Season Opener Walleye on the Shield

It will soon be that time of the year when it’s time to lift the family cabin docks and restore running water. Of course, you can’t visit a cabin without wetting a line.

It was the Manitoba season opener in the Whiteshell. The boat was tied to the dock and I was waiting for my family to get ready to join me. Of course I took a couple casts in my boat. Upon the very first cast, a walleye followed my lure to the side of the boat and smashed it. It was a pretty good sized golden walleye. Spent the next couple minutes casting off the dock catching multiple fish before we even took off in the boat.

Early season walleye in the Canadian shield can be a blast and it can be pretty easy to do. I’ll share my experiences with early walleyes and ways you can catch them.

Locating Early Season Shield Walleye

Around the season opener (mid-May), water temperatures will likely range in mid to low 40s to low 50s. Walleyes should be about finished spawning and will remain in the shallows. The water will be at its warmest in the shallows so that will really help eliminate most deep structure. Of course the best water is where the water is the warmest. If you pay attention to the wind direction, you will notice that the warmest water is where the wind has been blowing. I’ve noticed that there might be a difference of a degree or two compared to the main lake. Those are the areas I tend to focus on, especially when we have a late thaw and the water is ice cold.

In general, water less than 10′ is the way to go, typically on mainland shorelines not too far from spawning areas. Rock or sand bottoms tend to produce well. It’s not uncommon for me to be patrolling in front of people’s cottages casting close to the shore. At times you can even see the walleyes if the water is clear enough.

Much of the food chain will be in these shallow waters. Catching pike and smallmouth is pretty common in these areas so you won’t just end up with walleye.

Technique

Since we have established that the fish are shallow, we must focus on techniques that work well in the shallows.

Cast Jigging

Jigging is probably everyone’s favorite way to catch a walleye and is generally very fun and easy to do. In early spring however it’s not practical to park the boat on top of the fish as it risks spooking them and vertical jigging doesn’t cover lots of water.

I prefer to cast towards the shore with light jigs at this time of the year. In general jigs are pretty versatile lures that can vary in presentation. At this time of the year, use light jigs that are 1/8 oz or lighter. Heavier jigs will force you to retrieve them faster to avoid snagging in the shallows. If the water is frigid cold, you likely want a slow presentation.

While walleyes love live bait, I’ve started to use them less and less for early spring walleye. Live bait does not stand up to repeated casting very well. Perch can nibble the baits off forcing you to rebait more often. Time spent rebaiting is time the lure is not in the water. I eventually moved onto soft plastics. Fluke and curly tail plastics are great if you like slowly hopping the jig on the bottom. Paddle tail plastics are good if you want a faster and straighter retrieve. I’m personally more of a finesse angler but I do try to experiment once in a while. I’ve always liked white and chartreuse the most but I’ve caught on darker colors as well. Color is one of those things that I still haven’t completely figured out yet.

Jerkbaits

Jerkbaits are my favorite way to target early season walleyes. Lures like the Rapala Husky Jerk or the X-Rap are perfectly designed for these situations. They are meant to be used for the shallows and best of all they can be paused. Many fish strike on the pause and it’s one of the best feelings in fishing to get a strike on the pause. Due to their suspending nature, they are difficult to snag and thus really good for rocky shallow structure.

Generally you need to use a stiff short rod. On the retrieve, twitch a couple times and stop. Try finding a retrieve pattern that works but generally a simple twitch-twitch-pause is most commonly used. Overall, jerkbaits are even easier to use than casting jigs and is more beginner friendly in my opinion.

I will say though, while they’re really effective, I tend to use jigs more. The reason is that the waters I fish are infested with northern pike that like stealing the lures. Jerkbaits are definitely not easy on the wallet compared to jigs. You could probably put a wire leader but that may deter walleyes. I have caught them using a wire leader but it definitely feels suboptimal.

The Use of Electronics

I love talking about electronics so I might as well dedicate a section on this.

Electric motors, especially bow mounts are really useful for shallow casting. They don’t spook fish and you can use the foot pedal to control the boat allowing for hands-free casting. Generally as a walleye angler, I tend to find myself at the back of the boat for most of my walleye fishing (I’m a tiller person) but early spring is where I actually spent time in the front like a bass or musky angler.

Graphs are incredibly useful, not only do they tell you the depth but the water temperature is pretty useful to know. Of course, if you’re going to fish the front, it’s nice to have a graph at the bow that lets you see the depth from the front. After running into too many rocks, I caved in and installed a bow graph. Plus you can do a split screen to have mapping and 2D sonar for navigation. Many bow mount electric motors have built in transducers you can take advantage of without needing to install one.

Final Words

Hope you all enjoy the upcoming walleye opener! Going to feel great catching walleye again after a long winter.