10lb+ walleye Cannon River

This ten + walleye is the best I’ve done on Tetonka to date. After telling everyone that the fish were deep (30 feet or more) I went out this morning and got this fish in six feet of water! Course time of day had a lot to do with it as it was about 5:00am!

This fish and another one about seven lbs. came right off the weeds, where the river dumps into Tetonka. The weeds are a mat over the shallows where the river comes in and the river has two clear cuts comming through the weeds. This makes two paths through with no weeds. I fished the East current path. This is clean water dumping into the dirty-green lake water makes a “mudline” at the point the waters meet at five feet. I anchored with the front of the boat in four feet and the rear in fourteen feet and worked the drop. I was pitching a gold BaitRigs 1/4 oz. OddBall Jig tipped with a “crayfish-crawler” (I coined this term so I will explain what is a crayfish-crawler jig rig). You first “worm” the big end of the crawler up the hook shank to the jig head, then pinch off 1/2 of what ever the amount is that is left from the place the hook exits the worm to the end. Take this piece of pinched off crawler and put one end of it on the hook leaving the end to dangle. Now, the jig has a worm body and two dangling ends that look like a crafish’s pinchers…. a “crawler-crafish”! This gets rid of the short strikes and stolen bait of using a whole srteched out crawler behind a jig … and nearly every time a walleye hits the rig, even though you may miss the fish, you’ll still have bait left on the hook… so wait for the second strike.

I took four keeper walleye, about ten dinks, fifteen or so Sheephead, and a big Sucker in this spot within an hour and went through two dozen crawlers!

Hot spot waiting for ya, … go get ’em!

“Hoggie” Hoggard

*wow*… REALLY nice fish…. and SUPER information!!….. spots like that are sensational big fish locations…. I wonder if it would be productive at night? Ive fished a location almost exactly like that on another Lake with a current coming in…. and at night the fish when “hog” wild….. and man were there some BEAUTs….!!……

thanks for all this SUPER detail…. Hoggie….. keep catchin em….

Way to go Hoggie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I f you have a picture of it sent it to James and he will put it on the board. Is it going on the wall? Great going! Bill

Tetonka and the rest of the cannon chain have some nice eyes in them. Some days they are hard to pinpoint do to there river fish tendencies, but when you find em, watch out!

Way to go hoggie!!!!!

~~~~~~~~Alkfish

Nope, not on the wall… she is still swimming! I released this fish and the eight pounder (my largest on Tetonka before this one) that I took several years ago. No pictures of this fish, I was alone and no camera with. One of those, boy I wish I had the camera…uh huh.

This is great spot for night and early morning fishing and there was a full moon to boot. Problem with the location is as soon as the first couple of boats pull in and pitch out the ancohr, *** SPLASH ***, the fish spook out. They may go out deeper or into the weeds… but they will shut off. So, it is “the early worm gets the bird” for who ever gets there first in the morning.

Thanks “RiverEyes”. It is great to top one’s own lake record on a lake you fish constantly! Yea, it is a good night spot, but the water has to be right… now, the river is gin-clear and the lake is dirty. This works great for close to the weeds and weedline. When the conditions are opposite and the river comming in is dirty meeting cleaner clear lake water, the fish then move to about 14 to 18 feet and are not on the weeds up close. The dirty water then de-fuses and clears out past the shallow weeds.

I like the conditions as they are now with the fish holding in the weedline. I pulled in tight to the weeds at noon to do some bassin and could see walleye swimming as shallow as two feet under the weeds! Of course they would not hit anything after a half-days worth spooking. Lots of boats on Tetonka on the big 4th weekend.

I will mention the spot on todays radio show and share the bite. Early and shallow… you would be amazed at how many folks “over-fish” walleye by only fishing deeper water! If you care to listen in, it is the Fishing Line 9:00am KOWZ 100.9 fm

“Hoggie” Hoggard and Brett King’s weekly fishing report.

Just read the Outdoor News and saw that another fellow got a ten pounder walleye from Tetonka, night fishing with a blue rap (the picture shows him in a set of chest waders at night. Getting big fish happens a lot this time of year, fishing the outlet current at night. Tough throwing raps though when the water is so scummy… but like magic….it has all cleared up! I dont know how but it is 90% better than a week ago. Maybe the North East wind drove the floating [censored] out the outlet into the river and into Sakata. The “river” fishing only gets better into the fall and casting raps at night by the bridge is a given.

By the way…. a few days back, I went to the outlet in my boat about 10:30pm. As I approached from a distance, I killed the big motor, dropped the trolling motor and continued on as not to spook the shallow fish. I shouted “anyone shore fishing” as I got closer. A voice came from the darkness,

“just one”. That one was enough for me and I said “I will pull off then”, and left the area by trollong motor. I figure this guy drove all the way to have this spot and he was here first. He deserves the respect I would give to another boater. I hope it was him who took the ten#er and if so I am glad I did’nt spook the fish he was on!

Hoggie Hoggard

now theres a true gentleman fisherman……!!!! [censored] I used to wade lots at night.. even if you have a boat its one of the best way to get night walleyes…. and thats no bull…… I used to put my waders in the boat…. then go to a place to wade…. pull in a ways from where I was goin then wade in…. and start casting…… and thats the way to tag a TRULY large walleye…. I dont KNOW how many I fought and LOST at night… its a whole different ball game…. in the dark…… and on busy lakes you have the lake mostly to yourself after dark….. very nice…. particularly if the moon is out in force…..