There is one variable that Kavanaugh believes is not always considered when dog days roll around and it deals with harvest.

“It’s about the availability of adult fish to catch,” he said. “Think about the fish population as a finite number and in May and June when the fishing is good, there are a lot of walleyes removed from the system. Sure, you have fish recruiting into the fishery, but anglers, whether deliberate or inadvertent, target the most aggressive fastest growers. They are the first ones removed. You just have less fish in the barrel, so to speak.”

One of Johnson’s tricks to trigger bites during dog days is to completely modify his presentation to something that walleyes haven’t grown accustomed to.

“Dog days is a perfect time to push the boat away from the landing after the sun has gone down,” he said. “The walleyes that are feeding at night don’t get harassed much during the early season, so there are still lots of them left.”

If Johnson is fishing during the daytime hours, he’s likely to grab a rig spooled with lead-core line and troll deep bottom contours with brightly colored crankbaits.

“Walleyes will aggressively hit a lure they haven’t seen that is scooting by at a high speed,” he explained. “We call this triggering a bite and it works when fish are not actively feeding.”

Johnson also believes walleyes holding near the edges of big schools of suspended ciscoes are easy targets that most anglers ignore.

“Fishermen have been programmed to key on structure for walleyes,” he said. “They don’t know how to find suspended fish and if they stumble onto them, they don’t know how to target them or what lures to use.”

For suspended fish, Johnson recommends blocking sections of deep water and crisscrossing the spots while watching the sonar.

“You can spot a school of suspended ciscoes really easy and there will usually be some walleyes nearby,” he said, adding that it sometimes requires a half-day of searching.

Another dog days technique is using a slip-bobber on shallow rockpiles.

“Walleyes move up to the rocks when it’s windy and feed on shiners,” he said. “Drop a leech into the mix under a bobber and they can’t resist.”

If walleyes are over structure, Johnson fashions a live-bait rig with a very long snell tied with fluorocarbon line.

“I use an 8-foot leader and fluorocarbon,” he said, “because those walleyes on structure have received a lot of pressure and they are conditioned to ignore a bait that is preceded by a sinker dragging bottom. With fluorocarbon, line-shy fish won’t notice the line.”

So, you can still find and catch walleyes during dog days; it’s just a matter of sticking to big water and refining your approach. Let’s look at some big lakes and how to set up a successful program.

RED LAKE
Walleye numbers on this lake are high and Johnson said it helps when the fishery is healthy because it means anglers should be able to find fish biting somewhere. During the early season, anglers targeted river mouths with jigs and crankbaits. Later, as the fish spread out, the live-bait rigs came out. Now it’s time for crankbaits and trolling boards.

“There’s not much for structure in Red,” Johnson said. “It’s mostly sand bottom and not too deep. On this lake you really need to get out the lures and troll to find active walleyes.”

Johnson prefers to attack Red Lake when he can get some of his buddies to go along.