I got on the water about 3:00pm today and fished until dark. I was able to drum up 2 different patterns that seem to produce fish for me today. The first and most consistent for me was pulling cranks shallow on current swept sand/gravel banks. Best depth was about 7-8 foot mark. Pulled both deeper and shallower, but as I got close to the 7-8 foot depth, the fish were pretty cooperative. Once I found an area where I continued to get bit on each pass, I slowed down and pitched some hair jigs to the area to no avail…they wanted it moving and there was no if’s and’s or but’s about it. Didn’t take me long to put the jig rods away and grab my crankin rod. The Best crank for me was the new smaller Cotton Cordell’s Grappler Shad CD14 in the crawdad color. This was my first time pulling it on the river and was pleasantly surprised at its ability to catch fish and run true right out of the box. These lures are hitting the shelves at all the Gander Mountain stores in the Minneapolis and surrounding area as of today!! The CD14 Grappler Shad is the new smaller kid brother to the Grappler Shad CD15 that has been on the shelves for a little over a year now. I predict this to be my go to river walleye trolling bait in the seasons to come!!
The next pattern I was able to muster a couple fish up tonight was again trolling crankbaits, but on current swept rip rap shorelines. The best depth here was the 7-9 foot of water and trolled at a pretty good clip. I was trolling up river at 1.4mph pretty tight to the shoreline. If I was unable to bump the bottom a bit here in this area, the fish seem to pass on the lure, but the more I made contact with the bottom, the more response I got.
All my attention tonight was around the 494 area and south. From the airport and south, there are a ton of areas where pulling crankbaits shallow can and will be effective.
Water temp tonight was reading 59.1 degrees and water clarity was respectable at about 18-20″ of visibility.
Good luck and I will see you on the water early next week.
