Missippi River Walleye Fishing Report 10-15-07

I was lucky enough to spend this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the mighty river. The walleye fishing for my boat over the course of the three days was good for the bigger walleye. With the higher stage and flow we are experiencing on the river right now those bigger fish are holding shallow in slack water areas looking for their next meal. Fall is here and typical fall presentations have emerged!

On Friday I shared my boat with Kyle Skinner and his buddy Tom. Our day started casting crank baits up to the shallows with some good results. Tom had the hot hand on this morning, he had 5 nice walleye in the boat in the first 15 minutes of the trip with a couple of pig walleye in the mix . Nice eyes Tom . Once the crank bait bite slowed we worked the area over with plastics and hair jigs. The hair jig bite took over and the cranks slowed down for us. Vertical jigging hair jigs tipped with a minnow did most of our damage the remainder of the day. Purple was the hot color with kelly green close behind. By trips end we had 10 nice walleye with only a couple of fish under 22”. Tom is pictured here with our 2 best fish on this day and Kyle and I are pictured her with a couple of 22”-23” walleye. It was great fishing with the two of you and I look forward to our next trip together.

Saturday I shared my boat with Jim and Dave. Our day started casting cranks shallow with one nice walleye right away. That was it for the crank bite on this day. Once we were assured the fish would no longer chase cranks we switched over to casting hair jigs and plastics. Casting hair jigs tipped with a minnow prevailed as the winning presentation on this day. We did take one big walleye on a purple ringworm that Dave is pictured with below. We were only able to boat 6 legal fish on this day with one sauger in the mix but they were all quality walleye with only one fish under the 22” mark. Jim was able to boat his personal best walleye weighing 9lbs 8oz on a patriot colored hair jig . Nice eye Jim and congrats on the big one! It was great fishing with the two of you and I am looking forward to doing it again in the future.

Sunday I shared my boat with Mike Miller and Ray Feuerhelm. We started the day casting cranks to the shallows just like the previous 3 days. On this day Ray struck first with a nice walleye that will be pictured below in a follow up post to this report . That was the only fish taken on a crank bait in the morning hours. We then switched over to hair jigs and Mike hooked in to one of his best walleyes to date . That was the only fish that we could coax in to going for a hair jig on this day. The walleye had made the switch to wanting the ol’ reliable plastics. Those walleye made it evident in a fast way that plastic is what they were yearning for on this day. 5” firecracker K-grubs and purple/chartreuse tail ringworms threaded on a black or plain 3/16oz precision head was what these fish wanted for their next meal. The 5” K-grub won the battle for the days best bait. By trips end we boated 10 walleyes and 3 sauger. Our best 5 walleye are pictured in the post below. I did have another 24” walleye that went back before we put her on film. My hands were cold and getting the camera out just didn’t sound like a good idea . We had to fight wind and rain off and on this day. Luckily it only rained for about two hours, all we saw was some isolated mist the rest of the day. It was great fishing with the 2 of you and I look forward to the next trip!

The water temps are in the mid to upper 50’s right now. With the water temps were they are right now and the given time of year, plastics, cranks, and hair jigs in the shallows will be the best big walleye presentation the next month

From the reports I have received the sauger bite has been slow. I would venture to guess that bite is only days away from breaking loose. Fishing the bigger eddies now that the river has stabilized enough to keep fish from constantly moving will be a good start. If the fish are still on the move, get out the 3-ways and cranks, go in to search mode looking for those fish holding tight to the bottom on the invisible to the naked eye current breaks.

That’s’ all for now . Good luck to everyone fishing the Saugeramaout of Everts Resortthis Saturday.