It wasn’t long after moving to Indiana that I found the lakes around here to be full of catfish. I was amazed at the size of channel cats and quickly began targeting them often – and a great time to pursue these big channel cats is in the spring.

The important thing with early spring cat fishing is water temperature. Finding the warmer water on any lake will be the focus during early spring and just a few degrees can make the difference. Water 1 to 5 feet deep, with a mud bottom, is a great place to look as the sun is drawn to the dark, mud- bottom causing the water to warm quicker in these areas. The warmer water stimulates the cold-blooded cats causing them to feed more aggressively and what brings these fish to these shallow coves is food!

In the winter there is a natural die off of fish that occurs and if your lake has shad, then the amount of food floating below the surface of the lake can be extraordinary. This die off provides catfish with a much needed food source before time to spawn. Instinct will prevail and the catfish will find these wind swept coves with lots of dead shad from the winter-kill taking advantage of this natural occurrence.

Wind to an angler can be a nuisance or a great ally. In the case of early spring cat fishing, wind is your ally. Wind mixes the water helping to warm these shallow coves while at the same time pushing dead shad into these coves. The important thing is to find the combination of a large shallow cove and a wind that blows directly into that cove. If the wind is not blowing directly into the cove then at least locate the bank being lapped with the wind blown water and start there.

The choice of bait seems obvious. Cut shad is the way to go for this time of year but try mixing it up a little. Most of the fish will focus on dead shad so you definitely want a rig with cut shad but you should rig a pole or two with something different just in case it stimulates a fish that might be attracted to something new. I have to say that sometimes the different bait far outperforms the shad but always have cut shad in the boat, as it will work best most of the time. Some other baits I use are shrimp, and where legal, fresh bluegill fillets and heads.

Some will argue that the smellier the bait the better. I can only say that fresh bait has always worked well for me and seems to attract the larger fish. I keep the stinky stuff out of my boat and stick to fresh or fresh frozen. I have caught fish on the rotten stuff but I seemed to waste a lot of time with smaller fish. Since going strictly fresh, the bite action has slowed but the hook-up action on bigger fish has increased as I waste little time worrying with those little fish and more time fighting nice size channels to the boat, which brings us to the tackle you want to use to catch these catfish.

You want to start with a medium heavy rod as big channel cats can put up a great fight.  I set all my rigs to free spool just in case I miss a bite he can keep running until I can get to the rod. If I see the bite I set the hook immediately.  A lot of anglers like to tight line their rigs but it seems as though this results in dropped bites when they feel the rod, leaving no time to set the hook.

One stick is all it takes. A common mistake that I used to make was to stick the bait numerous times and cover the entire hook with the bait for fear the fish might feel the hook and spook. I now leave the hook point uncovered and stick the bait only once so that when the fish inhales the bait the point is exposed, and even if it decides to spit it out, there is a better chance for a hook up. This may seem trivial but really does make a difference in the number of hook-ups you will have.

Terminal tackle should consist of a solid hook and a monofilament leader, 20 to 30 pound test, with a barrel swivel between it and the main line. On the main line, above the swivel, there should be a single bead to protect the knot, and then a slider for your sinker; these sliders are inexpensive and are much less abrasive on your line and allows you to easily change sinker size as conditions dictate. The sinkers ability to slide on the main line is very important as these fish are very sensitive to pressure and if they feel any at all, they will drop the bait. The reason I choose mono for my leader is its ability to withstand the abrasion effects of heavy brush a little better than braided line. My main line is 50 to 60 pound braid, which allows more line on a more compact reel, which I like to use.  I set the hook hard on these big cats so I choose the octopus over the circle as my choice in hooks. Quick hook sets are important to get those big cats away from the cover that they are sure to head for when hooked. This is the reason I use a compact rod and reel, to have more control of the fight.

Spring cat fishing may not be as popular as some of the other early spring fishing but with a little patience you might find an exciting early spring activity for yourself and your family and enjoy some great fishing fun as well as some great fillets for the table.

Even though they can be a little tougher, fish can still be caught during the dog days of summer – sometimes in impressive numbers. You may just need to tweak your presentations and locations you fish in order to get on them.

Fish at night

In the heat of the day, most species of game fish often head for deeper water. The water is cooler and fish are warm-blooded, meaning their body temperature is that of the surrounding water temperature. For this reason, to successfully catch fish in the middle of the summer, fishing at night will likely boost your odds. Once the cooler evening temperatures begin to set around dusk, predators such as bass and catfish move into the shallow flats to feed. This is a perfect time to use topwater baits.

