WAY OF THE WALLEYE CD ROM 
Fishing Post-Spawn Rivers: Finding the Spot
By CD RomCo

This information is presented as promotional material for Way of the Walleye CD Rom and is protected by copyright. © 1996 CD RomCo and its Licensors

Find a good spot in the river with a few fish? Then hover or anchor. Areas with fish tend to be small. Work 'em before moving on. Keep moving downriver, looking for spots that break current. Bridge abutments are worth several casts, both on the upstream and downstream side. Use cranks or jigs in shallow water, jigs in deep water. Where secondary current enters the river, look for a pocket of calmer water between the two flows. Cast the upstream point where a creek channel enters the river. If creeks or channels are deep enough, walleyes might move up them. Move into the creek or channel and check for similar spots. However, if they move too far up, conditions might make lure presentation so difficult that it might be better to concentrate your efforts on the fish that come out and hold at the edges. With the high water, formerly dry inlets now have a flow of water coming out of them. As they merge with the river's waters, they create additional eddies and thus attract fish. An island? It might be high and dry during low water periods but, with a rise of 5 feet or more, it becomes inundated with water and a cross-flow sets up from waters coming from the dam. If there's a flat area, walleyes will be there off the tip of the island.

At some point, severe floods, heavy rains, dropping temperatures and heavy current can negate even the best plan. High water may move walleyes into flooded woods where they're inaccessible. Cold muddy water makes fishing miserable and unresponsive. At some point, returns diminish. You could stumble across something, but it's often tough fishing unless water levels and current become fishable. When they do, keep moving downstream, fishing shallow spots that might attract fish. Remember always that walleyes tend to select areas with mild current and fairly shallow depth. You would find them in eddies formed below the outlet from the backwaters. Or along any flats jutting out from shore. Here, too, where walleyes would normally hold in the shallower 8- to 10-foot depth levels, they'd now be found below the bank, tight to shore and away from current. If there are any rock piles, try directly behind them - they're current breaks after all.