Drop Shotting The Docks For Walleye
I love to catch walleye. They don’t fight great (please don’t argue….they do not fight that hard compared to bass and northern pike), but they are fun to catch and they taste great.
I was out at Lake Carroll, which is a private lake in the northwestern part of Illinois. This lake is known for having a large population of decent-sized walleye.
I fished with my dad and brother and we targeted deeper shorelines and points early in the morning with very limited success. By 11:00 a.m. the sun was getting high and it was getting warm out since it was the end of July, so we decided to try some docks to see if the fish were in the shade.
After a few walleye were in the boat, I realized that we had the pattern. My dad and brother were throwing jigs as well as a split shot and hook rig tipped with minnows and nightcrawlers. They caught a lot of bass and a couple of walleye each.
I ended up throwing a drop shot rig with the hook about 12 inches above my weight. The weight was a half ounce weight, which most people might think is way too heavy for fishing docks in 8 to 10 feet of water, but it wasn’t.
My bait was able to get to the bottom quickly, then I would just shake my nightcrawler. I would try to avoid moving my bait back towards the boat. I wanted a heavy enough weight, so I could shake the line without my weight moving. Just shake it baby. I used this technique the rest of the day and I ended up with around a dozen bass and 9 walleye between 13 and 16.5 inches. It ended up being a great day for catching walleye and it was very sunny with hardly any clouds in the sky. The water was fairly warm and the fish were fairly shallow hanging around docks.
The shaky technique worked because I was able to keep my nightcrawler in the strike zone longer. I was able to do this because of the heavier weight.
I can’t wait to go back. Drop shotting the docks for walleye. It’s a great technique and one that bass fishermen can pick up quickly. I caught 9 walleye fishing the exact same docks with the same live bait as my dad and my brother. They only caught 4 total, although, they did catch more bass than I did. The drop shotting technique with the heavier weight allowed me to catch more walleye and I will definitely use this technique in the future.
Fishing Tip provided by Kevin Sewell. Make sure to check out my videos at Fishing With Kevin Sewell.
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