Last year, Joe
Landolfi told me since it’s September, we could
jig walleyes in Lake Hopatcong.
“But the lake doesn’t turn over until mid-October.” I said.
He dismissed this as of no consequence, and we set our
calendars for Saturday, October first. Over the past five years my son, Matt,
and I have always waited to fish until fall turnover is all but complete in
mid-October. But Joe and I marked fish at 33 feet.
Turnover happens as water cools in
the fall. Warm water rises, unless colder than 39.2 F. During ice fishing
season, obviously the warmest water sinks, or else no surface layer of ice
could exist. Summertime surface lake temperatures reach the mid-80s, and oxygen
vanishes in the depths so that fish and other organisms cannot survive. As
surface temperatures cool beneath the temperature levels of deeper layers of
water, surface water sinks as deeper water rises. This is turnover. And by late
October, the deepest water of Lake Hopatcong, about 50 feet, has turned over
with oxygen re-established through all depths from the surface down.
Walleyes like rocky, deep drop-offs,
and especially the deep edge of such structures. It’s unlike a walleye to
suspend in 12 or 15 feet of water over these habitats perhaps 30 or 40 feet deep. But this is what they have to do every summer. It’s useless to try to
catch Lake Hopatcong walleyes on the bottom in 12 to 15 feet of August
water—these depths are choked with aquatic vegetation and are the lair
of pickerel and largemouth bass.
Once turnover is occurring, walleyes
re-establish themselves in favored habitat—and increase feeding. Since Lake Hopatcong is full of Omega oil rich
alewife herring about two and a half to five inches long, walleyes enjoy a
great health boost during the fall. Alewives typically school
massively around such deep slopes scattered with rocks, hiding amongst
themselves and around the corners and beneath edges of all obstructions present.
These clouds of baitfish show up on graph recorders, often with the fish
alarm squaking and the screen marking predators with them. In addition to
walleyes, hybrid stripers may be there. We've nailed hybrids jigging. The take may be subtle, but Power Pro braid doesn't stretch--jamn the rod up and the fight's on.
Basically two ways exist to fish
walleyes from September all the way through ice fishing season until they
prepare to spawn after ice-out: vertical jigging, and using live alewife
herring. Casting or trolling half or full ounce lip-less crankbaits, such as
Rat-L-Traps, may produce, but both jigging and live bait fishing are intensive
methods that keep lure or bait before walleyes’ noses longer than trying to
manage a plug in such deep water.
Rapala ice fishing jigs and Gotcha
jiggers are classics. Both have hook eyes on top and are heavily
weighted so that they can be allowed to drop directly under the boat, then
jigged just off bottom by slowly drifting, using an electric motor to position,
or anchoring. If live herring are preferred, it’s best to use up to three rods
per angler, setting two out with half to one ounce egg sinkers above a barrel
swivel and 30 inch leader to size six plain hook, and slowly retrieving another
using the same rig.
I like to use six pound test, and
have never had a big walleye snap the line. Set your drag at one third line
test. A musky might cut right through, but they so rarely strike a jig or herring I don’t take them
into account. But it does happen. Hasn't to me yet. Since we usually rent a boat from Dow’s Boat
Rentals, and buy our herring here too, we always enjoy a story or two. The
third weekend in October three years ago, a renter caught a 29 pound musky
vertically jigging a Rapala ice fishing jig. The next day, which was the Sunday
my son and I fished, he caught a 20 pound musky on the same lure. Every winter
these jigs produce muskies through the ice, as well as quite a few walleyes.
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