Go deep or go home

Since I just mentioned that most game fish tend to head for deeper water during daylight hours in the heat of the summer, if fishing during the day, go deep. I have had tremendous success in the heat of the day by simply going to deep running crankbaits or plastic worms. The types of lures will get down to where the fish are, which may be twenty feet or more.

Try trolling

Whether it’s for bluegill or for bass, sometimes trolling can be just the ticket. When casted and retrieved, those deep running crankbaits may not even hit the targeted depth because by the time they get close, your retrieve is likely half over, in which case your crankbait must begin ascending back towards your rod tip.

Trolling crankbaits along points and humps ensures that the baits reach and stay in the desired depth range. Incidentally, trolling small spinners can have the same effect on bluegills.

Utilize shade

Remember, fish don’t have eyelids so any shade you can find is likely to hold fish. This is especially true in shaded areas that hold cover. Besides the relief on their eyes, the shade also helps to camouflage predators when in search of prey and it also serves to cool them down as well as these areas are usually lower in temperature.

Find oxygen

If fishing rivers or streams, forget about stretches of stagnate slow moving water and look for faster moving water with ripples or eddies. In the summer months, slack water areas quickly become deprived of oxygen, while the faster moving water creates more oxygen which is crucial to fish survival.

Target weeds

Weeds provide excellent cover for prey such as fry (newly hatched fish) tadpoles. Predator fish know this and often lie in wait tucked just inside the weed edges while waiting for their next meal. Some weeds also help to create added oxygen in ponds and lakes where faster water is unavailable.

Vary your speed

During the middle of the day, fish may get sluggish and reluctant to bite. To this end, try using jigs, worms, or any other slow presentation. When the fish begin moving into the shallows at night however, they will get more aggressive, allowing you to switch to more aggressive lures such as topwater lures or shallow running crankbaits.

Summer doesn’t need to be a time to avoid hitting your local waterway or for you to feel like you would be wasting your time on the water. With some simple technique changes you can be in the fish all summer long.

“I always try to keep a good supply of some type of plastic worms,” said Andy Mowrey, an avid farm pond angler and stream restoration biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “I also like the good oldfashioned topwaters like Hula Poppers and Jitterbugs. Also, I keep some kind of jig-and-pig or crankbait; something that moves faster than a plastic lure.”

Southwestern District Fisheries Biologist Eric Cummins keeps topwaters in his tackle box when targeting bass in farm ponds. “A buzzbait in white and chartreuse or a Pop-R are always a good bet,” Cummins said. “If the fish are willing I always go the topwater route for bass.”

As summer progresses, many farm ponds become inundated with moss, or filamentous algae. Anglers should change up their lures when fishing these ponds.

“You can use plastic worms or a ‘do-nothing’ worm if the farm pond has a lot of vegetation,” Cummins suggested.

“As the name implies, it’s not weighted. You work it slowly and can hook it a variety of different ways to give it the action you’re after. It will help keep you out of the moss.”

Cummins again recommends chartreuse and white for these baits. “You can go crazy and use pinks and such, but usually I keep it simple,” he said.

Live bait is a good choice when going after bluegill. Night crawlers, redworms and wax worms are bluegill favorites. Kids can even dig up their own worms or catch crickets around the bank.

Several artificial lures also work well for bluegill. “Beetle Spins would be an easy bet,” said Cummins. “Black is a good color, or even a black body with white and chartreuse.”

Mowrey casts flies tied a couple feet below clear teardrop- shaped bobbers. Some anglers call these casting bubbles. “That’s a lot of fun,” he said. “You can also catch a lot of bluegill on a fly rod.”

Catfish are another farm pond favorite, and good baits can be as close as the refrigerator. Mowrey recalls hooking a monster blue cat on a piece of hot dog as a kid. Cummins uses chicken livers, worms and grasshoppers.

“If you dare, you can use stink baits,” Cummins said. “But that comes at a price.” Head to the water early in the day as the weather warms up this summer. The fish are biting and the best fishing hole may be as close as your favorite farm pond.

Author Hayley Lynch is an award-winning writer for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. She is an avid hunter and shotgun shooter.

However, many anglers may fish long hours just to catch a few 12-inch bass to show for it.

