Thread: El Dorado 10/19/2013

Thanks for the report Craig.
I finally made it out there Sunday afternoon with my whole crew. Only been out there once in the last two months thanks to a never ending painting project, so had no clue of where to start looking. Looking for whites and wipers on shallow points my wife and I each boated a keeper walleye (21in & 23in) in 3-5fow. Then we found some wipers hanging out in about 15fow around rocks. No keepers, but sure fun to let the kids reel them in on the crappie rods. Those fish disappeared around 6pm, figured they moved shallow to feed. We went looking for gulls and surface activity. Finding the gulls was not the problem, there were literally thousands sitting on the water doing nothing. Went back shallow and started casting, caught a smallmouth and a couple more wipers. All and all a good trip. Wanted to spend more time hunting around for crappie but ran out of time, maybe next time now that I went once and got the bug back.

Looks like a trip to Eldorado might be happening this week

That's a nice sized crappie

My youngest and I fished El Dorado on 10/26. Baits hadn't been in the water a minute when this walleye hit. She fought it to boat while I rushed around to dig the net out of the locker. Nice 25-inch walleye that we CPR'ed at her request. Found some crappie as well but the 'eye was the highlight for her trip.

That's a nice one!!

Nice fish in anyone's book! Good picture also.

Sounds like she out-fished "dad" that day. Must of had a good teacher.

What depth do you find walleye at this time of year. Would like to target some around here.

Originally Posted by zummy

What depth do you find walleye at this time of year. Would like to target some around here.

zummy,

Walleye can be found at a wide range of depths this time of the year. Most productive depths will have at least one thing in common...FORAGE! Look for areas with good concentrations of bait and the walleye won't be far away. Whites and wipers may also be there too but usually above the walleye. Check high percentage locations like breaks, channel edges, humps, timber, etc. If there is bait there, fish it! Big walleye can eat big prey so don't think you always have to find young of the year shad to be successful. Depth can vary greatly by time of day. Walleye will normally move shallow as light intensity drops (or when wave action or turbidity limits sunlight penetration in to the water). I see many walleye in overnight trap nets set in water less than 4 feet during the fall months. Abundant young of the year fish such as shad, bluegill, crappie, or white bass will draw large hungry walleye in to shallow water to feed during the overnight hours. Find a good looking spot, fish it and if you don't get bit in 10 minutes or so, MOVE! Find another good looking spot and try again!

Also choose a lake with a good walleye population to target walleye. You can't catch walleye if they ain't there! The Fishing Forecast can help you identify good candidate lakes near you. Also, don't fish walleye and saugeye the same way. Although they can be caught on the same tactics/presentations their locations will usually be quite different. I've spoken with 'well experienced' walleye anglers who bombed at Council Grove reservoir fishing for saugeye as they were fishing as if they were pursuing walleye and not saugeye. Once they realized the differences, they did very well!

Below is a picture of a 27.3-inch 8.1 lb walleye that was sampled at El Dorado this year. This fish was in 7 foot of water in an area with abundant forage.