Ted Takasaki recommends using wind as your ally to help catch walleyes in big waves.

I’ve been asked many times, “What do I do to catch fish with my boat when the wind blows?” Boat control is crucial to catching walleyes. It is important to continually practice and learn how to master the control of your own boat, as each boat and size is a little different from others.

A stiff breeze can be difficult, and no one likes to stay in 6 feet of water when the wind is driving you into the rocks. But active walleyes often concentrate on the windy side of a lake or reservoir. This is where walleyes use their keen sight and lateral lines to their advantage. The wind breaks up light penetration as well, which gives walleyes an incredible advantage over their prey.

Use your electronics to find your fish. Tools like Humminbird’s Mega Live in combination with Side Imaging allows you to see fish out and off to the sides of the boat. This technology is crucial if you are fishing for shallow-water fish.

Electronics also allow you to “see” fish in the weeds! I used to hate fishing weeds until I learned how to spot fish in them with Side Imaging and Mega Live technology. Not only can you see fish, but you can effectively fish for them by pitching jigs or slow trolling spinners/crawlers along weed edges. Keep your bait close to the weed edge!

Haven’t you seen it? The wind blows, you hammer the fish, the wind stops, and so does the bite. The key is to learn boat control techniques that help make the wind your friend.

A strong wind makes controlling your boat difficult, particularly to stay on the right depth and the right speed. Walleyes can be selective and finicky. Like all predators, they’d rather their food come to them, as they instinctively conserve energy for growing and reproducing. They tend to avoid chasing lures or bait. As a result, I have found that walleyes are most typically caught when the boat is moving slower than 1.5 mph. Still, rules are meant to be broken, so always speed up and slow down. Try to figure out at what speed they want to bite.

On occasion, I have seen that they want an extremely fast troll, like 3 mph. So, speed up and slow down.

Sometimes, wind moves a boat faster than you want it to go. There are tools that you can use to slow down!

• Trolling motors. In a slight breeze, try working the bow of the boat into the wind to work the contours of structures. When buying a boat, equip it with the most powerful trolling motor and the longest shaft you can afford. Minn Kota’s Terrova trolling motor is a great trolling motor for most serious walleye anglers. The i-Pilot feature allows you to set the direction in which you want to move the boat. It also has a feature called Spot-Lock. This feature turns your trolling motor into an anchor that keeps your boat in one spot.

• Backtrolling with a gas tiller motor can offer even more control in stronger winds. Always make minor adjustments in speed a little at a time, not major ones.

• For console boats, a gas-powered “kicker” motor gives you additional power to control your speed and save on battery power. Use a boat control concept that I call “Four Wheel Drive Trolling.” Use your bow-mounted electric trolling motor in tandem with the gas kicker (60 percent front/40 percent back kicker). Slowly turn up the rpms of your kicker to neutralize the wind, the use your bow-mounted trolling motor to steer side-to-side and keep your boat in the proper depth while navigating in a super-strong wind. Your boat will always be more responsive when it’s controlled by the front trolling motor, not pushed from behind.

If you enjoy walleye fishing, you’ll find plenty of helpful walleye fishing insight in every issue of MidWest Outdoors. Subscribe on our website.