June on the Missouri River
June has to be my favorite month for chasing walleye on Missouri River reservoirs. There’s not another time of the year that I find so many willing walleye on such a variety of presentations and in so many varied depths and structures. Francis Case, often referred to as a “walleye factory” was the chosen playground for our most recent walleye adventure. For this outing I had my father-in-law, Tim Zoucha and my brother-in-law, Tim Zoucha Jr. join me in the Skeeter.
Presentation
Bottom bouncers rigged with half a crawler was the primary presentation for this trip and that worked really well. But we also found the walleye willing to chase jerk baits, too. I’ll have a little more on that later. For pulling bottom bouncers I like to use a bait casting reel on a 7’ 6” St. Croix medium power, fast action rod. I use a 1-oz to 1.5-oz bouncer secured to 17 pound fluorocarbon line and a 7-foot lead of 8-pound fluorocarbon. I find fluorocarbon to be more effective in clear water like we find on Francis Case. At the business end of the leader I generally slide on a small bead in a variety of colors depending on available light and wind conditions. If the fish are more neutral or negative, a plain hook is often best. I use a Vicious Baitholder hook in #2 or #4. It tends to keep the half-crawler in place better than most other options.
Location
We found walleye both shallow and deep, but the 18 to 24-foot range was best for our boat. We targeted shoreline breaks with rock and gravel bottom and large points with deep water, especially those that had ever deeper water close by. At times the wind allowed us to drift the baits naturally, and at other times we had to use the bow mount motor to keep our speed around .4 to .8 mph on the GPS. This range produced the most fish, especially those in the 17 to 24-inch range. And we found plenty of those, along with brief visits with next year’s “keeper” class as well. Expect to do some sorting if you’re interested in bring home a few fish for the pan. The lake is full of sub-legal walleye right now, and they are incredibly aggressive little buggers!
Jerkbait Walleyes Anyone?
Pulling bouncers is a great way to catch fish, and certainly relaxing and enjoyable. But I can’t go too long without picking up a casting rod and getting in a little chuck and wind action. If you’re like me, don’t be shy about tying on a crank and casting for these walleyes. I had a great time pitching jerk baits near rocky shorelines and over main lake points in 5 to 15 foot of water. In the clear water the walleyes and spot those jerkbaits from a good distance and they were very happy to crush my X-raps for a couple of fun-filled hours on Friday. If you enjoy the chuck-n-wind like I do, give it a try.
Happy Father’s Day!
Happy Father’s Day to my dad and my father-in-law, and to all fathers out there!
One more pic… Still loving the new Skeeter!
Thank you, Dean and Eric!
Those are some great looking Walleyes Wade. Nice report, thanks for sharing.
Nice fish & report Wade.
Francis Case sounds like one heck of a good fishery.
Awesome Wade, hopefully I’ll have time next weekend. I know the spot you were on well. See any white bass or smallmouth bass? I know the smallmouth seem to be getting bigger, finally.
Pete, We fished multiple spots from the bridge to the burning bluffs to 5 mile to Platte Creek and Snake Creek and points north. The fish are literally everywhere you look. Sometimes we had to move around to find bigger fish, but there are mega thousands of sub 15-inch eyes on Francis Case right now. See the photo here of what I think is the smallest walleye I have ever caught. My main concern was trying to keep the smaller fish from swallowing the hook. I hate contributing to the mortality rate of these creatures but the little guys are so aggressive it’s hard to a void completely.
You’ll have no trouble finding the walleye when you get up there, I assume. We did find some smallies and caught a few white bass, too. Enjoy your trip if you get to go, Pete. I’ll be hitting the smallies on Oahe this weekend and then it’s back to Lewis and Clark for some more walleye fun with family next week.
Should be good up at oahe. The smallies were hitting really good on lipless cranks tossed against rocky shorelines.
Wade,
Do you suspect a lot of those eyes were washed down from Oahe and the other reservoirs or is this abundance of fish “normal” for Francis Case?
Great report!
I’ll chime in about fish washing down, I don’t think Francis Case was impacted, maybe Sharpe. Francis case has always held huge populations of Walleye, but these past two years it seems as if the size is getting better. Been a long time since I have netted or caught 24″ plus fish multiple times in one day. The year of the flood was a boom for the young of the year, they had a nursery to grow up in the bushes and trees which were covered with water. Same with bait fish. Look at Oahe, there’s the year class from 2 summers ago with really stong populations from the successful rearing of the yoy fry. Now the bait fish are a problem keeping all the walleye happy, so an increased limit can be had on those walleye under 15″ on Oahe. Francis Case is kind of a sleeper, you don’t usually fish around other boats. I think the next coupe years will be exciting. I have also seen the average size of smallmouth go up, it was common the catch the 15-17 range, now 17 is easy and bigger ones come along also.
Do you guys see many accidental trout or salmon down there? My friends on Sharpe have been seeing a higher catch rate on these species. They stock a few trout below the dam, but the salmon come from above of course.
nobody that I am aware of, except below the dams. I know at Pickston (the dam for Francis Case) there were always some asians hopping around on the rocks using small rods and I asked a buddy what they were up to, he said the caught trout there early spring. Salmon, that would be interesting to know if somebody had some accidental encounters. I do know for certain that there have been some trouser trout in the area!
Hey John. I agree with Pete that the walleye have always been at Francis Case and the flood hasn’t had a negative impact on it that I can tell. The only thing I noticed was during the year of the flood the walleye stayed shallow longer because of the increased current flow on the lake. That was one of the better years on FC.
I think Oahe, Sharpe, and FC all will continue to be great fisheries despite the flood. I am concerned about Lewis and Clark. It got hit hard with silt.
As for trout and salmon I have not caught any on Sharpe or FC myself.