Walleyes often hang around their shallow spawning areas for a week or more following the spawn, but they’re not likely to bite during the day, especially when the water is calm and clear and there’s a lot of boat traffic.
Table of Contents
How do you catch walleye in a river?
The most popular and probably productive technique for catching fall river walleye from a boat is by jigging with the current. This method consists of positioning your boat upstream of walleye holding water and then passing over the top of them, dropping jigs on a controlled drift.
Where do walleye spawn in small rivers?
A hard-bottom river channel with both current and the option of slack water nearby is a great place to look for spawning walleyes. Creeks that feed into a larger body of water or discharges from industrial plants will also provide the warmer water that walleyes seek when the spawn first begins.
How do you catch walleye in a creek?
What colors do walleye see best?
In clear water, the study found, walleye will strike white lures or almost any color. When the water is clouded by sediment, they are more likely to go for yellow or gold, and in green algae-laden waters, walleye eyes are best at seeing black.
What is best bait for walleye?
Live bait can be highly successful for walleye, which usually involves still fishing, drifting, or trolling the bait. A bottom-bouncing rig or slip sinker is effective for drawing the walleye’s attention in clear water. The best choices of live bait include leeches, minnows, and nightcrawlers.
What is the best time of day to catch walleye?
Hours near dawn and dusk are often the best time to fish for walleye. These are traditional feeding times. It’s when meal-seeking walleye will often swim up from deep water onto shallow flats to feed on schools of minnow and small prey.
Do walleye like fast moving water?
As previously stated, walleyes like a relatively slow current and will move out of it to rest frequently. With your favorite lures you can learn and remember how they feel in the current of holding water that produces walleyes.
What temperature do walleye bite?
The best water temperature to catch walleye at is between 65-70° but any temperature above 35° will yield walleye willing to bite. Water temperature is an important factor that drives walleye feeding and can dictate how easy they are to catch.
Why can’t I catch walleye?
You’re cranking weed edges too slowly. Walleyes relating to weedbeds often school tightly. To find them, quickly work a crankbait along the edges until you get a strike. You can pick that area apart slowly after you find the fish with a fast-moving lure.
What tackle is best for river fishing?
For many anglers, jigs are considered the best lures for river fishing near the mouth of a river, in areas of slower current, and near shorelines for walleye. 1/4 to 1/8-ounce jigs will work well in most situations. You can use up to 1 ounce in areas of stronger current.
How do you fish a shallow river?
Do rubber worms work for walleye?
They squiggle. They’re soft and smell funny—they’re worms. And all that holds true whether they are modern-day fake baits or the real deal. The best thing about worms is they work wonders when it comes to catching walleyes in open water.
Can walleye smell bait?
Walleye fishing typically your looking for a reaction bite or an aggression bite, but in some instances some scent on your jig or plug or whatever your fishing is just what you need to get a finicky walleye to bite.
How deep do you fish for walleye?
Walleye are generally caught between 10-40 Ft. A typical mid-sized lake in the Midwest would likely hold Walleye between the depths of 10-15 Ft. during the Spring, 15-25 Ft. transitioning to Summer, 25-40 Ft.
What scents attract walleye?
What is walleyes favorite food?
They prefer small fish and will eat crustaceans, worms and insects. Try fishing from sundown to midnight, particularly during the heat of summer. Use bait, spinnerbaits, spoons, crankbaits, jerkbaits, ice jigs as well as plastic worms and grubs. Trolling is often a very effective way to fish for these tasty fish.
What size hooks for walleye?
Walleye are not the biggest fish. However, they are also not the smallest. This is the reason why medium-size fishing hooks (sizes 2 and 3) are the perfect hooks for them.
How do you rig for walleye?
How do you hook a minnow to a walleye?
What color lures do walleye like?
The most basic and most productive colors for targeting walleye are purple and green. These colors come in a variety of shades and can be used in a large range of depths. For sunny days, select bright or flashy purple or green, and for cloudy days try a solid, darker green or purple.
How do you catch bigger walleye?
Can you fish for walleye at night?
Walleye feed in shallow water at night, so you can fish off a bank, wade in, or cast or troll from a boat. Some walleye fishers find the best spots for night fishing are in narrow entrances to bays and harbors. Live bait works best when fishing at night, so use shallow-dive crank bait or a thick minnow plug.
What water temp is best for walleye fishing?
The optimum water temperature for walleye is 67 degrees with a low limit of 50 degrees and an upper limit of 76 degrees. Walleye also prefer low levels of light so in clear lakes they have a tendency to go deeper during the day and come in shallow at night to feed. Get to know the lakes you fish.
What is the best time of year to fish for walleye?
Walleye fishing season is the best in spring during and after the spawning season. However, summer nights and fall months are just as good for fishing for walleyes. Just like the weatherman predicting weather that never seems to be correct, the right fishing time cannot be predicted as well.