Dog Days and Big Eyes: Summer Walleyes Done Right!

by Brandon Ruffolo

The dog days of summer….. days as a big water walleye angler I often dream about in the winter when it’s -15° and I’m forced to bundle up just to go get the mail. Those days in late July into August where the water temps are in the 70’s, there’s a bit of a stain to the water, and the trophy walleyes are chasing bait trying to fatten up for the fall. As an angler with years of experience on various national level tours here’s a few things I look for to keep the odds in my favor.

Water Temperature and Weather Conditions

Water temperature and current are the two biggest factors I consider when I put my boat in the water. There’s an almost automatic sequence of events that happens in late summer on deep water structure. The wind blows warm water onto the structure, this in turn creates or changes current flows and seams. Bait follows the warm water and current and in return the big walleyes follow the bait. This seemingly systematic ritual can change the location of fish daily, something that we see on the great lakes all the time.
The other side of this means when you have stable weather and conditions for multiple days in a row it’s prime time to get out and put a beat down on the big walleyes! As always other factors like cloud cover, algae bloom, bug hatches, and moon phases will play a role in where fish set up and when the bite window will turn on.

Where are the walleyes at?

The age-old question of “where are they” always gets brought up at this point in the year here’s a few things I look for when locating big late summer walleyes. Structure is key for these big water fish, most of the time structure next to deep water is where they want to sit. They’ll wait for bait to push up onto the shelf next to the deep rock or sand and when they want to eat, they will do the same thing. It’s not uncommon to find fish cruising around 20ft down in 50-60ft of water next to the structure you’re fishing a lot of times when they decide they want to eat they’ll sit in a certain depth range looking to intercept bait as it makes its way onto structure.

Other factors I look for when searching for late summer eyes would be water temp and current. As I talked about before water temperature and current are two huge factors when trying to find big walleyes and they almost are always intermingled together. If there’s wind, warm water, and bait on a point or rock pile make sure you spend some time using your electronics to try and key in on those fish.

Recommended Gear

The equipment you use is almost as important as finding the fish, here’s what I like this time of year:

This time of year, I’m exclusively wearing my Striker UPF Sun Shirts and Striker Light Weight Hoody’s. Pair this with a pair of Reflex Sun Gloves and a UPF Neck Gaiter to make sure you stay sun burn free.

I’m a big fan of the Striker Vortex Rain gear, its light weight, breathes well, and the jacket comes in a zip up or pull over style to fit whatever you prefer. This suit will keep you dry when it’s wet and comfortable on those cool morning boat rides.

As far as bait selection this time of year it’s hard to out fish a jig and crawler. Whether you spend a lot of time with forward facing sonar or not it’s a timeless bait that anyone can fish effectively. Another “hot” bait during this time of year is the WNC Death Jig, you can vary your fall rate based on bait size and line type to find the perfect retrieval speed.
When I’m marking a lot of fish, I really like throwing glide baits such as a Moon Shine Shiver Minnow, WNC Rip-N-Glide, and an ACME Hyper Rattle. All these baits can be snap jigged right in front of a big walleyes face, the beauty of these styles of baits is they make the walleyes make a split-second decision whether they want to eat or not.

If trolling is your game, make sure you’re “matching the hatch”. Berkley Flicker Minnows and Reef Runner 800 Series Deep Divers are my favorite baits to mimic alewife, shad, gobies, and shiners near deep structure. My other favorite method would be pulling crawler harnesses with 1oz inline weights. You can vary your speeds going up and down structure to present your bait effectively to those finicky fish on the edges of deep reefs and rock piles.

All in all, late July into August is by far my favorite time of year to catch huge walleyes. Pick a warm stable day, follow the wind onto some deep structure and you should find some big fish. Make sure to bring a camera your new personal best just might be on the other end of that line!