“I have trouble with postspawn fishing because it’s transitional,” said Jeff Ross, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “The spawn takes a lot out of them. Shallow water fishing declines after the spawn. You may still catch little ones, but the big females are transitioning to their summer habitat.”

That decline in shallow water fishing is the reason Ross isn’t the only bass angler who struggles to catch fish after the spawn. Anglers fishing for bass from Kentucky Lake in the Purchase Region to Fishtrap Lake in Pike County find tough fishing in late June. The likely reason is they still fish the same areas in the same way they did in April.

Anglers need to intercept largemouth bass during this transition. “It all depends on the kind of lake,” Ross explained. “At a shallow water lake like Lake Barkley, the post-spawn transition will be different than at a lake like Laurel River.”

Creek channels, points, weedlines and other features such as roadbeds or rows of stumps along what was once a fencerow serve as arteries for fish migration. They move from the shallow spawning beds to deeper summer bass habitats such as deep points, channel drops and off-shore humps in June.

“They aren’t going to randomly swim around in open water and then dive down to their summer habitat,” Ross said. “They are going to follow something. On a really shallow lake, they may use a weedbed as a guide, but on most lakes, it is usually a channel. At a deep lake like Laurel or Cumberland, they may just move down the point closest to their spawning grounds.”

On shallow to mid-depth lakes with defined channels – such as Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley, Barren River Lake or Green River Lake – or any Midwestern reservoir – a soft plastic jerkbait, or a Carolinarigged 7- to-inch plastic worm or lizard, is a tremendous choice to fish channels in summer. Carolina rigs consist of a heavy egg-shaped sinker and a swivel. Tie the hook 1-2 feet from the swivel, with the egg sinker placed above the swivel to keep the sinker from contacting the hook. This gets the rig down, but allows the bait to float above the bottom.

Sling the Carolina rig onto the flats adjacent to a channel, then work the bait over the channel lip and down into the channel. Channels with brush or stumps along their lips are the best places to try. Once you catch a fish, mentally note the location and depth and try and replicate those conditions along other channels in the lake. This may lead to a glory day you’ll brag about to your buddies for many years.

“Flats are good post-spawn areas,” Ross said, “especially if they lie near channels, stump fields or weedlines.” Carolina rigs are also good for probing weedlines. The heavy weight of the rig plows the way for the soft plastic offering to hover just above bottom. Soft plastic jerkbaits and spinner baits are two other lures to try along a weedline during the postspawn period.

In deep lakes like a 4- to 6-inch finesse worm rigged on a Shakey head and slowly worked down the point should intercept any transitioning bass. A Shakey head is a specialty jig designed to make a soft plastic bait stand up from the bottom. By gently twitching the tip of your fishing rod, you can impart a tantalizing action to the bait.

A 3/16 -ounce jig-and-pig combination swum just over the bottom along the contour of the point also fools postspawn bass.

For soft plastic lures on the Carolina rig, Shakey rig or jig-and-pig combination, earth tones are the way to go in June. Combinations of green, brown, black, red or orange perform well on bass. For soft plastic jerkbaits and spinner baits, the reliable white and chartreuse combination is still tough to beat.

The June post-spawn transition period isn’t that hard to figure out if you intercept bass as they move from their breeding grounds to their summer haunts. Don’t fish for them in same areas as you did earlier this spring. They’ve left town for the summer.

Author Lee McClellan is an award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

He gently shook the rod tip a few times, and then slowly lowered the tip. The rod cracked upward and bowed as he stuck that big hog. He told me the Shakey style was dynamite on Nolin River Lake. He wasn’t lying.

The Shakey style of fishing is the latest of the rages that burn through the bass fishing world every couple of years. Bass anglers well remember the Sluggo, drop shotting, the rise of creature baits, Carolina rigs, stroking a jig and the float and fly.

The reason these techniques move from a local quirk to nationwide rage is they catch a lot of bass. Many of these new lures or new fishing presentations are just variations on the tried and true. Shakey-style fishing is an improvement on an older technique.

“It is very similar to the old dead-sticking technique,” said Miles, development coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Once I became confident with the Shakey, I went from throwing a baitcaster 80 percent of the time to throwing spinning gear 80 percent of the time. I have a ton of confidence with that presentation when it is tough.”

The Shakey style is power fishing with a finesse presentation. A special jig allows the plastic bait to stand up from the bottom while the angler gently jiggles the handle to give the lure some action.

