It’s mid-afternoon in January and it’s cold. Steve Barnett and I are exploring new water for walleye. Behind us lies a trail of dozens of holes. We’ve found a mid-lake hump, and now we’re hunting for the sweet spot. As Barnett finishes another hole, I lower the underwater camera to bottom. It reveals a strip of basketball-sized rocks extending into deep water. I spin the camera and see a school of perch swimming over sand and grass. It’s picture perfect. For a fleeting moment, I think I hear angels singing, but it could just be Barnett’s witty ode to the divinity of the discovery. Walleye never stray far from their forage, so finding a perch-filled, mid-lake hump is a good thing. We have pinpointed and positioned ourselves directly over a prime spot — the walleyes’ lead-in to their food shelf. Not ones to waste time, we clean out a few holes over the ribbon of rocks and start jigging. Within minutes Barnett ices a walleye and I quickly follow suit with a 19-incher. Steady action continues for the afternoon, and twilight delivers some of the best hard-water action I’ve experienced. Fishy routes 101 A lead-in can be defined as a path that fish use to migrate to and from areas, frequently bridging deep resting locales and shallow feeding grounds. Think of them as the on-and off-ramps of walleye highways. A lead-in is reliable because it funnels and concentrates fish. Targeting clusters of fish is always better than trying to tease bites from scattered schools. Walleye get competitive in groups. They go on the offensive and lash out at lures to prevent their pals from stealing the snack. Getting on lead-ins lets you capitalize on this behaviour. Setting up on a walleye travel route also means there’s a high turnover of fish. If one traveller passes by your lure, odds are good that the next will be keen on eating. The frequency with which walleye move along lead-ins varies. During overcast conditions, it’s common for schools of fish to move randomly back and forth, but traffic gets more constant and congested during the twilight witching hour, when walleye feed aggressively. Lead-ins come in many forms. Some are subtle, others are pronounced. The following is a sampling of common walleye lead-ins and top tactics to fish them. Protrusion power The most abundant walleye lead-ins come in the form of a protrusion of
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