During the cold weather fall season, the water densities change causing much of the debris on the bottom of the lake to rise to the top thus creating the fall turnover season. During this time, small baitfish will head towards to deeper waters to snack on insect larva especially in the deep mudflats. Following these baitfish will be largers species such as walleye. To reach these depths a few tactics can be used. In the state of Wisconsin, 3 rods are allowed per person. Therefore, I use 1 rod spooled with 18lbs leadcore line. I can reach depths around 26ft by letting out 4 colors while maintaining trolling speeds of 1.8-2.2mph. I attach to the leadcore approximately 6ft leader of mono then tie on a small Berkley cross-loc-snap. I use downriggers for the other 2 rods watching my depth finder for any suspended fish. Normally I put the downrigger balls down about 15ft to get my lures down to the 20ft range. Speed is the key, so make sure you are constantly making adjustments. I normally put the lures about 75ft behind the downrigger balls. Top lures are small hot-n-tots, deep diving Norman baby N, Cottton Cordell deep minnows, Rapala deep shad raps, Lindy shadlings, Rebel humpy, to name a few. The key is the vibration of the lure type. Hot-n-tots have a wide sweep thus producing a large vibration while Rapala shad raps have a very tight wobble. Experiment each day to let the fish tell you which to use. Also use colorations similar to the baitfish in your waters. For me, walleyes are constantly feeding on small 2 to 3 inch perch so I tend to run perch colored lures. So, when heading out for walleyes this fall, make sure to try trolling some deep water mud flats duirng the fall changeover season!
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