walley fishing on pools 6-8

It’s been 15+ years since I have tried to fish for walleyes in late summer on the river channels. We use to pull crankbaits on the face of wingdamns. Can people tell me how and where to target walleyes on the river? Is the old way the best way are do people pull 3-ways between wingdamns & river channel. Are does anchoring and throwing a leach out on the bottom effective. Or is there some new way a person should be trying.

I sure would appreciate any help. My kids are getting close to an age of where they enjoy fishing now & I want to encourage that. My best memories are fishing with my dad. Hopefully he will join us too Thanks in advance for any advice.

Recently, the best bite has been casting crankbaits on wing dams. The issue has been finding dams that are holding numbers of fish. I’ve been fishing anywhere from 15-20 dams a day.

The fish I’ve found recently have been right on top of the dams and hit within the first few cranks of the reel. It’s been pretty hard to get live bait up on top of the rocks. If you use a smaller jig, or a jig like the draggin jig, you can accomplish the task.

A good way to start would be to cast crankbaits on wing dams until you find some fish, then casting crawlers or leaches at them. Typically, if there are two or three guys in my boat, we’ll fish different techniques. I’ll cast cranks while the other guy fishes bait etc….

The key is going to be moving from dam to dam until you find some fish, and if they shut off after 15-20 minutes, move on. The fish seem pretty spread out with nearly 30,000 kfs flow right now.

Does anyone troll wingdamns anymore. We use to do this when I was a kid. 14ft v-hull w/ a 25hp. Fun times

Sure do, it’s just very difficult to do with any more than 2 people in the boat. I also do it much less since I went to a consol boat. Always seemed way easier when I ran a tiller

You could anchor up and put a couple lines over the side in front of the wingdam then cast jigs, cranks, dork rigs, or 3 ways rigs to the wingdams. You will also catch all of the other varieties of the river including cats, bass, sunfish, crappies, pike and of course sheepshead. Pulling 3 ways or dubugue rigs in front or between wingdams will work as well. Trolling the fronts of them works if you can control the boat and work longer wingdams.

yes you still can troll cranks on wingdams. The problem is the river is much clearer now so most wingdams have weeds going on them. It’s hard making a pass without constantly having to remove weeds. When a do troll, which isn’t often, I use rattling raps and shad raps. You need those baits ticking the rocks. The fish are on the structure not in between the dams.

We gave it try this weekend. It brought back some good memories. My father and I didn’t set anything on fire. Only 1 sauger & 1 real nice small mouth. with the small boat he bought we thought we would give it a try. I’ll probably do more of it, but with trolling motors today I can see how casting has it’s benefits. Thanks for the info. If I get into I’ll let you know.