Mississippi River Walleye Fishing Report 10-27-08

In this report I will cover my time on the water since October 15th. A couple of weeks ago I shared my boat with Troy Halverson and his dad Al. The goal for the day was to try and stir up some bigger walleye. The bite had been very inconsistent for me while pursuing bigger fish, but on this day we got lucky and found a few good ones. Casting crank baits in 6’ of water and less did the trick Blue and silver #5’ Rapalas worked the magic on this day. I did get one walleye on a ringworm, this was the only walleye we could scrounge up on jigs. Troy, and Al are pictured here with our four best fish of the day. It was a pleasure to fish with the two of you, I hope to do it again this Spring.

Last week I shared my boat for the day with Rochelle and Andy Peterson. Rochelle spent time in boat last Fall, and again this Spring when the bigger walleye were cooperating nicely. Unfortunately, on this day, our luck ran out. The three of us were faced with strong winds out of the southeast eliminating some prime areas that I wanted to target. All though we were faced with windy conditions, we were able to focus our attention on an area that had seen some good fish over the course of the week. We spent most of our day casting jigs in one area with limited success, we were able to boat 5 walleye on the day and several Bass while searching for the bigger walleye but came up empty handed on the bigger fish. Every walleye we caught on this day, except for one, was caught on paddle tails. Oyster shell was the color of choice by days end. Even though we never lit um up, I still enjoyed fishing with the two of you again. As always it was a great time and I look forward to another trip with you this Spring.

Very sporadic, and very inconsistent sums up the walleye bite for my boat over the last couple of weeks. The walleye bite will only get better from here on out The water temps are still on the warm side for this time of year but in order for the bite to go in to overdrive we really need some current flow. I don’t foresee a large influx in flow happening yet this fall. With low water we are going to see the bigger fish spread out. Those big eyes are able to roam the river system and feed where ever they want. Looking for ambush areas with some flow is your best bet to score with a few feeding fish. Even though areas with some flow put the game in your favor, don’t over look areas of dead slack water, especially if there is rock on it. Slack water areas like this will hold large amounts of baitfish until freeze up, big walleye will take advantage of this situation. With the lower water and abundance of baitfish we are seeing on the river, the walleye bite will be very sporadic. Walleye will feed in short intervals, faced with an incredible forage base there is no need to feed several times throughout the day. This happens ever time we have a warm, low water Fall on this body of water. You will catch fish for 20-30 minutes, then go 3-4 hours with out a bite. They feed very quickly and less often with all the forage in the system V.S snacking thru out the day.

The sauger bite has been very good to me the couple of times I have pursued it. Firecracker/chartreuse and purple/chartreuse tail ring worms have been best for my boat. This sauger bite will continue to improve as well, almost to the point of suicidal once the water temps hit the mid 40’s. With the lower water these saugers will be easier to find and pound on. Saugers are a completely different animal when it comes to low water situations. If you find any kind of current flow, you will find good numbers of big saugers. . Target deep out side bends in the river with low flow in the colder months and you will find saugers!

I’ll see ya on the river!