Its pretty common knowledge that walleyes like wood to hang out in. Wood provides fantastic structure for bait fish to hang around. It provides great current breaks for hungry walleyes to hide in waiting for there next meal to swim by. What it also provides is some very challenging structure for fishermen to work their lures through to get those hungry fish out of. Toss a standard gum ball jig into one of these spots and chances are its not coming back. But with the right location and lure you can find and target the hungry walleyes hiding in the wood.
The last few weeks I have been targeting walleyes in a couple of small rivers in MN. The Mississippi north of Aitkin and the St Croix north of Osceola. Both very shallow sections of river with plenty of trees fallen into them. Most likely a common trend to many smaller rivers in the upper mid west. This time of year many fishermen target the holes in these stretches of river with tradition jigs and minnows at times just anchoring up in one spot and jigging below the boat. My guess is to much moving around and they are soon to find a snag for there offering. Can not blame them as the trees in these rives eat jigs like crazy. With the right tackle our approach the last few weeks has been to find the right wood on these sections of river and through our jigs right into the thickest part of it. Why? Because walleyes love wood.
For areas we have been targeting its been a little different for each of these rivers. The Mississippi river last week the flow was up a little and those walleyes did not want to be in it even with plenty of wood for cover. Here we targeted inside bends of the river with steep banks or current seems created by bank slides and root balls of trees that had slid into the water. There is not much more of a snaggy mess on the river than a root ball of a tree. Not sure why these eyes where hiding from the current so much as it really wasn’t that bad.
On the croix we where targeting outside bends of the river that had increased flow and wood. Depth in these areas didnt seem to matter as mush. One of our best areas was 3′ of water or less and we found walleyes in there feeding mid day. These fish where not afraid to come up out of those logs and smack a jig swimming by. How shallow? Shallow enough that I could see the jig swimming and walleyes coming up to strike at it.
For what we are throwing in these snag infested areas to lure these fish out is plastics and BfishN Dragging Jigs . The more I use these jigs the more applications I find for them and appreciation of how they get through some very nasty stuff. No more being squeamish about tossing jigs into trees or other snag ridden areas. They just keep coming back to the boat. I dont even care to think of how many jigs of mine are hanging on the logs of the areas I described above from past fishing trips. It was to the point we wanted to avoid these spots and changed how we fished. The last few trips using Draggin jigs I’ve maybe donated one jig per day. It is very nice having the confidence that I can throw these jigs back into these areas over and over again, working them at times very slowly right up to, across, back down some of these logs and now they are coming back to the boat.
If you live near or are a fan of fishing small rivers I would recommend adding a few Dragging jigs to your box of offerings. Be it pitching them into the wood like I described above, dragging (slow trolling) them through some of these same snaggy areas or just tossing them out with some live bait to sit on the bottom in logs you to may just expand some of your presentation on these rivers to. They may just help you coax some of those hungry walleyes out of all the wood cover that these smaller river have to offer.
Good luck fishing.
Nice report and glad to see you eating walleyes for a change!
Nice report, and thanks for the first-hand insights with jig selection in timber. We have similar conditions on the stretch of the Rock River that a number of IDO’ers fish, and moving into and out of the wood has been an effective way of connecting, sometimes with fish, but more often with lost jigs. Will give it a whack with the draggin jigs and see what happens.
Nice report. Much appreciated.
Mike….When the Walleyes are hitting that aggressively, have you ever tried rigging plastics “Texas style” like the Bass guys do? I used to drag plastics through flooded timber and brush on Lake Elmo back in the late 70’s and early 80’s after it flooded. It was thick heavy stuff full of big old Bass. Something like a Shakey Jig head where the hook point is offset so you can cover it with the lure and make it snag proof. The biggest tradeoff is that you have to hit harder on the hook set to get the hook point through the bait and into the fishes mouth. Just a thought.
I was thinking about something like this:
Jig Heads
The problem is finding them in lighter weights. Bass stuff seems to start at 1/4 ounce.
Have not tried that Steve but it has been fishing with some bass guys that has got me going back to visit these woody spots. Watching them pitch wacky worms or swim jigs in these areas and get them through. It was on one of these trips that I fished the back of the boat with a draggin jig and plastic that the walleyes started hitting.
One thing I have started to change this summer after doing some bass fishing is setting the drags tighter on my reels. A must for getting those walleyes out away from the wood in a hurry. Granted most of the spots we have fished so far are holding just nice eater sized fish. If these eyes where much bigger you bet I would be looking at stronger rods and much heavier line. For right now 10 power pro and a 1/4 or 1/8th ounce draggin jig are matching up nicely on these spots.
Rootski, have you tried the weighted off shank hooks, Gamakatsu has some in weights as low as 1/16 oz! I love these for casting Zoom’s Super Flukes and other bass plastics when I’m fishing deeper below the surface.
http://www.gamakatsu.com/fishing-hooks.php?pid=1045
The 1/8 oz #3 is my favorite for 4-5 inch plastics.
Very cool report Mike! These small bits of river have always had a special place in my heart. Call me selfish, but I don’t like sharing spots with a parade of boats, and bites like this are almost always more remote and just plain lonesome and the way I like it.
Thanks for sharing!
Joel
If you seen the prop and skeg on my jon boat you would know why we dont seem many people on these spots. Most likely better accessed by canoe. Might get in one more small river trip this year. These fish go right up to you cant get out anymore with the boat. With deer hunting coming up remember to wear your orange in the boat.
Nice job!
Nice read.
I have been doing well on these small river walleyes. Lots of 14 to 16 inch fish!
I like using the Northland Weed weasel jig. Just been lights out for a meal of excellent eating fish. Just work the holes and bridges.
Adam
Used to use a few weed weasels back in the day to. If I remember right they had metal bait keepers at one time. Was always worried about the fish being able to push those down or getting poked in the roof of the mouth. Tried a few times snipping all but two off and bending them with fair results. Do like fiber weed guards better. Have been shown where you can run your knife over the fiber guards and put a bend in them to give them a little better angle.
Just looked up the weed weasel. They are not a whole lot different than the draggin jig. Nice looking jig.
Remember reading this years ago. Years later this advice has proven successful on big and small river’s. Weed weasels suck imo. Dragging jigs are the $hit.