River Fishing for Walleye (Maumee River, Vermilion River...)

The best time of year to fish for river Walleye, as it is for many species, is in the spring. The Maumee River and the Verllion River are probably the best examples of great Walleye fishing because of the huge population of huge Walleye in Lake Eire. Walleye will run up rivers to spawn because they need highly oxygenate and faster moving waters for a good survival rate of their eggs. Naturally formed rapids and chutes or manmade spillways are the most likely places for spawning. Walleye will spawn in the fast currents but don’t typically feed when they are in the act. They feed in the bays before they run up river and they feed in the slower waters as they progress up river. They will also hang around and keep feeding until the temperature rises, river flows slacken and the oxygen level drops. If you are going to fish for Walleye in the spring there are often state regulations that apply. In the Maumee and Vermillion you can only use one single hook lure and there are many dams that are off limits for Walleye fishing during spawning season. There is a well known rig for snagging Walleyes, that I won’t mention, and it is done in the fast currents where the Walleye are actually spawning. It isn’t that hard to figure out considering the number of Walleye that will pack together in fast currents with their mouths open when laying eggs and the fertilizing frenzy is happening.

I don’t want to catch fish by snagging even if I can snag them in the mouth so it looks legit and neither should you. But I want a full stringer as much as anyone. Using lead jigs or floating jigs with weights a foot or two up the line are the most common methods only because they are cheap and won’t empty your wallet. You’ll need a lot of jigs if you go after river Walleye because snagging the bottom several times is quite likely considering Walleye like rocky areas. Most fishermen start out not letting the jig drop to far by reeling fairly fast but if they don’t catch one after 10 to 20 casts they start reeling slower to get deeper. Walleye are typically 12 to 18 inches off the bottom when feeding and right on the bottom when spawning. They will raise up a little to hit a lure but keeping your lure at their feeding depth and moving at a steady slow speed is the best.

There are real environmental reasons that lead should be kept out of the rivers and avoiding snags or worse yet, loosing a lead jig to a fishes stomach is something we should all try hard to avoid. The health of the fishery and those that eat the fish are at risk. One simple way to avoid polluting the water, the fish and ourselves is to use a heavy line and jigs with hooks that will bend before the line breaks. The worst thing you can ever do is have your line break at the reel because the line will suspend from the highest rock it lays over, running down stream, making it much less likely that anyone will catch fish in the area and can cause more snags.
A good option is to use a float and set the depth so you can’t snag the bottom. Using planing floats with on-demand direction control called BulletBobbers are by far the best. They allow you to steer your jig back and forth over an area or hold position in the current like a kite holds position in the sky. The BulletBobber, in all practicality, removes the need to recast keeping your lure active and on the fish. And if you do get snagged they make it much more likely that you can get out of the snag by pulling in different directions.

Here is a link to for the BulletBobber www.bulletbobber.com The first video shows how the work in a river and the second video shows how they work when there is no current.