Those other walleyes

I suspect most of the bass guy’s experience the same thing. Each spring (late April through May) I catch some nice walleyes while fishing shallow for bass. They tend to be in the 20-26″ range. The fact they are shallow is no surprise but how far they are from their traditional locations still amazes me. The fact that they are top-of-the-line predators and opportunistic feeders probably explains their behavior. The fish in the 1st photo was caught on a buzzbait, yes a buzzbait, (see arrow) on the on the edge of lily pads on the way into the Wilcox channel.

The second fish came on a spinnerbait out of the flooded weeds in the back of the photo. This fish was even further away from deep water, back in the old Zumbro channel behind Wilcox. The guys on the bass forum and I are curious about some of the strange places you guys catch bass while walleye fishing? What is the deepest you have caught bass on the river?

I’ve also experienced that same thing fishing for bass in the early spring…..It’s quite a shocker…..especially on the far side of Lake Ona. (away from the river) I caught one last april on a white spinnerbait. I’ll post the picture tomorrow..i think i have it somewhere.

I’ve caught some ncie walleyes on spinnerbaits back in the flooded willows and brush on pool 4 near wabasha. A silver bladed spinnerbait with a white skirt has been the top producer for me.

Strange walleye locations? I run guide trips up a well-known trout stream when the water’s high enough to get up in their off the main channel. Been known to get some serious funny looks from customers when we anchor up in 2′ of screaming fast water and begin to smush the fish. Right Koonce?!

I take great pride in finding walleyes where other people don’t thing to look. At no time of the year is that easier than in the early summer. The walleye will go to where the food is and will stay there until lowering water or high water temps drive them into the deeper water. My two cents.

You ever lay into Smallmouth when walleye fishing that “well known trout stream” James??

Gator Hunter

They’re even there in the summer! Vick, Mavzer and I hiked back into the Trimbel, OK so we rode the golf cart, and did some poking around this last summer when the water was super low. Mavzer stuck 4 (or was it 6, can’t remember) smallies out of one little deep pool and the fish ran from 14″ – 18″+. Caught them one right after another out of water so shallow we could still see the bottom and we were standing right at the water’s edge staring down into the creek as he caught them at our feet. Pretty darn neat!

I figure if I can catch trout out of the main channel and walleye back in flooded corn fields, I can catch a couple bass most anywhere!

I often catch Smallmouth on the Rush all the way past highway 10 when I am trout fishing. I once caught a small Northern Pike in Spring Creek up by Peaceful Ridge Road.

Gator Hunter

I’m talking about the itty-bitty trout creeks! I NEVER see anyone else in there. Ever. I took some people in there to fish this spring and we just knocked the big fish out of 2′ – 3′ of water on sand. The current is just whipping and the fish hold tight to the bottom in any little depression they can find. Obviously the water needs to be really high for this pattern to be there but it’s as reliable as anything a guy has on the river after the spawn each year as the high water’s receed. It can be quick lived if the water falls quickly… the fish are there in BIG numbers and we often catch good numbers of pigs from that fast, shallow water.

Another cool thing about the area is it’s always good around the time the white bass spawn. Ever see the whites drifting with the current right below the surface spawning? You usually get a big female with 2 – 3 smaller males. And they literally act like they’re in a trance and drift with the current as they spawn. There was a few days, anchored in the shallow, fast water where we could have netted spawning pod after spawning pod of white bass from the front of the boat while we caught walleyes at the back! They would go right under the boat, just below the surface, and not even act like the saw you.

I love that river.

Here’s a shot from a guide trip I ran this past spring. We fished in the location I’m talking about and the trip was actually a father’s day gift from Paul, left, to his father on the right. I cropped it pretty tight to avoid giving away the exact location but you can tell by looking at the water around the trees how high the water is. Where the boat is in the picture you would normally be 3 feet above water in the summer.

I remember James,

I thought James was taking to much cold medicine and spending to much time up at night on the web site…we all know how he burns the candle at both ends….well anyway we pulled this TS C-liner up in this little stream and threw the titanic anchor out..started pitching plastics and getting some nice walleye…it’s amazing where these fish will hang out…

James
Have you got room for another guy in your boat this spring????

Gator Hunter

Always room. Pray for high water! We’ll swap some spots and ideas and make a day of it. We’ll have to see if Koonce wants to make that butt numbing ride from Prairie on his cycle again…. lol

Now that was a fun trip…Left Pdc at 4am and 40 degrees…Wore my giude ware and my rocky boots…everythig was great till i met those two deer just outside of Winona…they are a lot bigger when your on your motor cycle

Sounds great. I’ll do a rain dance. LOL

Gator Hunter

James, I got a pretty good idea of the place you are talking about . It wouldn’t happen to be the same spot we were taking 75 to 100 legal fish a day in the high water of 2001 was it? We had a good 5′-6′ of water in there that year with the high water levels, casting and trolling shad raps was the ticket for us back then. Days like those made fishing look easy !

You betcha! That would be the place.

My brother and I found this same pattern last spring when the river was high and fast. We found a very small feeder stream on an outside bend in the river, in a slough mouth. Worked our way back up into the feeder and found one deep cut bank. We pulled ‘eye after ‘eye, with an occasional sauger, out of an area smaller than the size of our boat, and repeated the pattern for over a week before the water dropped too low to get back to the hole. Catfish, largemouth, and slimers were also hanging in the same area, and everything was hammerin’ ringies on tiny jig heads. This stream, however, had very little current, but because of the river bend, had a sandbar at it’s mouth, and river current was pushing up into the stream, causing a nice eddy on the undercut bank. It was litterally like shooting ducks in a barrel! I am glad this topic came up, as I had forgotten to log any of this in my journal. Got it there now!

Riverfan, I think the deepest I can recall catching largemouth on the main channel was in a hole at the end of one of my favorite wing dams, in about 25′ of water. I’ve also caught them on a hump in a large bay I fish during high water. The hump topped out at around 17-20′, surrounded by 30-40′ water. I’ve caught several smallmouth in one rocky stretch of river bank that runs 20-25′ deep, while drifting and vertical jigging for ‘eyes and saugers post spawn. It is a blast pulling a smally up from those depths!

Rooster

Rooster,

What were the conditions when you got the deep bass? Early spring, summer, low flow?

The smallies were in spring, as were the fish on the deep hump. That bay is a man made sand pit, with little flow through it. It did have some current flow at that time, as the river was well over flood stage. Water was much cleaner in the bay, which ranges from 10-45’deep at those river levels. The wing dam bass was during mid summer, very low flow and very high boat traffic weekend. I often catch bass much shallower, and farther in on that wingie, but I guessed that due to the high boat traffic that fish had moved out to deeper water. Only one I ever caught there though!
Rooster

The deepest I’ve EVER caught a bass in the river is 35+ feet… and I’ve seen many others taken from this area as well. Mid-winter the smallies stack up along the lock rocks, hanging right at the base of the rip rap in the deep hole there, below Dam #3 and I’ve caught and seen some real brutes caught from this area during the cold of the winter.

The deepest I see smallies come May – October would be 15′ – 25′ or so at the base of and in the little pockets and ledges along deep rip rap. When we catch them we’re usually using bucktail jigs or plastics and the fish are of better than average size. Not a numbers thing by any means.