walleye

A few inside tips that can make you more successful your next time out.

Nestled in the Spokane River in Washington state, Long Lake is a favorite destination for anglers seeking productive fishing and multiple species. While the lake is well known for bass fishing,  and recreating,  it has earned a reputation as an excellent spot for walleye fishing. Whether you're a seasoned Angler or a novice hoping to reel in a trophy catch,  Long Lake offers opportunities to hook a variety of quality fish, with now the walleye becoming the star of the show. Throughout this article, we will explore a few techniques you may want to know to catch walleye on Long Lake and some of my favorite spots to cast a line.

The Allure Of Long Lake

Long Lake, also known as Lake Spokane, spans roughly 24 miles and allows a ton of fishing opportunities. The lake is a man-made reservoir created by the Nine Mile Dam, and Long Lake Dam. With the lake being so close to Spokane, it attracts a lot of recreation boaters, swimmers, jet skiers, and kayakers. Lots of bass tournaments are held there, and plenty of trout are planted for family-catching fun. Don't be surprised if you come across a pike, as at one point in time they were quite plentiful in the system. Now with the good population of walleye showing up the past several years, and so much room to fish, it makes Long Lake a prime fishing destination in the region. 

Walleye: A Coveted Catch

Walleye or a highly prized fish for anglers due to their elusive nature, sporting challenge, and their great taste. Their reputation as one of the best-eating freshwater fish definitely adds to their appeal. Known for their sharp teeth and distinctive pale greenish silver color with dark vertical bars on their body. Walleye are not as aggressive as Bass, making them a bit harder to catch,  which increases the excitement for anglers. 

Long Lake walleye have flourished due to the abundant amount of forage fish like perch and so many other minnows, great water, and structure;  including drop-offs, rocky shorelines, and vegetation. The walleye population in Long Lake is healthy, with many Anglers regularly reporting good catches, making for a perfect habitat for these predatory fish. 

Walleye fishing at Long Lake typically peaks in the warmer months, from Spring to late fall. However, most anglers are drawn to the lake in the spring and summer when walleye are actively feeding and more of the lake is accessible as the water is low in the winter. 

Best Time To Catch Walleye

The best time to fish for walleye on Long Lake largely depends on their feeding habits and the season. Walleye are known to be nocturnal, meaning they are most active during dawn and dusk, when the water cools and the light levels are lower. This makes the early morning and evening hours prime times to catch walleye. These fish of course will bite during the heat of the mid-day during warmer months, but I tend to find my best fish during the cooler months at night. In terms of seasons, spring and fall are often regarded to be the best times for Long Lake walleye. During the spring, walleye are typically spawning, which makes them more concentrated upriver near the Spokane House launch and further up in the shallows. That's where we find our most large and aggressive fish. In the fall, walleye put on the feed bag and bulk up for the colder months, fishing can be productive as they aggressively feed on smaller baitfish flourishing just outside weedlines. 

Summer fishing walleye can still be productive, and very good, but may require deeper fishing targeting the river channel. Walleye tend to retreat to deeper, cooler water during the summer. Using your electronics can be particularly helpful in locating them in deeper regions of the lake. 

Techniques And Tips For Catching Walleye:

1. Trolling

Trolling is one of the best and most effective ways to catch walleye, by covering more ground and increasing the chance of encountering a hungry walleye. When im trolling Long Lake, the most effective depths for me have been in the target range of 10-30ft, depending on season and temps. Early season trolling large crank baits like Bandits in 10-12ft of water is lights out up near the Spokane House launch. Make sure those crankbaits are making contact with the bottom a little, and you'll be in the zone, trolling upriver. When the fish start to move out to the main lake, and a little deeper is when I will switch to a slow death rig with a worm harness from Mack’s Lure - usually on a 3oz. bottom bouncer trolling at slow speeds maintaining contact with the bottom. Walleye love crawdads and bouncing the bottom mimics crawdads fleeing, drowning in the walleye.

2. Jigging

Jigging is another effective method for walleye, especially as they migrate deeper along the river channel. By using a jig tipped with a worm, or cut bait Anglers can lure walleye into biting by mimicking the movement of a distressed bait fish. The key to success with jigging is to work the base slowly and deliberately, ensuring it mimics the walleyes' natural prey. Many anglers, including myself, prefer using soft plastics and various profiles and colors.

3. Drift Fishing

Drift fishing I find effective when fish are spread out or flats I find just off the river channel. Drift fishing involves allowing your boat to slowly drift with the current while casting jigs, or bouncing jigs close to the bottom. This technique can be productive when targeting drop-offs near the flats, weed lines, or rocky shorelines.

4. Night Fishing

Walleye are known to be more active at night, targeting the shallow river areas early season, or shallow weedlines closer to shore around that 7-15ft of water. I like glow color lures, silver lures, or dark black lures.

