Do walleyes suspend in large rivers such as the Mississippi?

I’ve been arguing with a friend about this for a long time, do walleyes always stay on the bottom of a river or can they suspend? If they suspend how far will they come up off the bottom?

I don’t know about the Sippi, but they absolutely suspend on LOTW in the winter. We often catch a handful about halfway down, and they are usually very aggressive if they are in that position.

I would say for the most part they do not suspend in rivers. That does not mean they will not surface feed at times. Mayfly hatch, chasing minnows on current seams, chasing minnows at night late fall and winter can get the walleyes surface feeding.

Winter walleyes, like winter crappies, suspend, and those fish are feeding fish and aggressive. The same fish parked on the bottom can be teased into hitting sometimes but he ones at mid-column are the ones to look for.

Where walleyes are in a current environment, rivers or streams, I think they hang much closer to the bottom even when active and aggressive and vertical movement is based on food relationship to shallower water. Walleyes will follow the food up and along breaks into very shallow water at times, but when the food runs out or they’ve had their fill they retreat back to the depths. That’s how I’ve always found them to be in rivers.

Ted wrote:

I’ve been arguing with a friend about this for a long time, do walleyes always stay on the bottom of a river or can they suspend? If they suspend how far will they come up off the bottom?

They can suspend. They can feed bottom to surface.

Harder to fish suspended fish, easier to believe everything is on bottom always.

Probably not always but for the most part they relate to the bottom and the current in my experience. There are always exceptions, though. Find the bait and you will find the fish.

In low flow periods I think they will suspend more – they don’t need to seek cover from current. If you put a camera down in winter you’ll sometimes see them a few feet off the bottom roaming.

In big basins like the st croix or pepin I think they are more prone to suspend like lake fish would. You can mark them below schools of bait fish in the middle of the water column.

My experience is more flow = tighter to bottom regardless of the depth they are in.

Mike W wrote:

I would say for the most part they do not suspend in rivers. That does not mean they will not surface feed at times.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

easier to believe everything is on bottom always.

Matt Moen wrote:

There are always exceptions, though. Find the bait and you will find the fish

All this I agree with.

I know Randy W. has commented before that I’ll reiterate bc I’ve experienced numerous times before as well, river eyes will come up and absolutely smash a crank that’s several feet up from bottom when they’re aggressive.

Alot depends on which part of the river you are talking about as well. Most of the sippi above Ford dam fishes much differently than anything below.

Deuces wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mike W wrote:</div>
I would say for the most part they do not suspend in rivers. That does not mean they will not surface feed at times.

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:</div>
easier to believe everything is on bottom always.

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
There are always exceptions, though. Find the bait and you will find the fish

All this I agree with.

Me, too.

But I had an experience about 10 years ago that is seared in my memory. I was dragging jigs below the P4 dam catching nothing during winter low flow. I was marking fish and had my camera along. Turns out a bunch of walleyes were holding about 8′ off the bottom in 25′ or so of water. I would have doubted it without the camera. I starting dragging my jigs higher, maybe 8-10′ off the bottom, and started consistently catching fish during the day in clear water.

I’m confident it wouldn’t have happened if there has been significant flow/current. And it’s such a weird scenario that I never go out thinking it will happen again or trying to reproduce it (and I don’t fish P4 very often these days). But I do keep an eye on my graph…

Now that you mention it John ive seen similar on pool 2. Those schools of rough fish that stage behind the wingdams can have walleyes mixed in. Casting into them with a lighter jig/plastic they will hit as the jig is falling. Once the jig gets to bottom just real it in as its all over by that point.

Yes in that case, those pool 4 winter fish were chasing down the suspended shad. Hence, my biggest dragging fish have come on 1/16 oz jigs in deep water only a few feet down.

Certainly not the norm, but also not as uncommon as one would think either.

Mike W wrote:

Now that you mention it John ive seen similar on pool 2. Those schools of rough fish that stage behind the wingdams can have walleyes mixed in. Casting into them with a lighter jig/plastic they will hit as the jig is falling. Once the jig gets to bottom just real it in as its all over by that point.

I agree, Mike. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “clean” school of walleyes suspended on Pool 2 like I saw on 4, though. It seems like they’re always mixed with a bunch of buffalo or sheep. But I’m sure it happens, and I recall a conversation with someone at your fall tournament about a suspended trolling pattern. Weird thing was, the water wasn’t that low when he was doing it. I suppose there could be current seams mid-water column in certain conditions/locations.

Dean Marshall wrote:

Yes in that case, those pool 4 winter fish were chasing down the suspended shad. Hence, my biggest dragging fish have come on 1/16 oz jigs in deep water only a few feet down.

Certainly not the norm, but also not as uncommon as one would think either.

That’s obviously what I stumbled into, Dean. The difference is, you knew what you were doing!

I found them hiding amongst vegetation on the river in August in 3 feet of water. I think they spend 75% of their time on bottom, after that, it’s anyone’s guess.

i’ve caught them white bass fishing in 10′ of water fishing the surface. Every suspended walleye i’ve caught i was fishing for something else. its definitely not a regular occurance so I say its definitely possible but not something I’d regularly target as a tried and true tactic.