Fall Season for deep water walleyes

During the fall season when lake turnover happens, walleye fishing can be extremely good in deep water even on smaller inland lakes. For over 20 years, I have had great success on Yellow Lake in Northwest Wisconsin trolling for walleyes in over 25ft which are the deepest sections of the lake. Small perch will head to these deep water mud flats seeking out insect growth thus attracting walleyes. In Wisconsin, each fisherperson is allowed 3 rods of which I use 2 rods on downriggers and I hold 1 rod spooled with leadcore line. For the downriggers, I set my balls down about 15ft and use small Storm hot-n-tots, jointed rapala shad raps, or other small deep water lures to tempt walleyes which are located about 3 ft off the bottom. I use a line counter reel spooled with 15lbs Trilene Big Game mono. I let out 75ft of line then attach the line to the downrigger. Walleyes are very light biters so watch for any eratic movement on the rod tip or occasionally pick up the downrigger ball to check for walleyes. For the leadcore line, I replaced the rodtip with a roller guide for better ease of letting the leadcore out. I use 18lbs leadcore which is color segmented every 10yards. I attach a 5ft 10lbs fluorocarbon leader to the leadcore using a very small barrel swivel. I attach the hot-n-tot to the fluorocarbon by use of a small Berkely cross loc snap. In 25ft of water I normally put out about 4 colors of leadcore which will place the lure slightly off the bottom. Use a stiff casting rod as the hot-n-tot will put out a vibration. Once this vibration stops you either have weeds on the lure or you are hitting bottom with too much line out. Trolling speed is the key as I try to keep the boat between 1.8 and 2.2 mph for best success. So, on your next fall fishing trip, give some deep water trolling a try and I think you might be surprised by your catch success!