Mississippi River Walleye Fishing Report 7-30-08

Even with the warm sticky weather the walleye bite on the big river remains stable. 12-20 legal fish a trip, with a couple of the bigger walleye in the mix, has been the norm for my boat. Three presentations have worked in my favor on my last few trips. Casting crank baits, pitching jigs tipped with crawlers or leeches and dragging jigs with bait. The most important thing to look for right now with the warmer water temps is water flow, fishing dead slack water with out flow is not going to bode well for your walleye catch .

Good areas to target with the slower moving water have been mid river clam beds that are getting the brunt of the current flow, outside bends in the river with rip rap on them and wing dams with good flow going over them. Finding similar areas on the part of the river you target will put walleyes in the boat right now.

My best crank baits have been Bomber 6A’s for casting. The fire craw or fire tiger patterns have seen the best results for my boat. Precision jigs in the following color patterns have been best for me, chartreuse/orange, chartreuse sunburst or black have been best while targeting very small areas that most of us river rats would call the “sweet spot“. Best jig sizes for the areas I am casting on have been from 1/8oz all the way up to 3/8oz. Just match your jig size with the depth and flow of water you are trying to pull ol’ marble eyes out of.

While dragging jigs, orange, blue and black jigs have been my most predominant colors. When dragging jigs and your catching fish in one precise area, don’t be afraid to throw out the anchor and cast some jigs to that little spot the fish are holding on. Doesn’t always work, but if the fish are in one little area and on the feed, it will keep your offering in the strike zone more often instead of dragging jigs through unproductive water until you reach the area fish are holding on.

Another option that some anglers have been seeing some good success on is trolling crank baits on mid river sand, or clam beds that have good flow on them. If you are a troller, don’t rule out rip rap with good flow on it for a bigger walleye or two right now. Rip rap trolling can be frustrating with the snags, once you get a good line going it is a very effective way to catch big river walleye this time of year. One of the bigger obstacles to over come with this presentation is the mongo sheep heads that hang out on this kind of river structure. Going faster will usually keep a larger majority of the sheeps away from your bait.

I’ll see ya’ on the river!