Walleye on Center Hill Lake

            Now that the spring walleye run is over it's time for the walleyes to settle into a good steady summer pattern.  Two of the best places on the lake is in the river up around the Blue Hole and out in front of Floating Mills on the big underwater island

       Now there's a couple different ways to catch walleye this time of year. the best way I've found is trolling a Bandit Walleye crankbait or a regular Bandit crankbait in 200 or 300 series. On the back of the boat I use 6’6 Lightning rod’s with a medium action, with Ambassador 5500 bait casting real with 20lb test Spiderwire Stealth, on the front of the boat I use my 16’ foot BnM trolling rods with the same reels all in Driftmaster rod holders. The Walleye baits runs up to 27’ foot and the regular Bandits run from 10’ foot on the 200 and 15’ foot on the 300 series.

     Most the time the walleye's are in 10' of water or more so the 1st pass you should be on the 15' structure edge. Make two passes against the bank at 15' if you don't catch one drop out to 20' foot and so on till you get 30' foot deep. My colors of choice would be Parakeet, firetiger and blue chrome on sunny days.

          Now for walleye the best trolling speed is 1 to 3 MPH. If your boat wont go that slow on your big motor try it on your trolling motor. On my 22 foot aluminum with a 150 HP Yamaha 4 stroke I troll about 3 MPH, if I need to go slower I go to my 36 Volt Minn Kota trolling motor and it will do the job perfect plus be a lot quieter, just put your trolling motor on medium to high for crankbaits and watch your depth finder and roll on.

         No matter where you go the points from the middle of the lake up have more walleye, deep open water must be near by.  Watch your depth finder for fish and hangs on the bottom I use a Humminbird 997 Side Finder with a Navionics chip to help me follow the contour lines. If you see a hang raise your rod tip over your head when your lure gets close to the hang. This will save you lots of time and lures. Also get you a good lure retriever like a Frabill they make a good extendable one that extends to over 20 foot and plan on using it. The lures I troll deflect off structure well and run very true and straight. The main problem I have is hanging up in old fishing line. The rope lure retrievers with chains on them catch in the hooks on your lure and then you can break the old fishing line and free your lures. Hope these tips help you and you catch a cooler full, they sure taste good!

Don't Forget Set the Hook, Wear your Life Jacket and May the Fish be with You.

                                                                                                                  Jim Duckworth

                                                                                                                   Ducktrail Guide Service