Come midsummer, a lot of natural dish bowl prairie lakes in southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota and North Dakota (e.g. Devils Lake) become very stained. These lakes are often predominately shallow and windswept making them especially turbid when the algae starts blooming.
One of the best ways to target walleye in these lakes during this time of the year is to find the weedline in 5-8 feet of water and cruise the outside edge with a bottom bouncer and spinner. Bottom bouncers are great for fishing weeds because they act as a large weed guard and will keep that spinner running clean behind it.
When running bottom bouncers and spinners, use:
- A short snell (maybe 2 feet)
- Heavier line for your snell (14-20 lb so you can pull fast without it twisting up)
- 10-14 lb braid for the main line
- 1oz of bottom bouncer for every 10 feet of water
- and troll relatively fast (2-2.5 mph)
In summary, use a short snell, fairly heavy bottom bouncers, and target the outside edge of the shallow weedline come midsummer and you’ll catch a lot of walleyes in these natural prairie lakes.
