Crankin Night Walleye in Alexandria

The shallow trolling bite in Alexandria has been getting better by the day. Over the past week we've been catching good numbers of 13"-18" walleye, along with some very fat picture fish showing up in the mix.

I'm still having my best luck on rocky stretches with scattered weeds in 7 to 10 FOW. I've been pulling #5 and #7 Lindy Shadlings at 1.4 - 2.2mph. After pulling them for the past few weeks I'm confident the loud rattles are a big reason for my success.  I've tried pulling both Rapalas and Shadlings. I took a similar lure from each brand and a friend and I put them to a the test. Over a few hours of trolling the Shadling out fished the Rapala's hands down. We switched baits and rods from time to time through out the night and came up with the same results.

 I'm not saying that Rapala doesn't make a good bait, because that'd be false. Rapala is a very good lure and always will be. All I know is the Shadlings are consistently out fishing my Rapalas. I'm getting a lot of my strikes after the lure digs bottom and hits a few rocks. This must make quite the racket down there with those rattles and helps the fish locate the bait.

My best colors have been the natural patterns on the cloudy nights. While the partially silver or chrome baits have been producing best on the brighter moon lit evenings. This is one of the best August bites I can recall, so as hard as it is to believe this bite is only going to get better. There should still be some decent moon light for a few more evenings, so if you like to night troll get out there and give it a try on your favorite lake. Good Luck!