Mississippi River Walleye Fishing Report 4-11-08

I was fortunate enough to spend April 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 7th 8th 9th on the mighty Mississippi River. All I can say is WOW, what an amazing Walleye fishery ! After the spectacular walleye fishing we encountered in the Summer and Fall of 2007, I had my hopes up for a fantastic Spring in 2008. The big walleye in this river must be taking a liking to us anglers, they sure have not been shy about showing themselves in the past 3 weeks .

I shared my boat with seven great groups over my short tenure on the river, I will not go in to great detail about each trip instead I will just give an overview of what worked for us. To those of you that fished with me, I would like to thank you again for spending a day in my boat .

For those that follow the site on a regular basis, It has not been a secret that the big river walleyes have been on the prowl this Spring. My boat only had 2 trips last week were we didn’t see at least 4 -7walleye in 6-10+ pound range . Larry Buck took top big fish honors with the biggest Walleye put in the boat last week weighing in at 13lbs 6oz .Congrats to you Larry on the fish of a lifetime. His partner for the day Tim Drexler was able to boat a fish right at 10lbs as well on this trip. Congrats to you as well Tim . Other groups got the chance to see 10lb plus walleyes as well. Those will be pictured in the post below.

The days spent on the water last week were a learning experience for myself as well. Late last week I was targeting areas that the big female walleye stage in prior to spawn. Once we saw a couple of warm sunny days, the water temps climbed in to the low 40’s and the walleye that were holding in those staging areas went bye, bye . It took me another day to relocate those fish, it was frustrating going from several big walleye a day to scrambling and searching for another school of trophy walleye’s. Those walleye sure can humble a guy every so often .

Every big walleye we boated last week was in less than 12’ of water. Casting ringworms on black 1/8oz, 3/16oz, and 1/4oz precision jig heads tipped with purple/chartreuse tail, pro-blue and oyster shell patterns did the trick. I did have one day that we took some bigger fish dragging jigs with just a plain minnow but that was the only day bait would out fish plastics for me. The above 3 ring worms patterns were my best three. Every day I was on the river one of those colors took top honors for the day.

With the great influx of water we have seen over the past couple of days, the best advice I can give a river angler right now is to focus on areas with slower moving water. Look for the eddies and shoreline current breaks if you like to jig. The water was still very clean with over 2’ of visibility on my last trip. If that has changed in the recent days will someone chime in and let us know?

After 3 days on the river, I kept my camera on a tight leash. It was obvious that as good as the fishing was we would have given up boating some big fish to take time out when the fish were hot for photo op’s. I was shy about getting my picture taken as well last week I only took the opportunity to have some one take some quick snap shots of some nice fish late last week. I can honestly say this is the first Spring I have ever released multiple walleye in the 8-10lbplus range just so I could keep my line in the water more often .

The spawn is upon us. My last two trips we saw spawned out fish in the 24” to 27” class. The walleye bite should remain fair/good with the spawn being more drawn out this year. I firmly believe the best Walleye bite for this Spring is behind us now . On the flip side, those of you that chose to target sauger I believe the best of that bite is yet to come

I’ll see you on the river!