Welcome to "Walleye Now" the Columbia River Walleye
fishing guide website. "How to catch Walleye" and Walleye
fishing links for areas like Biggs Junction and the Columbia
River gorge.
Columbia river Walleye fishing guides
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addiction of the species! For most anybody you talk to who
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I find that rigging here in Western Canada is a little different
than what I have read in fishing publications from around North
America. First off here in Alberta and Saskatchewan we are not
able to use live minnows for bait. So for the most part our live
bait rigging consists of either worms or leeches. Live bait
rigging seems to play the biggest role on the Saskatchewan
Walleye Trail. Most every angler has his or her own little trick
or different way of presenting live bait. I guess that is what
makes rigging such a popular method to catch walleye here in
Western reservoirs.
For the most part most people here in the Western Provinces all
pretty much rig’ the same general way. The most common way is to
tie up a snell of about three to four feet with an attractor and
a single hook with a leech or nightcrawler. The attractor
consists of either a spinning float, ball float or bead. I know
this is not much different than what u see around the country,
but most anglers here drag the weight of their presentations
directly on the bottom of the lake.
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As I find most anglers in this aspect of rigging
use weight of huge proportions. One half to 1 ounce sizes are
not uncommon. The problem I find with weights of this magnitude
are the amount of bottom they stir up. I understand most anglers
in Minnesota fishing such bodies of water like Mille Lacs hold a
heavy size weight just off the bottom while rigging to keep the
amount of stir up off the bottom next to nonexistent if
possible.
I have found that dragging a small size weight of 1/8 to ¼ ounce
is more of an acceptable amount of weight in this application. I
use mainly a 1/8 ounce weight about 90% of the time in all
rigging situations if at all possible. This size of weight seems
to have little or no stir up in our lakes and reservoirs here
out west, and seems to skip over the obstacles here in our lakes
such as rocks quite efficiently.
The biggest difference that I find while rigging is the size of
the hook it’s self. In many instances I will change hook size
before I try color or float size. On a plain rig setup, I
generally start with a # 6 hook in a light wire version. If this
seems to ride too high I will change to a heavier wire hook the
same size and refine it from there. If I find I am dragging too
much bottom with my bait I will down size my hooks to about a #8
to #10 in a fine wire design. I find these small revisions to be
somewhat more effective than changing floats and length of snell.
As far as floats go if I do use them I prefer to stay with the
smallest I can find in specific colors. I use the floats mainly
as a target point for the fish. Something for them to focus on,
instead of the swimming bait.
Over the past few years I have experimented a lot with vertical
jigging with jigging spoons and blade baits in shallow water. By
shallow water I mean, water less than twelve feet in depth.
Generally a light spoon of ¼ ounce or less seems to work best.
Blade baits of up to 3/8 ounce seem to be quite productive as
well. I have found this presentation to be extremely deadly at
times when walleye are feeding aggressively on minnows.
Walleye fishing guides on the Columbia River
In mid to late summer on real calm days I fish a 1/8 ounce spoon
with a slow-up and down-fast method. I follow the spoon down as
it falls to help to detect strikes that occur on the fall. The
really light spoons seem to have a more seductive fall in
shallow water and they do not need to be fished quite as
aggressively as the heavier spoons designed for deep water. On
the days of more wind I prefer to use spoons in the ¼ to 3/8
ounce sizes. These spoons are a little more easy to keep track
of in the wind. Usually at the end of the fall I generally pause
for a second or two just off the bottom of the body of water I
am fishing. Sometimes the pause it what it takes to get the fish
to smack the lure.
Blade baits have also worked for me throughout the year with
some days in summer being absolutely incredible. A fast rip
upwards and a follow the bait down at it’s speed seems to be the
best, followed again by a pause at rest. Do not be afraid to try
this technique in shallow water at the times you think the fish
should be aggressive. You may surprise yourself at how effective
they can be.
Mid Columbia river Walleye fishing Guides
As for baiting these presentations I prefer to use them not
baited. Though at times I think that a small piece of bait could
make the difference between having fish or having none. If you
are so inclined to use bait, a minnow head or tail on the hook
of a spoons should not hamper the action of the lure. With blade
baits equipped with two hooks, a small piece of bait attached to
the forward of the hooks will do the trick for you and not
hamper the action you are trying to achieve.
For jigging spoons and blades I use a fairly stiff 5 ½ to 6 ½
foot rod equipped with a good monofilament line in approximately
10 pound test. The heavier line eliminates some of the stretch
and gives you good feel in this application. Be ready at all
times for strikes and be sure to react quickly as fish will
expel these lures quite rapidly because of the hard feel of
them.
