Early Season Walleye

 Catching large walleye on the fly is a low-grade obsession of mine. Though I don’t find myself nearly as compelled to spend hours on the water looking for a 30 inch walleye as I do seeking large striped bass, it is something I’ve put a lot of time and thought into. Over the last five years I’ve caught a half dozen walleye eclipsing 27 inches, one of them at 28 ½ inches. Those are impressive walleyes, especially on the fly, but I won’t really be satisfied until I break the 30 inch mark. Eventually, I’d really like to break the fly tackle world record as well.

Spring 2021 has, so far, been lackluster both in terms of number and size. The conditions that lead to really strong bites haven’t presented themselves much, and on a handful of occasions when it seemed like the conditions were really good there still just wasn’t a bite. On a few nights, fish were stupid shallow and extremely finicky. I found myself experimenting in different conditions with new flies. Perhaps the rising star was the Edson Tiger. I needed something lighter and with a slimmer profile when the fish were setting up in 6 or 7 inches of water on a rock bar, and that fly came in clutch on a handful of occasions. 

Of course, the old standby chartreuse and yellow Woolly Bugger took its fair share of nice walleye as well. There were certainly nights though when I knew there were fish in front of me but it was failing to draw interest. It would seem that I ought to try some new color variations. Olive and black tend to be lackluster, and I’m not quite sure why. The biggest walleye I caught this spring did take the chartreuse and yellow, but a downsized version.

Erratic weather conditions complicate the process of looking for big fish drastically. Old data, meticulously collected over the years, seems irrelevant some seasons.The fish fly off the cuff, the water temperatures rise and fall without stimulating the expected behavior, and good pressure and moon phase windows don’t provide the expected results- but all I can really do is keep going, keep fishing hard, and keep recording the data. The quest for trophy walleye continues.

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien