Summer in review - walleye

[AR Huzgr]

Sitting here watching the rain today.   Nearly 8 inches over the last few days in BV, so thought I'd post a summer in review RE walleye fishing on Beaver since I didn't post each time out.

If you recall, water levels were extremely high in spring, as opposed to last year as you can see on attached water level graph. 

The lake fished way different than last year, in my opinion.    Summer pattern fish were scarce in some of last years go-to spots.  All I can think of is the increased water level made those spots less desirable, likely due to the cover or Rock piles being too deep.    Another interesting thing was last year, I caught a lot of fish 27-33 ft.   This year, it seemed to be 18-25 ft was desired range.   Who knows why.   Maybe water clarity and shallower thermocline?

In general, crawler spinner harnesses worked well.   Caught probably 120+ fish but interestingly, the keeper to shorts ratio was way down.   I caught a large number of 15-17 inch fish.  Maybe on the order of 80+% shorts.   Spells good for next year, but the big ones this year were likely in open water and since I don't have live scope, I didn't chase out there blind.

Similar to last year, things died down dramatically after labor day.  I was out last week and went south of hwy 12 to about 10 different spots and got a whopping 1 keeper.  Where they go in the fall is still a mystery.  when the thermocline drops and/or the lake turns over, there's a lot more water for them to move in.   Possible they go really deep (40-50), something I'll need to investigate, but I don't like pulling fish up from that deep usually.  Also possible they start moving into larger coves.

Overall, a fun summer fishing for them.   Will be taking the winter off with a knee replacement in November, then back at them in spring.

[Quillback]

Good to hear the number of shorts, bodes well for next year.  I don't chase the eyes, but my accidental catches of them this year were definitely down from last year.  

Best wishes on the knee replacement, had mine done about 10 years ago, so glad I did, I have put a lot of miles on my fake knee.

[rps]

Just an observation. I always found that by August, I caught more keepers on trolled cranks or vertical jigs and spoons. I ascribed it to bait speed and impulse bites as opposed to feeding bites. If I was using a harness, every minute or so, I would take the rod and pull it back until the tip was behind my head. Then I would let it drop back down on a slack line. I caught any number of hot water fish on the drop.