River walleye fishing

I mainly use artificials when I fish for river eyes from shore. Lipless cranks are my fav.

If you have you heart set on live bait, try something like this:

Fish finder line slider

I mainly use those for cats but they should work if you are using heavier weights and still want to feel the nibbles. make sure u add a stopper in your rig. I like to use a swivel and a bead. U really shouldn't need to use anything heavier than an oz or 2 if fishing from shore IMO

Ditto what was said above, you will know if you're getting hits. You may not feel them if you're using too much weight, but your chubs will have bite marks, guts ripped out, tails chewed off, etc...

Walleye can be sluggish and lethargic in colder water; hence they will not move or expend much energy to track down a bait. If you're not getting hits it could be as simple you are not in an area where the fish are. The river walleye are more aggressive in the spring and fall, but alot of those include groups of smaller fish in the 10-12-14 inch range.

Many of the larger walleye are caught by die hard anglers during the winter months; however do not expect to get into large numbers of fish this time of year. These guys might fish all day and night for 1 or 2 bites.

As far as your set-up, use the least amount of weight possible. I typically like to use only 1 or 2 3/0 sized split shot. If you need more weight to hold your bait in the current, consider like someone mentioned above and use a slip sinker rig. That way when the fish bites it won't feel the resistance of your heavy sinker, and you should be able to detect the bites easier...Good luck

...its hard to 'lake fish' a river... everythings moving....keep your bait moving too. try to drift or bottom bounce when possible.

i like countdown rapalas...castem out let em sink a bit and reel in, pretty simple. have seen hair jigs working too jigged pretty slow, just depends on ur situation man

is this a walleye or saugeye?

Dark blotches on a walleye? I thought the blotches meant sauger or saugeye. Sorry for the pic quality it was snowing pretty good and my hands were wet, I couldn't clean the lens.

"In saugeyes, a white spot is usually present at the tip of the lower caudal fin, also similar to walleyes." Straight from the pfbc site, I gotta say saugeye. Or just a funny looking walleye, I'm used to Erie fish that are usually just plain gold. Saugeye(or walleye) haven't been stocked in quite some time according to pfbc. Btw that small tiger musky I posted in another thread has me confused, the fish was only 22" and pfbc says tigers haven't been stocked there since 04 they grow that slow? Or did I misidentify that one too.

ORIGINAL: FishinGuy

Dark blotches on a walleye? I thought the blotches meant sauger or saugeye....

'Eyes do get the dark saddle bags...
here's a stringer from pymie that shows it quite well...


I've never caught a sauger or a saugeye...
but that looks like a walleye to me too.

I'm really bad at judging the difference between the hybrids and the pure strains. I read an article one time that said that in areas where saugers and walleyes interbreed, that its almost impossible to find any pure strain of either fish. Almost every fish contains at least some DNA from both species. Kind of like every eastern coyote contains at least some wolf DNA...

If I had a pic of the dorsal, it would have been much easier I reckon

ORIGINAL: FishinGuy

If I had a pic of the dorsal, it would have been much easier I reckon

If they're hitting like you said they were just keep catching them, who cares what they are!

100% walleye.

I am not sure why saugeye come up in these conversations so frequently.  The coloring on them is very different from a typical walleye and closely resembles that of a sauger.  The easiest way to determine a sauger from a saugeye is by examining their dorsal.  Saugers have blotches on their dorsal fins, where saugeye have streaks with only a few spots on their dorsals.

Even then, it is still a challenge to distinguish a sauger from saugeye, but distinguishing a walleye from those two is easy.

Sorry, I'm a river eye newb all the ones I caught prior to this in the rivers have been all gold, like an Erie fish. This one was real spotty, so I just figured I'd ask. I read the thing about the dorsal, now I know.

ORIGINAL: Esox_Hunter

Even then, it is still a challenge to distinguish a sauger from saugeye, but distinguishing a walleye from those two is easy.

If you're fishing the same body of water consistently yes. If you fish different bodies of water (and I'm sure you have) for walleye you'd notice that there can be color variations int he fish. Some that I've caught in the rivers (topic of this thread) definitely require a 2nd look to be sure of what species it is.