Walleye Structure

In any given body of water, walleyes tend to relate to structure. Depending on the time of year, and the type of waters you fish, different structures will be more appealing to walleye.

In my opinion there are 5 important factors to consider when trying to locate walleye:

1. SIZE OF STRUCTURE: All other factors being equal, the bigger structures will hold more walleye. Why is that? Because bigger structures will hold more baitfish, and the walleye love an endless food supply.
   
2. TYPE OF BOTTOM: Walleyes prefer hard bottoms, but apart from that, they always look for something different than the rest of the surrounding bottoms. For example, in a sandy lake, they will loks for rocky reefs and points, but in a rocky bottom, they will hold close to sand bars and points. In soft bottom lakes, even if there is no change in water depth, walleye will stay near harder bottoms.
   
3. SHALLOW TOP: Structures that top off in shallow water are usually better than similar structure that top off in 40 feet of water.
   
4. SLOPE: In the spring, walleyes will stay near gradual slopes, simply because they are feeding like mad in the warm shallows all day. Later in the season they will look for steeper slopes, so they can retreat to cooler water quickly after feeding. In late fall, the deep water becomes warmer and more comfortable, so the steepest slopes become popular.
   
5. BREAKLINE REGULARITY: An irregular slope with lots of bumps and curves will hold much more fish than a regular one.
   

A good fishfinder or flasher¸and a bathymetric map will give you all this information, if you are fishing a lake or river which you are not too familiar with, try to plan your time on the water according to these parameters, because finding where the fish is holding is the first step to successful walleye fishing.