Where To Fish On Long Lake

Long Lake has several spots that can consistently produce good walleye catches. Many anglers focus on the flats adjacent to the deeper river channel, but can also be found shoreline weedlines and structures such as drop-offs and submerged gravel beds.

Some of my favorite spots include:

• The upper end of the lake: This upper portion of the lake near Long Lake Dam has many rock formations and drop-offs where these predators can hunt bait fish. Look for shorelines on the upper end that have gravel or rip rap. Walleye love to chase crawdads in these areas.
• The lower end of the lake: This area provides plenty of spots to fish from between 9-mile recreational area to Willow Bay. Trolling and jigging is very effective in this large stretch.

Walleye fishing on Long Lake in Spokane Washington, offers an experience for anglers looking to test their skills. Whether you're fishing from a boat or the shoreline, the lake offers a diverse habitat that provides the perfect environment for walleye to thrive. With the right techniques and a little patience, you can have a successful fishing trip reeling in a trophy walleye. So grab your gear, head to Long Lake, and discover why it remains as one of the best-kept secrets for walleye fishing in Washington.

September and October are my favorite times of year and one of my favorite places to recreate is at Potholes Reservoir, located between Moses Lake and Othello in Eastern Washington. This is a large irrigation reservoir fed by Crab Creek, Lind Coulee as well as Winchester and Frenchman’s Wasteway. At full pool, the lake has 28,000 surface acres of water but after a long summer of dropping water the lake definitely “fishes smaller”.

While there is not as much water to fish, particularly back in the sand dunes area and Crab Creek, there is still plenty of lake to fish and at this time of year, the fish are biting as they beef up for the long winter ahead. Let’s run through some of the species you can fish for here and some effective ways to catch them:

BASS:

Bassmaster Magazine ranked Potholes Reservoir as the ninth-best bass fishing destination in the Western United States this year and for good reason. There is a healthy population of both largemouth and smallmouth bass in several age classes.  The largemouth tend to be bigger, averaging two pounds and getting up to 7-plus pounds. At a typical bass tournament, you’ll need to have a five-fish bag weighing over twenty pounds for a chance to win.  The smallmouth run a bit smaller, with one-pound fish being abundant. But I caught a 5.4-pound smallmouth here during September so big smallmouth are around.

At this time of year, the baitfish have moved out into the main lake, and so have the gamefish that are after them. Pete Fisher at the MarDon Resort Tackle Shop and the owner of Fisher Brothers Baits says fishing in front of the dunes on the main lake is the best place to go. The fish will be suspended around sandy humps and Pete says fishing a football head jig with a hula grub trailer is an effective way to catch these fish, which are primarily largemouth bass.

If you want to go after smallmouth bass head towards the face of O’Sullivan Dam or into Lind Coulee at the south end of the lake. Personally, I enjoy using deep diving crankbaits here this time of year which are effective for both bass and walleye. One of my favorite lures is a Berkley Digger crankbait, which dives to depths of 14 feet. When it comes to fishing near the dam, Pete Fisher likes to use perch colored ¾ ounce swimbaits or topwater plugs with white being a preferred color.

WALLEYE:

The walleye bite can be spectacular in the autumn months.  These tasty fish tend to be found off the face of the sand dunes or the mouth of Crab Creek. As Nathan Lafrance says, “If you aren’t sure where to go, just look for the line of boats out there, easy to find.”  As for how to catch them, Nathan recommends trolling diving crankbaits at a depth of 10 to 12 feet.  Nathan says other lures to try are a jointed Berkley Flicker Shad #7 or a Bill Lewis Walleye Precise Walleye Lite crankbait.

PANFISH:

The autumn bite for panfish is excellent and sometimes overlooked by anglers targeting trout, bass and walleye.  There is a combined limit for bluegill and crappie of 25 fish, and the crappie have to be at least nine inches long to keep.  This regulation has helped turn the reservoir into a quality fishery and 15-inch crappie are relatively common. Last year, an angler reeled in a bluegill that weighed over 2.2 pounds, nearly beating the state record. The perch can also be sizeable here, reaching north of 14-inches in length.

One person who really enjoys fishing for crappie is Pete Fisher. He has a couple of suggestions about where to find them and catch them. Pete says the crappie, like the bass, migrate out of the sand dunes in the late summer. During the autumn months they will be found at the face (or in front of) the sand dunes on the main lake.  Fisher says you can cast or troll Berkley #5 Flicker Shads, especially in a Chrome Clown color pattern. Another way to catch crappie is to fish a small jig under a slip bobber after you find a school of these fish.  Fisher prefers a white Bobby Garland shad or DS Fry soft plastic lure paired with a small 1/32 or 1/64^th ounce jig head. If you do catch a bunch of panfish, you’ll be happy to know there is a fish cleaning station at both MarDon Resort and at Potholes State Park near the boat ramp.

