When it comes to fishing, regardless of species or location, one of the most important aspects of finding fish is understanding the forage they are targeting and how that will impact your location and presentation. Many times, particularly in the mid-summer, there are a variety of forage patterns that are currently present and understanding each of them is key to staying on top of active fish.
“Forage is the most important factor I consider when targeting walleye,” says Nick Harrington, Owner of Lip Ripper Fishing. “This was proven even more so to me on my first time fishing Eagle Lake in Ontario in August 2025.”
Eagle Lake is a large and complex fishery, spanning over 68,000 acres with thousands of structural elements including islands, humps, reefs, bays, and weed edges. The larger and more complex the fishery, the more likely there are multiple patterns taking place across it. Throughout the mid-summer as the food web is in overdrive this is particularly true.
“The mid-summer blues hit many anglers, and while hot temperatures, high sun, and strong summer storms all play a factor in this, the biggest role for this is the amount of forage present in the system,” continues Harrington. “Regardless where you are fishing, mid-summer is when the most amount of forage is present in the system, which means there’s a lot of meals competing with your presentation.”
Throughout this time on Eagle Lake, there were three different forage patterns Harrington was following: crayfish, cold water prey fish, and yellow perch.
The first pattern that stood out was crayfish, with the first day of fishing strongly indicating the role crayfish were playing in the walleye’s diet and location. After catching numerous 12-17 inch walleyes, the bottom of the boat was full of dead, half eaten, and in some cases still in decent condition crayfish.
“The first fish we found were along a rocky island in about 22-30 feet of water,” explains Harrington. “These fish were foraging along the bottom consuming these crayfish, which is why bottom bouncing spinners along these rocky areas was our top presentation.”
When walleye are targeting crayfish such as this, they’re less likely to come up and take a suspended crankbait or other elevated presentation. Focusing on rocky bottoms, boulders, and other deeper water structures is going to be the most successful locations to target. As far as presentation, bottom bouncing or dragging jigs along the bottom will also be the most successful.
“The majority of these fish were in the ‘eater class’, or 14-17 inch, size bracket,” details Harrington. “This was a great numbers bite, but a very low percentage chance at getting a fish greater than 20 inches.”
The larger fish, particularly those greater than 20 inches, were keying on prey fish. There were two distinct patterns present across completely different locations within the fishery. The first was warm water prey fish, particularly yellow perch.
Eagle Lake features numerous large, weedy bays, which at surface level look like primarily northern pike and muskie habitat. However, there are large walleyes that swim in these same shallow waters as well. In these areas, these fish are targeting small yellow perch as their primary forage.
“Anywhere yellow perch and walleye are both present in any sort of numbers, there’s going to be a population of walleyes that are eating small yellow perch,” describes Harrington. “On Eagle Lake, we quickly found that these large bays were holding yellow perch in 6-15 feet of water, and where we found the weed stalks and the perch we found good sized walleyes.”
One of the main elements to structure was the depth of the weeds, with the majority of the weed growth taking place in less than 10 feet of water. This is largely dictated by water clarity, and the amount of light penetration that can ultimately get through the water and allow this vegetation to conduct photosynthesis and grow.
In many cases, the vegetation was growing in 10 feet of water, and topping out about six feet below the surface. By trolling crankbaits above the tops of these weeds, it was an effective way to both cover water and locate the active fish that were coming up out of these weed stalks to feed.
“We quickly found that when we had the small perch hitting our lines, the walleye were right behind them,” explains Harrington. “These were predominantly better sized walleye as well, with many coming in between 17-23 inches.”
While the total numbers of walleye were less than the fish in the deep water keying on crayfish, the overall size was significantly better. This is largely due to the fact it takes a larger walleye to get the larger meal of a yellow perch, as opposed to digging crayfish out of the bottom. However, finding the true trophy caliber walleyes takes a combination of both of these approaches.
“Big walleye, those upper 20s to 30 inchers, they’re eating large meals too, but they’re doing it out in the cooler, deeper water where they are comfortable,” states Harrington. “This is where the cold water prey fish, such as ciscoe or lake herring, come into play.”
Similarly to the crayfish pattern, the main lake structure adjacent to deep water was key for locating these fish. However, these larger walleyes are often suspended, and more willing to come up and chase a crankbait similar to how they chase these cold water baitfish. As opposed to eating crayfish off the bottom, they’re chasing forage between 20-40 feet of water.
“On our second day on Eagle Lake, I found a rocky spot with 60 feet of water around it, and a couple nice drop offs and boulder edges in 20-30 feet,” describes Harrington. “I knew this would be an area that would have the trophy caliber walleye on it, the key would be for them to move up from that deep water onto the structure.”
Targeting this area started with trolling large crankbaits on leadcore line suspended, as it would allow it to hit both the structural elements and the deep water aspects. Targeting depths between 20-30 feet is key for finding the most active fish, and ensuring a successful release as well.
“We were halfway into our first pass when the rod bent over, and sure enough it was a 30 incher,” states Harrington. “This fish was up in about 20-22 feet of water, and it was clearly there to do one thing, and that’s eat.”
The deep water forage pattern is the most difficult to pattern, as these cold water prey fish will roam anywhere they can find deep, cold water. In many instances, that means here to today and gone tomorrow, as they continue to roam throughout the cold main basin with the walleye close behind.
The most important factor to increase the chances of finding one of these fish is to look for main lake structure that is close to deep water. The closer it is to the deep water, and the deeper the water is, the higher the percentage chance these trophy caliber fish are going to be close by.
“It’s not a numbers game, it takes a lot of patience, confidence, and most importantly a little bit of luck,” admits Harrington. “However, when you can identify these areas and fish them confidently, you are bound to run into quality fish.”
Whether the goal is to bring home a limit of eaters for shore lunch, catch a good number of over 20 inch fish, or target a trophy, the most important factor is always forage. Walleye will also consume a wide range of forage options, and understanding how each play a role is key.
“I really enjoyed this learning opportunity here on Eagle Lake, and seeing exactly how important forage played a role in both my location and presentation was fascinating to me,” concludes Harrington. “Sometimes as anglers we need to remind ourselves that walleye are predators, and that means we need to think about their prey when we set out to target them!”
Eagle Lake Day Two: Fishing with Bottom Bouncers, Catching with Crankbaits
The second video from Eagle Lake discusses the complete story of Day Two, which began with too much “fishing” with bottom bouncers before it transitioned to “catching” with crankbaits as we discovered the yellow perch pattern! Check it out!
Host Site: North Shore Lodge
Our visit to Eagle Lake was hosted by North Shore Lodge near Eagle River, Ontario. Sitting on the northeast side of the fishery, we did not have to go far to get on walleye of all three forage patterns. We were well fed throughout the trip by the lodge, and enjoyed comfortable accommodations in their shoreline cabins.
