Pool 7 Wingdam Walleyes

Heading upriver as the fog is lifting off the water and the feel of the cool morning air hitting you in the face is a great way to start the weekend. Lntony and myself hit the river this morning with no commitments, no deadlines, and no pressure to find fish or make a weigh-in and we were rewarded with some nice walleyes on the wingdams.

I spent the morning with a great friend of mine and also one of the best live bait wingdam fisherman I know. Tony is very good at locating summertime walleyes when others are struggling to find them. Neither of us has spent much time in the summer on Pool 7 fishing for eyes so we figured today was just as good a day as any. After hitting several wingdams we were able to locate 1 wingdam that was very productive for us. Before we found this dam, we had constant action catching smallmouth, gills, and rock bass. In the hour we spent on the productive wingdam, Tony boated 8 walleyes and I managed to catch 1. Three of these were keepers between 16-20″. The 20″ was a pretty neat fish with the crooked spine disorder. Here is a pic of the crooked one.

The technique we used today was a basic river rig consisting of a barrel sinker, barrel swivel, short leader, and a #2 or #4 baitholder hook. We were anchoring a good cast away on the upstream side of the wingdams and out toward the tip. We would then cast the bait either parralel to the wingdam and walk it down the trough, or cast right to the face of the dam and walk it down the rocks to the trough. The bait of choice for us today was the mighty nightcrawler. This technique is very effective in the summertime when walleyes seem to disappear. But, be prepared to go through a lot of bait and tackle. You never know what you are going to catch and the rocks are very unforgiving on 6-8# test line. The last picture is a closer look at the walleye with the crooked spine.