TROUT:

The rainbow bite really turns on in the fall and the size of these fish are impressive. One to three-pound rainbows are commonplace and sometimes you’ll get them bigger than that.  Nathan LaFrance suggests trolling Berkley Flicker Shads or longer minnow shaped crankbaits. As to where to find the trout, a couple of good places are off the mouth of Frenchman’s Wasteway or in the northeast corner of the lake near the mouth of Crab Creek. 

RESOURCES:

If you are looking for a place to stay you can camp at Potholes State Park or MarDon Resort, which also has cabins and cottages for rent. The resort also has a tackle shop and The Beach House bar and restaurant. The Potholes Bar and Grill is another nearby restaurant that is close to the entrance of the state park.

If you have never fished or hunted Potholes Reservoir before, consider booking a “Cast & Blast” trip with Ross Outdoor Adventures. These trips are only offered in October.  Shelby Ross and his guides know how to navigate the tricky channels leading into the sand dunes like the back of their hands. They will take you in before dawn, treat you to a fun duck hunt, and finish the hunt with duck poppers cooked up in the blind.  After that you put away the shotguns and go trolling for walleye, usually picking up several other fish species along the way.  It makes for a fun day and a great introduction to the fall hunting and fishing scene at this spectacular destination.

WEBSITES:

www.rossoutdooradventures.com 

www.mardonresort.com

www.parks.wa.gov

By John Kruse, host of Northwestern Outdoors and America Outdoors Radio 

How to fish for Columbia River Walleye: The Easy Way!

By Kyle Jones

The Columbia River in Washington State and Oregon is one of the premier destination walleye fisheries in the United States. Anglers come from all around to target Walleye in the mighty Columbia River. The Columbia River is known, not only as a possible location for the next World Record Walleye, but also as a great place to catch unbelievable numbers of great eating size fish.

The point of this article is to be a starting point for people looking to take advantage of this great fishery. This is not an end all be all on Columbia River Walleye, just a simple article to get people catching fish fast. Catching good numbers of 14 – 20 inch Walleye on the Columbia River is easy, and with a little knowledge under your belt, you too will be putting lots of these tasty buggers in the boat.

How to Find Columbia River Walleye

It goes without saying that you need to “find fish to catch fish,” and when it comes to a beginner staring at the mighty Columbia River it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Walleye are an ultra-predator and they will always position themselves in the best possible locations to find food. The Columbia River is a literal conveyor belt of food for foraging walleye and positioning yourself in the correct locations can make or break your trip.

During the spring and summer there are millions of out migrating juvenile salmon, steelhead, and shad making the downstream migration to the ocean. Walleye take every advantage of this and position themselves to make the most of these easy meals. During this out migration period there is often a lot of current in the Columbia. Walleye are not particularly strong swimmers and so they gravitate to the slower moving parts of the river. What we do is locate the areas of the river that are moving slower than the main flow and concentrate our efforts there. Large points, islands, inside bends, rip rap, and other natural structures can create these current breaks. Walleye will use these areas to ambush whatever can fit in their mouth.

As a general rule of thumb for most of the areas below dams that we fish in the spring and early summer we are looking for water 20-50 feet deep in areas with very little current, or just out of the main flow, adjacent to shallow water. The adjacent to shallow water is key, as walleye will move up into the shallows to feed on bait fish at night, and like to position themselves close to their nightly food source. By targeting the deep slow moving water near shallow feeding flats we put ourselves on large numbers of feeding walleye during daylight hours.

How to Catch Columbia River Walleye: Easy rigging for immediate success

By far the quickest and easiest way to get into Columbia River walleye is to use bottom bouncers and worm harnesses. This method makes it easy for beginners to not only make and maintain contact with the bottom, but also insure that their gear is in the walleye zone all the time. Columbia River walleye in current are tight to the bottom. These fish live and feed within the bottom foot of the water column so maintaining constant bottom contact is a must

Bottom bouncers (also called Bottom Walkers) come in all sorts of different sizes ranging from as small as a quarter ounce to as large as four ounces. Even larger bottom bouncers are available, but they often need to be ordered from custom manufactures. Generally speaking for almost all the situations we fish during spring and early summer we find that the three and four ounce bottom bouncers to be our go to size. Typically when fishing four anglers the rods near the bow are rigged with four ounces and the rods out the stern are rigged with three ounces.

When it comes to the worm harness the options are unlimited. If you go to a tackle shop that sells walleye gear you will notice the many pre tied rigs from companies such as Mack’s Lure and other in house pre tied gear. All of this stuff works, but for our purpose we like to keep things simple and tie our own. We basically use three different styles of rigs and below we have listed and pictured some of our favorites. We fish all these rigs on leaders lengths of three to four feet.

Spinner Blade rigs: These rigs are very simple and consist of a quick change clevis, size 1-4 colorado spinner blade, a few beads, and two #4 octopus style hooks tied four inches apart.

