Winning walleye strategies on Lake Winnebago

The Lake Winnebago system covers in excess of 150,000 acres of fishable walleye water. In a system this large, the RCL anglers were able to use a multitude of tactics for finding walleyes. Several methods produced walleyes throughout the four days of this tournament.

Shallows can yield deep payoffs

Jigging shallow cover earned Ranger pro Jamie Friebel of Roberts, Wis., his first win on the RCL circuit as well as a fat payday worth $50,000 cash and a fully-rigged Ranger boat.

On the final day of the tournament, Friebel concentrated on shallow-water tactics for his first win.

“I primarily fished a shallow-water area in the upper lakes using a Lindy jig and leech,” said Friebel. “I thought I might be able to catch bigger fish in the river, but I decided that catching a limit was more important.

“The area I fished is about the size of a football field; I had it to myself,” he said. “The river was incredibly crowded with not only this tournament, but several other tournaments going on at the same time.”

The key to Friebel’s success was not just fishing shallow-water cane beds, but to also find another form of cover in the cane. In this case, he found a rock pile in about 1 to 2 feet of water associated with the cane. He would pitch his offering into the cane and have to wrestle the walleye out of the cover to the boat.

“I focused on the cane, but I really fished a spot on a spot,” said Friebel. “I fished an area that not only had cane, but it also had a decent amount of rock.”

Pitching jigs into cane is similar to what bass anglers do with a jig-and-pig or a Texas-rigged plastic. Of course, walleye anglers are not using 25-pound test to present 1/16- to 1/8-ounce jigs and live bait. The key is to target points, pockets and any other areas where a walleye can hold just out of the current and wait for a chance to ambush its prey.

Fishing on the edge

The 2002 points leader for the RCL Angler-of-the-Year race, Ranger pro Pete Harsh of Sauk Center, Minn., used a very basic approach to earn his second consecutive runner-up finish and a check for $25,000.

“I concentrated on fishing the ledges and drop-offs in the river,” said Harsh. “It was unbelievable how many other boats were fishing the river where I was fishing today. There was also plenty of wind. I was blown off the spots I wanted to fish or there were other boats on them.”

Even with the difficult fishing conditions, Harsh managed to stay focused and present his bait to the walleyes. The key to fishing a jig-and-bait or a rig-and-bait in a crowd is to stay vertical and keep on the contour line you want to fish. Use your electronics, and pay close attention to your line. Harsh only weighed in five fish on the final day. If one of the bigger 4- to 6-pound walleyes would have bit to fill his limit, the vertical bait fishing presentation would have won.

A rock-solid method

Crestliner pro and reigning RCL Angler of the Year Rick Olson of Mina Lake, S.D., decided to abandon the cane beds in the upper lake and the crowds at the mouth of the river en route to a third-place finish and a check for $20,000.

“I found a rock pile out in Lake Winnebago that I thought had enough fish on it to win the tournament for me,” said Olson. “On the third day of the tournament, there was hardly any wind, and I had hardly any fish. But as soon as the wind picked up, I caught fish and was confident about catching a big limit on the rock pile on the final day.”

Unfortunately for Olson, the gathering masses of local anglers and tournament anglers from several other walleye tournaments found his hot spot and he was not able to fish it until the afternoon on the last day. However, his technique was different enough from most anglers that he still caught a limit.

“I used a real tough technique to master: a bobber and bait,” said Olson. “I simply used a slip-bobber and a leech to catch my fish.”

Olson makes this technique sound very easy, and it can be, but the slip-bobber-and-bait method is very effective on lakes like Winnebago and other shallow lakes that have plenty of rock piles. You want to fish these rock piles on windy days when the walleye will move on top of them in the shallow water, usually less than five feet deep. Cast your bobber-and-bait combo on the upwind side and let it drift across the top. It is very simple and very deadly for walleyes holding on the shallow rock piles and reefs.

A handy method

One other fishing method that is worth mentioning is handlining. RCL pro finalist Tim Minnema of Markesan, Wis., used this method along with vertical jigging in the river to be in contention for most of the tournament. Unfortunately for him, he decided to go for broke and released many keepers on the final day. If he would have weighed in a limit, he may have had a chance to win the tournament using the handlining method.

Information including results, parings, news and photos from the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit tournament on Lake Winnebago can be found by clicking the appropriate links on the RCL 2002 circuit schedule page.