Walleye – boat fishing
Fishing walleye all year long
Searching for walleye spots is not an easy task and requires a strong knowledge of their aquatic environment. Seasons, weather conditions and water levels are key elements you should take into account in order to figure out where walleyes could be hiding.
From April 1 to the last Saturday of May, walleye fishing season is closed in The Netherlands. Meanwhile, walleyes reproduce and stay in their spawning areas for several weeks. Cold temperatures (especially overnight) have a great influence on walleyes’ behaviour. Therefore, if spring has been rather cold, you can expect to find walleye close to their spawning areas right from season start, on the last Saturday of May. Biggest specimens are often among the last to leave the spawning areas and will even stay longer if deep waters lie nearby. When season starts out, walleyes are in an agressive mood. At this time of the year the most effective lures are shads (soft-baits) of 4 to 6 inches with a big tail that makes a lot of noise under water. We rig the soft-baits on to jig-heads as light as possible (14 gram to 28 gram) to assure a slow decent of the lure while fishing. Walleyes attack the lure in 99% of the time while the lure is going down.
During summer months, walleye usually swim in shallow waters, in the early morning or at night, when they are chasing for food. In such conditions, walleye can be found in large Dutch rivers, close to groyne. In the morning, when the sun is shining harder, walleyes dive down to the first talus, generally something like 4 meters deep. This depth however depends on the water’s clearness; the clearer the water the deeper the fish will swim down.
During fall months, walleyes are scattered along the waters, which makes them hard to find. They are also les active, which requires more work of seduction on the fisherman’s part! Very often, we’ve come across much difficulty to catch walleye with artificial lures when water temperatures had dropped down. Therefore, we would rather try to catch them with a fire-ball jig or a fishing float with dead fish (smelt, roach or perch) attached to it.
For most fishermen, winter months are the ideal walleye fishing season. During that period, fish gather in deep waters; therefore vertical fishing techniques, with different thin lures, are the most appropriate. The most important part is the presentation of the soft-bait, which must be slow, almost static. In terms of fish and natural life preservation, we do not fish beyond 14 meters deep.
Generally speaking, walleyes are attracted to any kind of natural or artificial structure on the bottom of rivers (rocks, bridges, dams, etc.).
Boat & equipment
Our aluminium boat is 4.70-meter long. Its equipment consists of 2 electric outboard engines: one in the front Minnkota powerdrive 55lbs Auto-Pilot (soon with I-Pilot) and another one in the back Minnkota Maxxum 55lbs. Two fishfinders; one 1197cx-SI Humminbird (GPS, side-imaging and soon vertical-imaging) and one 757c Humminbird and comfortable seats. Thanks to its 20 HP (4 stoke) outboard engine, we can take you to fishing spots. The boat sits 2 persons a day.
During your stay, we will provide you with everything you need to fish walleyes: rods, reels, artificial lures and baits. Our excellent quality equipment is particularly adapted to the vertical fishing technique (short rods and specific lines), but we do also have equipment for the dead drift technique. Bait is made up of soft-baits or dead fish.