How to Find Fall Walleye on Natural Lakes

Fall can be the best time of year to chase after a limit of walleye. However, finding them isn’t always an easy task. As the temperatures in your area begin to drop, you’ll notice that these fish aren’t holding to the same locations and routines that they did in the summer months. But with a little bit of info on what they’re doing now and why, you can easily find them and start catching them. Here’s how:

There are a couple of main reasons why walleye start moving around in the fall and break their summer habits. One big one is that they’re following the food in the area. As waters begin to cool off, seasonal movements of perch, panfish, and other baitfish in the area begin to happen. The walleye are going to react to these changes and spend their time looking for wherever the baitfish are most commonly stacked up together.

These colder waters also start to trigger higher levels of activity from the walleye in the lake you’re fishing. Oxygen levels are generally going to be higher, and this helps the walleye in the area be much more comfortable feeding all throughout the day. They also know that winter is right around the corner, which makes them start to feed even more heavily as they stockpile energy for the coldest months of the year. It’s still pretty common for them to be at their most active during low-light hours, but with all of these changes happening, there are going to be plenty of days where you’ll find them feeding well into the daylight hours.

With this sudden uptick in activity for the walleye, there are going to be a few places that make the most sense when you’re out chasing after them. Here are four of the best places you need to start looking:

The first place to look for fall walleye is along deep weed edges. These areas with healthy weeds act as a great place for perch, bluegill, and other baitfish to concentrate into once the shallower cover has started dying off. You’ll want to look for areas with green cabbage, coontail, and other similar types of weeds.

If you can find these weeds with outside edges near even deeper water, that’s your best bet. These outside edges provide quick and easy access to deeper water, which walleye still love. They’ll come up from the deep water, feed in the shallower weeds, and slip back down to the depths as needed, making these areas prime to target.

Another solid place to look for fall walleye is on rock reefs and humps. These areas are great at retaining heat longer than other parts of the lake as fall temperatures begin to drop. These rocks and humps are also great places that tend to hold a lot of crayfish and baitfish, both key food sources for walleye this time of year.

If you can find these areas surrounded by deeper water, even better. Just like with the weed edges, walleye are going to push onto these shallower rocky areas to feed and slip back down to deep water. The tops of these reefs and humps are typically most productive during the low light periods, and the transition zones near them can be fished further into the day to still catch a bunch of fish.

If you’re out fishing on a day with a good amount of wind, you should really target wind blown shorelines and points. These areas are going to be full of baitfish, as the insects and other small forage that baitfish feed on are going to be blown into one concentrated area. When that happens, the walleye naturally follow and begin feeding on the perch, bluegill, and other food in the area.

If you can find these shorelines, look for areas along them that contain transitions from rock to sand, fully gravel bottoms, or even points that extend out and have deeper water adjacent to them. These are going to be the key places that the walleye stack up on.

Another tried-and-true place for walleye all throughout the year (but especially now) is going to be sharp breaklines. These fast transitions between shallow flats and deep water are key areas that walleye travel along throughout the day as they push up to actively feed and retreat back down to colder, more stable water.

You’ll want to look for these kinds of break lines near inside turns or wherever a hard bottom transition occurs. These can be great to try during the day, as walleye are moving in and out of areas when they’re more actively feeding during the low light periods.

Once you’ve found an area you know the walleye are in, you need to figure out what lure is going to work best for them. There are a couple that you should always have in your tackle box when going after walleye this time of year.

This is one of the most popular methods for catching walleye throughout the year, and for good reason. It catches fish consistently. This is going to be your best bet along weed edges, over rock reefs and humps, and along breaklines. Basically, if you can get above the walleye and fish vertically, this is the rig you should use. You can switch it up and use worms, leeches, and even artificial bait to figure out what they feel like feeding on, too.

If the fish are pushed up shallow and you can’t get at them from above, you may need to switch to a crankbait. These are great for covering a larger area to locate where the fish are. They also work really well as they mimic the baitfish in the area and can trigger a reaction strike from aggressive fish in the places you’re fishing.

You’ll want to cast these out far along breaklines, weed edges, and wind blown shorelines when the walleye are at their peak feeding activity.