Brian Brosdahl uses faster presentations in summer to induce walleyes into reflex bites.

July has the hottest daily temperatures of the year and the highest water temperatures of the summer. With 15 hours a day of sunlight available, fish have plenty of time to choose when to feed.

Walleyes wait until the conditions are favorable, and spend the rest of the day trying to stay cool by avoiding the bright sun. They are perfectly capable of feeding after dark, so they may feed at night or early in the morning. Not all walleyes do the same thing at the same time, so there can be walleyes feeding at any time of day—or night—in many different parts of most lakes.

Fish also use their reflexes when they feed to take advantage of feeding opportunities that suddenly present themselves. An inactive walleye may strike out suddenly if the right opportunity comes close enough to its resting position.

Fish like walleyes need to make a split-second decision to strike at the prey during their short window of opportunity. This reaction strike is what anglers are trying to get when they use fast moving spinner rigs on a bottom bouncer.

Anglers need to find triggers that will make fish strike at their presentations. The variables they need to control include speed, color, scent, flash, vibration and profile.

Heading into July, fish are more spread out within a given lake than they are at any other time of year. But as July progresses, water temperatures and oxygen levels often force the fish to concentrate into specific types of areas and begin to avoid other parts of the lake with low oxygen levels or areas that don’t have enough forage to support predators.

During the summer, walleyes need to stay where the oxygen levels are adequate, the water temperatures are tolerable and suitable food sources are readily available. Anglers need to keep all these factors in mind as they search for active walleyes.

Once I locate an area holding walleyes, I use faster presentations to try for reflex bites from the walleyes that aren’t actively feeding. I usually travel somewhere between 1 and 2 mph when fishing spinner rigs for walleyes.

I like to use a 1-, 1 1/2- or 2-ounce bottom bouncer and a live bait spinner rig. I decide what weight sinker to use based on the depth and how much weight it takes to keep my bottom bouncer close to the bottom.

I have had success using Northland Butterfly Blades with three to five beads above two #6 Gamakatsu Octopus hooks rigged in tandem, or a single #4 Gamakatsu open eye hook with either leeches or nightcrawlers.

I like to troll big flats (or other long trolling runs) in the mid depth range, in which can be scattered baitfish and individual pods of gamefish. I watch side imaging on my sonar while trolling, and mark potential areas to come back to to cast jigs tipped with nightcrawlers, leeches, minnows or plastics—depending on what is available or what is the hot bait at the time.

If you enjoy walleye fishing, read more about it in the July issue of MidWest Outdoors, available the first full week of July at the newsstand or by subscribing on our website.