Best
Spot By a Dam Site
By Sam Anderson
This is the time of
the year that winter river walleyes are in their prime.
The walleyes have all moved up to the staging areas
right below the dams on the Mississippi and they are in
open water. The walleyes like this area because the
"hole" below the dam is a resting place and a
feeding area. This area is high in oxygen and fish
migrate to this area to rest before starting the
spawning cycle.
In fact, many anglers have already started fishing the
Mississippi. The Mississippi River from Prescott,
Wisconsin down remains open year-round, and has a large
population of both saugers and walleyes.
A river walleye unlike lake walleyes have to fight
current all of their lives. Therefore, the walleyes in
the rivers have adapted to be in areas that offer
current breaks so they don't have to fight the current
all of the time. These current breaks are anything that
diverts the current and allows slack water. The slack
water areas are found below the dams where an eddy is
formed by the water being drawn over the dam and rushing
downstream causes a slack water area on each side of the
dam. Other obstructions that cause slack water might be
below wingdams, behind rocks, a depression in the floor
of the river, a stump or fallen tree, or man made
obstacles such as bridge abutments. |
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The key to locating walleyes in the river in the late
winter starts with locating a series of obstacles and
then allowing your bait or lure to present itself in a
natural manner so the walleye can race from behind the
obstruction to acquire the offering and then race back
into the slack water area to digest his meal and await
another
Look for breaks in the current. They may be behind
islands, points, and below bars in mid channel. In
strong current, walleyes group tight to structure. In
softer current or low water periods, like winter, they
often scatter, and hold on edges of barriers or current
breaks.
Other spots may be structure like gravel or sandbars,
shallow rocky shoals near drop-offs, wave-washed points,
deserted sandy bottom beaches, or bottlenecks between
two different landmasses. Riprap is also good,
particularly where current hits the rock; such as on a
windy point with deep-water access, or near a culvert
where fresh water is filtering through a rock causeway.
Feeder streams funneling into a river represent yet
other spots which fisherman should check out. The mouths
of these tributaries often turn into fishing gold mines,
especially after a heavy rain washes fresh food and
fresh water into the river.
Depending on the force of the current and the water
clarity, fish may be as shallow as a couple feet deep,
or in the bottom of a washout hole, or river channel 15
to 20 feet deep. If the current is stronger than normal,
the fish probably are hunkered in a slack water area.
All anglers must learn that "current" sets the
rules for location and presentation when fishing rivers.
What I have just described to you are "breaks and
barriers". A "break" is anything that
will slow down or divert the current. Fish will be
located behind such structure as rocks, wingdams, logs
and stumps. A "barrier" is anything that will
stop a fish from moving on, such as, holes or
depressions in the floor of the river, a dam, or a break
water structure for harbors, or the narrowing of the
river into a channel. When fish are on the move
concentrate on these structures. Fish will usually lay
in ambush waiting for food to swim by. Usually fish (and
large ones) will be in the warmer water less than 12
feet deep, chasing baitfish.
In search of walleyes in March and April I will begin by
asking some local tackle and bait store owners where
most of the walleyes are located. I want to concentrate
on the most active bunch and they may be located up by
the dam or right on the lip of the wash out hole down
river from the dam. I eliminate a lot of searching by
asking questions concerning the migration of the
walleyes.
If the walleyes are concentrated at the dam I will fish
them with a vertical presentation. The jig of choice
here is at least a 1/4 oz. maybe even 3/4 oz. depending
on the current. The important fact to remember is that I
want the presentation to be as straight up and down,
vertically as possible. If the jig is too light it will
float off the bottom and I need to make contact with the
bottom at all times. If the line that I select is too
heavy the line will get a large bow in it and make my
vertical presentation useless. I will probably go with
the heaviest jig to allow me to make contact with the
bottom and 8 lb. line to prevent the bowing in the line.
When the tailrace areas becomes crowded with boats,
start moving downstream to holding areas. Flooded timber
can be good at times. Try flipping a jig tipped with a
minnow into cover. Use your MotorGuide bowmount electric
trolling motor. The trolling motor is quiet and usually
in stained water you can stand right over the top of the
fish without spooking them.
When the particular structure is shallow don't hesitate
to use the Thill slip bobber method. Attach a 1/8 ounce
Fuzzy Grub jig with a piece of plastic grubtail and a
minnow to your slip bobber rig and allow the waves and
wind to do the vertical jigging for you. If those
walleyes are biting short, attach a stinger hook to your
jig.
Vertical jigging is very popular, and the key to fishing
a jig vertically in current, is boat control. Work these
areas over with a controlled drift. The control comes
from positioning your boat sideways into the current and
using your trolling motors or a "drift sock"
to slow down your drift and your presentation.
Another structural element that I key on, are the
wingdams. In most of the pools on the Mississippi there
are several wingdams either near the tailwater area or
down river from the dam. When fishing a wingdam, I
concentrate on the up current side of each wingdam or
the flats between them. An angler should look for the
boil line (disturbed water on the surface) that
signifies the presence of a wingdam and check out the
scour hole behind the wingdam to see if it is large
enough to hold inactive fish. Wingdams hold fish all
year long but I like to fish them in the early spring.
Fish are unusually spooky along wingdams and noisy gas
engines will spook the fish. I prefer to use my bow
mount MotorGuide electric motor, because it is quiet.
The key element here is, to keep the bait in front of
the fish. Point the bow into the current and
"slip" down at about current speed. Keep baits
in the strike zone longer by sweeping the baits across
the structure allowing the bait to fall at a slow rate,
naturally presenting the bait to the fish. It is
essential; to slow down your drift with the electric
motor as you go over the structure and watch your depth
finder for "breaks and barriers". You might
have to run your big motor or a kicker motor in reverse
to slow the presentation down even more if the current
is increased. If the fish are shallow, you might want to
anchor and use your bow mount motor to swing your bait
and change your position on the face of the wingdam.
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