Smile Blade Rigs: This is again a very simple rig and consists of a size .8, 1.1, or 1.5 smile blade, a few beads, and the same two #4 octopus hooks tied four inches apart.

Corky Rig: This is by far the most simple rig we fish and seems to produce the best as the water starts to warm in late spring through early summer. It is simply one size #10 corky slid down the line on top of the two #4 octopus hooks.

How to catch Columbia River Walleye: Presentation

In general my favorite way to present a bottom bouncer and worm harness is to “troll” them down stream with the current. I put the quotations on the word troll because this is trolling in a very loose sense of the term. What we are actually doing is moving just fast enough to maintain the ability to steer the boat downstream. Enough emphasis cannot be placed on the need to go slow! When using bottom bouncers in this scenario I am often in and out of forward and neutral on my kicker motor and will often times spend a lot of the drift in neutral. Remember that you are already fishing in current that is pushing you downstream, so think of this more as a controlled drift.

The key to this presentation is to keep your gear on the bottom. The best way to do this is to fish with the rod in your hand. We see a lot of guys act like they are fishing for salmon and let their bottom bouncer and worm harness out, then let the rod rot in a rod holder. Don’t be that guy! This is active fishing and when you hold the rod in your hand you can make sure that you are always very near the bottom. When starting your troll slowly let out your gear so that it doesn’t get tangled, by slowly dropping your tackle you will ensure that you are actually fishing. Feel for the arm of the bottom bouncer to touch bottom, once you feel it bump bottom put your thumb on the spool and quit letting out line. Now you are fishing. To make sure you stay in the strike zone you need to actively fish your rod. At this point I start to lift the rod tip a few inches, I am intentionally trying to lift the arm of the bouncer off the bottom, and then drop my rod toward the water. If you do not feel it touch bottom you need to feed more line. You should be able to maintain contact with the bottom with every small lift and drop. I almost always fish the run with my thumb on the spool and prepared to feed more line. If you begin to feel the bouncer dredging bottom you need to reel in a few feet, remember that you just want the arm of the bouncer hitting bottom, as this will make sure your gear is at the correct level and minimize the inevitable hang ups on the bottom.

The second thing that the short lift and drop of the rod will help with is detecting bites. The bite from even a very large walleye is very subtle with this method. If at any time, while doing your lift and drop for the bottom you feel any extra weight or pressure on the rig you are getting a bite. When I feel the added pressure on my lift I continue a nice steady lift through the weight. There is no need for a hard hook set. You will miss fish if you try to give a big rip. Simply just lift through the weight and start reeling in your fish. Often times these fish are just barely hooked so bring them in nice and slow and have the net ready!

How to Catch Columbia river Walleye: Rods and Reel For Bottom Bouncing

The ideal rod and reel for this method of fishing can be debated for decades, but the bottom line is that it needs to be able to handle 3-4 ounce bottom bouncers, while still having a soft tip to detect the subtle take of a walleye.

Our favorite rod for bottom bouncing is a Gloomis E6X 7’1” 8-17 pound line rating in a medium heavy power. The model number is E6X 853C WBBR. While this rod is designed specifically for this use we also have used and really like an 8’6” 8-17 line rated medium heavy steelhead casting rod. This line rating seems to handle the weight of the rig nicely, but still lets you feel the subtle take.

For a reel we like a quality low profile casting reel such as the Shimano Curado. The reason we like a casting reel in this situation is that we are always adjusting how much line we have out and the ability to release line so easily and maintain feel of the bottom is much easier with the casting reel. We spool the reel with 30# power pro in either the high vis yellow or the low vis green. This is just personal preference here so go with the one you like.

In closing I hope that this article is of help to anyone who is trying to get into the wonderful walleye fishing the Columbia River has to offer. We love seeing new walleye anglers and if you decide to get a crash lesson on walleye fishing with us we will be happy to show you just how we do it and get you started off on the right foot. If you want more information on the walleye fishing trips we offer or to book a trip with us click here .

I just wanted to end on a small note of conservation. Even though these fish are not native to the Columbia River we want this exciting fishery to continue well into the future. I encourage anyone targeting walleye to please release the larger 25 plus inch fish. These larger fish are our brood stock, and their survival is key to having this fishery forever. The smaller fish are absolutely fantastic to eat and with the ability to catch them by the bucket load there is no real need to kill the larger fish.

Jones Sport Fishing is owned and operated by Kyle and Dani Jones. Kyle’s passion for the outdoors has driven him to commit to making his living as a professional fishing guide. Kyle prides himself in his commitment to make sure that your fishing trip meets and exceeds expectations, and is dedicated to serving his clients. You can follow Kyle on Northwest Fishing Reports and his web site JonesSportfishing.com

*This article was originally published March 2018.