August is here and the wing dam walleyes on the Mississippi river seem to be in full swing. The lazy days of summer are supplying us with some fantastic weather for targeting these hungry fish. Not to hot and nice steady north winds make for great wing dam pitching weather.
My approach to these dams hasn’t changed much over the last few trips. Locate the tips of the dams, set anchor about a cast off and start pitching H20 jigs with either a short piece of crawler or leach threaded onto it. Work these jigs across the tops of the tips, off the ends and even out in front. Been giving each spot about 15 minutes to a half hour depending on the fish action.
With light winds 3/16 and 1/8th ounce jigs have been plenty to get the baits down. With larger leaches it might be worth while to bulk up a little in jig size. I’ve been threading my leaches on the hook with poking the metal bait keeper into the sucker and out the bottom to secure it fairly well. This tends to want to make those jigs glide a little more through the water. You will notice a big difference on how they drift compared to a short piece of crawler.
We took walleyes Saturday on both crawlers and leaches. Plenty of sheepies, and cats to. It did seem to me the bigger walleyes where coming on leaches that day. The biggest two being a little over 26″s and 27″s. Either way, leaches or crawlers the metal bait keepers on the H20 jigs and dragging jigs are a must for holding that bait in place cast after cast. Sometimes even through multiple fish.
For wing dams to choose the ones with the most flow on it seem to be pretty good right now and where holding multiple fish. The slower flow ones still had a fish or two. Would think some of these will start to see more walleyes show up on the tips as the flows really drop.
Here are a few photos from Saturday. Looking forward to the next month or two of leisurely pitching bait to the wing dams. As long as the weather does not cook a person off the river its a very enjoyable way to fish.