A Shakey rig consists of a leadhead jig with a large hook designed to hold 4- to 9-inch long, straight-tailed soft plastic worms. Some manufactures add a corkscrew or nub to the head to hold the soft plastic bait, while others have just a ball or football head.

“With the Shakey, most think it is just a worm presentation,” Miles explained. “It doesn’t have to be, you can be just as effective with a crawfish or creature bait.”

Toss the Shakey rig onto a main lake or secondary point, preferably one with a mixture of rocks and mud. Let it hit bottom and slowly crawl the rig a few feet while shaking the rod tip side to side. You may also let the lure sit still and gently shake the tip to make the soft plastic bait quiver in place. This is especially effective on spotted and smallmouth bass.

“I use as light a weight as I can get away with,” Miles said. “With the lighter weight, it has a slower, more appealing fall and you don’t get hung as often. I’ll use a jig as light as 1/16-ounce if there is no wind. If don’t have constant contact with the bait, go up in weight until you do.”

Try sloping banks near the channel with stumps, boulders or chip rock as well as channel drop-offs with the Shakey rig. The flats near those channel drops are excellent spots as well. Fishing channel dropoffs and the adjacent flats with this rig works extremely well on Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley, Barren River Lake, Nolin River Lake and Yatesville Lake.

Although he does throw creature baits, crawfish and other soft plastics, Miles usually uses a worm 4 to 5 inches long. “I catch as many good ones on the shorter worms,” he said. “If you fish a 7- to 8-inch worm with an 1½- to 2-inch long head like most Shakey’s are, there’s a lot more worm exposed without a hook. I miss more. The bass move the bait without a hookup with the longer worms, but this doesn’t happen nearly as much with the shorter worms.”

Miles uses 8- to -10 pound fluorocarbon line on his spinning reels for this technique. “Fluorocarbon line sinks so I can use a lighter head,” he said. “The sinking is more important than less visibility. Don’t go crazy on your hookset with fluorocarbon. It will break because it doesn’t stretch.”
He ties this to a 7 1/2 –foot, medium power, fast action spinning rod. “You get a better hookset and you don’t get hung as often with the longer rod,” Miles said. “It allows you to lift it straight up and avoid snags while working it slower.”

Get out and try Shakey fishing this summer. You can fit all the tackle you need in one small box and catch bass.

Author Lee McClellan is an award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a lifelong hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

The aggressive and territorial bluegills (and redear sunfish) are quick to pounce on almost any bait that invades their space, so the fishing can be quite exciting. It often doesn’t matter whether you use live bait or small artificials, either. Just get a bait into the strike zone, and then get ready for action.

Since bluegills can’t compete with bass and other gamefish when it comes to size, be sure to use a good ultralight rod and reel combination. The lighter line and rod will definitely increase the fun factor. Fishermen who prefer to fish with a flyrod can catch just as many fish as their spincasting counterparts, too, and have just as much fun!

Besides the excellent fight that big bluegills provide on ultralight tackle, spring bluegills that are decked-out in their spawning colors are downright beautiful. The bright orange breast and deep blue gill plates are especially stunning.

Bluegills and other sunfish usually build their nests in very shallow water, so stay fairly close to shore when searching for the spawning colonies. Bluegills, in particular, often make large colonies where you might find dozens of dish-shaped nests dug right next to each other. These extensive communal spawning grounds are easy to see if the water is clear and you are wearing polarized sunglasses.

A good place to start looking for bluegill nests is in the shallow water at the back of small coves and bays. Bluegills can nest in water that is only a few inches deep, but they usually stake out a territory in water that is at least a couple of feet deep. Water depths of three to four feet are probably the most common for nesting around here, but bluegills on specific lakes may nest a little shallower or deeper depending on the local conditions.

Areas with soft, dark bottoms are prime locations for spawning bluegills. The soft mucky bottom is easy for the bluegills to scoop out a good nest, and the dark bottom warms up quickly as the May sun beats down on the shallows. Warm water is one of the keys for a successful spawn, since the eggs hatch quicker when the water is warmer. That gives eggstealing predators less time to eat the eggs before they hatch.

Sandy areas can be good places to look for bluegill beds, too. The water along shallow, sandy shorelines warms quickly, too, and it is often attractive to bluegills. Some sunfish, especially pumpkinseeds and redears, like this type of bottom. If there is some weed growth along the bottom, to, it is even better.

