Help for a novice fisherman

I am just starting to really get hooked on walleye fishing and I was wondering if some of you out there could help me? I was wondering about what color types to be using depending on water clarity and light conditions. I have a wide selection of ringworms and k-grubs that I have been trying to use on the Shell Rock river in northcentral Iowa. I have used these pretty extensively on Pool 4, but haven’t had a lot of success in my home waters. I am a converted catfisherman and any help would be greatly appriciated.

You might get better response on the ‘general discussion’ forum, but here’s my best shot:

Clear water calls for natural colors no matter what the light conditions. I use a lot of whites, silvers, pearl, silver/black, and silver/blue, and occasionally green, but it’s far from my favorite. In dirty water, I switch up to bright, seemingly unnatural colors like chartreuse and flourescents. On dark days I go with high contrast darker colors like black, purple, and dark blue.

I think Gianni hit it on the head.I also like ostershell and fire and ice in clear water and black w/ a white tail in dirty water.Sparkles seem to be good in the ceder also.Good fishing.

Where are you fishing the shell rock at? I never had much luck with the eyes until I got downstream of Nora springs. Another thing with colors is I like to stick fairly basic, my top 5 are Black, White, chartruese, purple, and motor oil/pumpkinseed.

Thanks for the info Gianni. I did search this site for the info and I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere and also thanks the tidbit about where to post questions like this. Supserdave, I mainly fish the Shell Rock around the Greene and Clarksville area. I live about 2 blocks from the river in Greene. I have another question if I could tap into your vast knowledge of information. What do you do about walleye when they seem to short strike the ringworm (just holding onto the end of the tail). I pretty sure that it is a fish because I sometimes see teeth marks? Also is there anywhere in Iowa that you can pick the ringworms up?

Hi stir66

Iowa Outdoors in Waterloo carrys a few ringworms. Jim the owner is a real good guy and will steer you to some good colors. Chameleon/orange tail has been good to me as well as the chartreuse pepper and chartreuse/dark core.

My favorite Cedar river bait is the crank bait. If your bank fishing try to find points you can cast parallel to the bank. This will keep the bait in the zone longer than casting to the center and has made a real difference for me on occasion. #5 and #4 shad raps are tough to beat for the small rivers.

I almost forgot My favorite ringworm for any river,big or small purple/white tail and Jim has em at Iowa Outdoors……B

stir66,
I missed part of your question the first time I read it. For short biters it is okay to bite off a 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the top of the ringworm. Some also use trailer hooks….B

Thanks for all the good advice and if it would quit snowing I might get to try some of these tips out!!!! Hopefully pretty soon because I am really getting the itch. Thanks a ton and I will keep you posted how it works on the Shell Rock.

As Big B said Jim at Iowa Outdoors carries them also B-N-fishing on here sells them.I bit some off and also tried a stinger hook,but usally they smash all the way down.What size hook are you useing?Anyways good fishing.

I started pouring my own jigs so depending on the head size either a 1 or 0. It all depends if it is a 1/16 to 5/16 ounce.

Might try a 1 odd hook in the 16th oz.I started using a bigger hook on my 16s and it seems to help with the ringworms and K-grubs for me,just my 2cents .