What many people don’t realize is that shallow water can produce walleye all summer long. Water that’s deeper than 10 feet tends to get pounded for walleye, so some of the last secrets for finding fish are going shallow near the shoreline. You can find a lot of fish in subtle structure in less than 10 feet of water. This includes clumps of weeds, rock to sand transitions, or an inside cup that falls just a foot deeper. These are key locations that can hold a lot of fish but are not easily spotted on a lake map.
Use a Swimbait to Explore Shallow Water
To explore shallow areas and cover water looking for fish, it’s tough to beat a soft plastic paddletail swimbait. There’s no right or wrong way to fish them and the beauty of swimbaits is that you can fish them a lot of different ways and can even just cast and reel.
If you’re fishing shallow areas with weeds, you can skim your swimbait over the top by reeling at a moderate speed. When you do make contact with weeds, you can just rip it through with that single hook and it’s simple to get a solid hook set when you do get a hit.
Late summer, midsummer, all summer long, there is a lot to appreciate about swimbaits or paddletail jigs when you find fish in shallow water. Use it as a search bait. You can always switch it up when you find fish, but when it comes to covering water, it’s tough to beat the versatility of a swim bait.