If you have found bluegill colonies in specific areas of your lake in the past, there’s a good chance that the bluegills will be using the same areas again this year. All of the things that made an area a good nesting place last year will make it a good place this year, too. So check it out!

Once you find a good bluegill or redear spawning colony, but careful not to spook the fish. Even though the fish are preoccupied with spawning, they still spook easily in the shallow water. Banging a rod on the side of the boat or scraping a boot on the bottom of the boat is a sure way to send the bluegills packing for the safety of deeper water.

Luckily, bluegills rarely abandon their nests for good. They may swim off if you make too much noise, but they will be back. If you sit quietly, they often return in just a few minutes. When they do, they are usually more than willing to grab a tasty-looking bait if it is dangling a few inches above their nest.

If you are finding spawning colonies in the shallows but the fish seem a little small, start looking in slightly deeper water. The bigger fish often build nests in deeper water than their smaller counterparts. The largest bluegills and the really big redear sunfish are known to nest in water that is twice as deep (or more) as their smaller buddies. Unfortunately, nests in deeper water are much harder for fishermen to spot. There is a reason that those fish got big – they were smart!

Don’t forget that although there is no bag limit on bluegills in Indiana (except for a few specific lakes), the limit for redear sunfish is 25 fish per day. There is nothing wrong with keeping enough fish for a meal or two, but please take only as many fish as you plan to use. It’s also a good idea to practice catch and release with the biggest panfish (those bluegills and redears that are 10 inches or more) and keep some of the smaller ones for the table.

In some states that would be true. In the majority of states where hunting and fishing are major industries, the state requires a potential guide to purchase a guide’s license. However, before an individual can purchase the license he or she must possess certain basic skills. These skills are usually first aid and survival skills and have nothing to do with his or her hunting or fishing expertise.

Over the years I’ve hired numerous fishing guides. Most were hired to take me saltwater fly fishing to some desolate location in the Caribbean. One guide was good, some of them were below average and most were terrible.

My point is that you have no way of determining if a guide is worth hiring unless you have a personal reference from a trusted friend. Carrying a guide’s license or a business card that says “guide” doesn’t guarantee that a person has any credible knowledge concerning hunting or fishing.

According to Indiana Conservation Officer Gene Davis there is no such thing as a guide’s license issued by the State of Indiana. When a person in Indiana says he or she is a licensed guide, it’s actually a reference to the license required to take paying customers in a boat. This license is only a safety inspection certificate referring to the seaworthiness of the watercraft.

Unless a hunting guide uses a boat to access a hunting area or actually hunts from a boat, no special licenses or permits are required to be deemed an Indiana hunting guide. Fishing guides on Lake Michigan are required to be U.S. Coast Guard certified captains.

License or no, the business of guiding in Indiana is picking up steam. At the 2009 Indianapolis Boat, Sport and Travel Show there were people from all over Indiana offering their services to take clients fishing and hunting.

The most popular activities were Lake Michigan salmon fishing trips and deer and turkey hunts. A few people were advertising musky fishing trips and stream fishing for trout and smallmouth bass. The guided fishing trips on Indiana’s rivers and streams are probably the least appreciated of all of the guided activities. Jeff Conrad, head guide with Indiana Fly Fishing Guides and fellow guide of the organization, pointed out that fisherman drive over bridges every day but don’t realize the beauty and fishing potential of the rivers and streams they’re crossing. Between the bridges, Jeff said, a relatively unknown wealth of quality fishing is available to those with access and know-how.

Access to Indiana’s rivers and streams is limited to say the least. Part of a river guide’s responsibility is to get fishermen legally and safely on and off of the river. The state publishes a list of rivers and streams designated as navigable. It’s widely accepted that if a person can legally access any of the rivers on the list, he or she can legally float it.

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources Web site features an Indiana Canoeing Trails Guide listing some of the most popular river trips. Like any other businessmen, guides have overhead; and good guides don’t come cheap. Boats, motors, trucks and other equipment cost money, lots of money. The question to keep in mind is “what should you expect for your dollar?”

I posed this question to Conrad while visiting our booth at Indiana’s annual fly fishing show, Indiana on the Fly. Jeff had quite a bit to say on the subject, so I sat down in the booth and listened while he stepped up onto his soap box.

