Small river walleye techniques

I’ve been fishing the rivers for the last few years targeting smallmouth and this year i am making it a point to target more then sm. I’ve been able to catch walleyes on all but three outings so far but have been unable to get into any numbers. The most consistant bite i have had so far this year in pulling cranks on shallow(4-10 fow) straights with gravel or rock bottoms. The rest of the time i have been rigging either floating down river or anchoring below islands or current seems. Just wondering what other techniques people use and type of structure they look for?

your on the right path, crank baits can be very effective on rivers. Also try bottom bouncers and crawler harnesses. If you are in current, dont be afraid to use 3 oz ouncers even if you are in 4 feet of water. Trolling up river usually yields more fish than downriver so keep that in mind. If you are fishing shallower than 4 feet, you may want to throw a crawler harness on a planer board. I fish a lot in 2 to 3 feet of water and a crawler harness 15 feet behind a board can be deadly.

Im not too familiar with pitching jigs in rivers, but that can be very good also, im sure someone that fishes the Mississippi will pitch in and give ya better info than i could.

I might have to try some planner boards most of the streaches of river i fish in the summer are 4 fow or less. The spot i’ve been hitting on the one river this year has dropped from 9-11fow about a month ago to 4-6fow this weekend and i know some summers i’ve walked the canoe. What do you look for gravel,rock, or sand bottom? Leeches produced a few more fish over this weekend then crawlers.

the crawlers behind planer boards should work very well for you. we run boards up into 3 feet of water when we are working shoreline.
separate your baits from those that run flat, vs those that dive and set them accordingly.

I usually dont care what the bottom is like but if you have a lot of current i’d say rock. If you have a big area of sand and a small rock area within it, that would be a good place to look.

We used to do a lot of trolling cranks on the upper Mississippi for walleyes with good results. Lots of 4 to 6 feet of water to hit. Small shad raps, rattle traps and such worked well.

Pitching jigs can produce well on those rivers to. The walleyes seemed to prefer hanging in the rocks and wood. Depth of water didnt seem to bother them much as long as the areas had good flow moving threw them. A jig like the draggin jig worked well casting right into the wood. soaking bait in front of the wood piles works well to.

For the days the walleye dont want a crank bait try some jig dragging. Both up river and down works well for this. Leaches or crawlers. This is where the Draggin Jig got its name and the reason it was developed. It can be drug threw some very sticky stuff and get out again. You have to picture in a smaller river walleyes dont have deep water to go hide in. They go hide under logs and behind rocks to get out of the sun. You need the right tackle to get into those places.