the desired target depth. The app does all the work.
Not all the crankbaits featured in the PTD app offer the 50+2 Data, but the majority of the popular lures feature this option. Every year the staff of PTD tests new lures and adds more information to the app.
Trolling crankbaits is a game best played with in-line planer boards like the iconic Off Shore Tackle OR12. These boards not only allow anglers to stack multiple lines on each side of the boat, they make it possible to slow down trolling speeds far better than using traditional planer board mast systems.
BOARD MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
The final piece of the puzzle is using in-line boards to stack multiple lures on each side of the boat. Fishing three, four or even five lines per side of the boat allows anglers to literally flood the water column with different baits and bait colors.
Some anglers rig their in-line boards to release and other prefer to keep the board fixed to the line. Both trolling strategies work. I would describe keeping the board fixed on the line as an “ole school” approach whereas rigging your boards to release is gaining in popularity more every year.
The advantage of rigging boards to release is not having to reel in hooked fish while also fighting the resistance of the board. Hands down, releasing the board makes for a more enjoyable fish fighting experience.
It’s also true that releasing the board helps anglers stack more lines per side of the boat while avoiding the need to clear lines while fighting fish. When releasing boards, I recommend setting your most shallow running baits on the outside of the board spread and progressively deeper diving baits on the middle and inside board lines. Following this practice will just about eliminate any line tangling issues.
SUMMARY
In the fall of the year dropping water temperatures set up a transition that impacts dramatically on how walleye react to popular trolling lures. Understanding the need to slow down and also to use more subtle action crankbaits is key to catching more and bigger walleye in the fall of the year.