Conrad stressed that the experience should be safe and rewarding, and that a guide should provide you with an excellent opportunity to take game, or in his case, catch fish. If a guide guarantees you will catch fish or kill a deer or turkey, look for another guide. A guaranteed service might mean the guide may go to any length to ensure your trip is successful, even if it takes illegal or unethical methods to accomplish the end result.

Conrad continued, telling me a guide should provide instruction, and nowhere is instruction more important than on a fly fishing trip. “A good guide,” said Jeff, “can shorten your fly casting and fishing learning curve by years with a single day of professional instruction.”

He offered many more tips for hiring a guide. An important one was to not be afraid to ask for references, lots of references spanning several years. Just because a person can hunt or fish doesn’t mean they’re going to be a good guide. Make sure the references are for years of guiding, not just hunting and fishing. Jeff pointed out that in his group of five guides they have over 100 years of fly fishing and guiding experience.

There are other indications that can help you select a reputable guide. Look at the quality of advertising. Does the guide service have professional brochures and a modern Web site? Conrad’s Web site, indiana-flyfishing.com, is professionally designed and gives the client a detailed description of available trips and their costs. It also has high quality photos of the places where Conrad and his partners guide. The Web site also offers an opportunity to ask the guides detailed questions before picking up the phone and booking a trip.

Last but not least, check out the quality of the guide’s equipment. If the guide picks you up in a battered truck with the bed full of beer bottles, you may want to reconsider. If the boat that he or she is towing has holes in the bottom plugged with chewing gum and the motor is attached with duct tape you should probably stay home and watch football.

The key to catching walleyes during the winter is to find them, and the best places to find them are in the rivers and spillways below the dams of any reservoirs with fishable walleye populations. For Tri-State Outdoor News reader, that means heading to places such as Lake Monroe, Harden Reservoir, Cagles Mill and Williams Dam in Indiana or Olney Lake in Illinois.

Walleyes migrate below spillways for a variety of reasons: For one, they spawn in water temperatures between forty and fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit, so the movement is simply preparation for the upcoming spawning season. Water below spillways also offers highly oxygenated water with consistent water flows and temperatures, and lastly the areas offer the fish a place to rest and feed before the spawning cycle begins.

In my experience for our area, February is usually the best month, but good fishing can be had as early as January and into March, depending on water temperature.

Fishing below spillways such as these anglers at Lake Monroe can render good results throughout the year but particularly in the late winter and an early spring

When fishing spillways there are a few things to keep in mind that will help you hook more fish. For starters, try to locate cover such as rocks, logs or areas of slack water, called eddies. Due to the fish having a slow metabolic rate at this time of year and the fact they are trying to rest up before the spawn, walleyes don’t want to exert a lot of energy for a meal if they don’t have to. Casting your lures or bait upstream of such areas and letting them drift down past the cover will work well. Weeds are another good source of cover that will hold fish. Walleyes will often lay in wait in the weeds for an easy meal to swim by.

I have found that jigs and minnows, either used solely or in conjunction with one another, typically work well too. I have also caught some fish this time of year on small Rat-L-Trap crankbaits as well. Don’t be afraid to try different techniques though if the bite is slow. I discovered one of my favorite presentations under such circumstances. Not having any luck with jigs, minnows or crankbaits one year, I decided to take a half-piece of nightcrawler and thread it onto a hook about 15 inches below a small split-shot sinker. Then I would simply cast out and let the crawler drift to a point directly downstream from me, gently lifting it over any obstacles as it drifted. Then I would slowly drag the crawler along the bottom, carefully bouncing it over any obstructions. After employing this method, I left with a limit of walleyes. Then there were times that this presentation took a back seat as jigs and minnows outperformed it, so you never know.

Another proven method for putting winter walleyes on the stringer is to affix a bobber above your bait or lure and letting it drift into areas of cover or slack water. A spring bobber works best here because it allows you to twitch the bait with very little movement while keeping the bait in the strike zone. With a slip bobber, you end up merely pulling the line up through the bobber, which raises the bait rather than twitching it.

Walleyes can be finicky. It is not uncommon to be right in a school of inactive fish and not get a bite. Certain times of the day will work better than others. The action in one spot may be dead and heat up a couple hours later or vice versa.

In my experience, the fishing below dams can be great from the spillway immediately below the dam to several hundred yards or more downstream, so start at one location and move if you have to until you find some fish.

Whether fishing large rivers from a boat or smaller ones in a pair of waders, spillways of all sizes cough up some of your best chances at winter walleyes.