The sun can make walleye fishing much more challenging. Walleye will often go deeper or hold tighter to cover, although, they will not always hold tighter to cover. It is common for walleye to suspend 15 to 20 feet down over 30 to 40 feet of water mid-day during the summer. Many anglers prefer to troll on sunny days hoping that they can pick up a limit of walleye by covering a lot of water. If you find a school of fish in deeper water that won’t bite your crankbaits, you can probably get a couple of fish to eat if you switch to jigs and live bait. It may take some patience to get them to bite though. Slower presentations with lighter line will coax more walleye into feeding when they are inactive. Some walleye anglers will use a light action rod with 4 pound test line in clear water when the sun is out. In murky water, 6 to 8 pound test line will usually do the trick.
Slow Down & Fish Deeper
This isn’t a rule, however, it tends to be productive the majority of the time once that sun gets up high in the sky.
Troll to Cover Some Water
The fishing usually gets tougher when the sun is high in the sky, so some anglers prefer to troll to cover some water to find the active walleye. There may be a lot less active walleye, however, if you can get your baits in front of more fish, you may have a better chance to catch enough to fill your limit.
Fish Murky Water
The lakes and rivers that have murky water will usually be easier to fish during the day than the clear water ones. For anglers that want to fish during the middle of the day on their fishing vacation, you are almost always better off by going somewhere with murky colored water.
