Reservoirs pose a unique challenge for anglers who come from a natural lake background. They’re used to fishing smaller bodies of water, often with weedcover, which combine to reduce seasonal walleye migration. Walleyes in natural lakes may reside in certain areas for long periods of time. At most, seasonal movements generally are measured in a handful of miles, rather than by distant GPS coordinates. Seldom is trailering your boat up or down the lake necessary to remain on the bulk of the fish.
Reservoirs display a different mode of walleye movement and behavior. First, many reservoirs are huge by natural lake standards, measured in miles rather than acres. Second, most large reservoirs experience significant water fluctuation, minimizing or eliminating rooted weedgrowth, though flooded timber, stumps, or brush may play a key role in walleye location. Third, long-distance seasonal migrations may draw walleyes 30 to 100 miles or more as they move from deep wintering areas toward shallow upstream spawning spots.
Once spawning concludes, they begin dispersing back into the lake again, following warming water and migrating baitfish. As the environment moves toward summer patterns, walleyes move, move, move.
Like Canadian geese making vast seasonal migrations, walleyes in reservoirs often travel great distances during the year. In doing so, they briefly encounter structures poking out into the lake, intercepting and holding them for a short period until it’s time to move again. You may catch fish on a point today and find it void of walleyes for the next week.
Then again, fish might still be there tomorrow. The walleyes you catch tomorrow, however, may be from a totally different school. The others may have hightailed it for greener pastures—even without green weeds at their destination. If they even have a destination. Fact is, for most reservoir walleyes, life is one big cross-country journey that never ends—a non-stop whirlwind voyage on the walleye-go-’round.
The migratory nature of reservoir walleyes is almost universally underestimated and misunderstood. Unless weed or wood cover attracts and holds fish in defined areas for long periods of time, chances are the fish are merely passing through when your paths cross. Here today, gone tomorrow. It’s necessary to move, hunt, look, check, and fish a variety of spots to intercept them.
Scouting
The first key to locating reservoir walleyes is to do lots of looking with electronics before putting a line in the water. This is particularly true on big western plateau reservoirs where hundreds of points offer potential walleye action. Hop from point to point, running the primary drop-off, examining the top of the adjacent flat, scouting off the sides for semi-suspended fish lying just off the edge. No fish—move on. Unless you suspect fish are shallow, as in mudlines or cover, don’t stop ‘til you see the whites of their ‘eyes.
When you detect fish—baitfish or walleyes—note their orientation to the structure. Are they up on the top lip of the drop-off? Along the edge? Suspended off the edge? At the base of the drop-off? Suspended outside? Or up along the shoreline? Fish position dictates your choice of approach.
Spring—Spring presentations are dictated by walleye location. We can loosely classify two forms of spring walleye behavior, depending on where the fish spawn. In general, fish in big, deep, clear bodies of water run far up feeder rivers to spawn on hard-bottomed shoals swept by current, with perhaps some secondary spawning on rock points or reefs in the main lake.
Walleyes inhabiting smaller, soft-bottomed, darker-water impoundments, by comparison, lack such spawning sites. Feeder rivers tend to be silted in. Fish adapt by spawning along rock causeways and the boulder face of the dam. Such behavior typically concentrates walleyes at the lower ends of soft-bottomed impoundments in spring, while those in hard-bottomed lakes tend to run to upstream fringes.
As walleyes disperse back into the lake after spawning, fish in large clear lakes drift downstream, dispersing back into the upper third of the impoundment. Postspawn walleyes in soft-bottomed lakes, in contrast, spread back into the lower third of the reservoir. Eventually they distribute to many areas, but initially they’re somewhat localized.
Reservoir fishing in spring requires shallow tactics, in and around rock or hard-bottomed structures. Where walleyes spawn in shallow upriver sections, key in on 2- to 3-foot-deep spawning shoals or shallow shoreline rocks swept by current. Fish adjacent deep pools and holes during the day, using vertical tactics like jigs or three-way rigs. At night, cast or longline troll diving minnow imitators across the tops of shallow rocks. Big walleyes love big crankbaits at night.
Along the faces of dams and causeways, longline troll diving cranks to cover water; fish may not be concentrated in a distinct section, so check as much water as possible. Select lures that dive to different depths, and stagger your lures from shallow to deep. Troll the shallowest lures on inside lines near the rocks. On outside lines, position crankbaits deeper, following the downward slope of the rocks. If fish appear concentrated in distinct sections, consider casting crankbaits, either from a boat or shorecasting from the rocks.
Transition from Spring to Summer—As walleyes disperse from spawning sites, they quickly spread back into the lake. They may move miles per day, following baitfish or moving to areas with prime feeding conditions. Chances are they’ll remain fairly shallow at first; 10 to 20 feet isn’t unusual, compared to their use of deeper water in summer and fall.
Secondary points lying partially within warmer bays may hold fish during postspawn and presummer; baitfish may be spawning there, or relating to the warmer water. Later, as the main lake warms, both walleyes and baitfish tend to be on primary points at the mouths of coves or over structure in the main lake. Fish are moving almost constantly, which probably explains why long points extending into the lake consistently intercept and hold the most walleyes. Select tactics that cover lots of water
