# Favorite River Bait



## Quacker Wacker (Oct 12, 2006)

Well i am quite knew to fishing walleyes regularly. I am used to fishing largemouths and panfish. Although i have a spot at the nearby river that i fish walleyes with my buddies at every year. I was just wondering what yer favorite bait to use was overall. I know it depends on a lot of things, but what have u had most success in the river with. Also i never really got into jigging, could someone explain to me some tactics for jigging in the river? :-? I personally have had the best luck with rapalas and mimic minnows just casting. One more thing, what are some essential tackle to add to yer tackle box for river fishing? Thanks a ton.


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

Spool up with fireline. There's always snags in the river.

Don't waste a lot of money on cranks and other fancy lures until you have a good handle on how to fish the river. A basic round lead-head jig in 1/8, 1/4 (or heavier, depending on flow) along with 3 & 4-inch twister tails will help you figure out where the fish are.

Focus on transition areas, channel edges, inflowing water sources, sources of oxygenation and changes in flow to locate walleyes. As always, morning and evening are best, but on good days, you can find fish all day long, if you cover water and locate key holding areas.

There are a lot of great books and articles out there. I'm not saying my writing is the best on it, but I've covered springtime walleye fishing on the river as below.

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/ouroutdoors30.php

I've also got a good "grid" story I wrote...I'll see if I can't find it for you, but the metacrawlers can't...so it must be older.


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## Quacker Wacker (Oct 12, 2006)

Thanks for the help thats what i was wondering cause i have never really used jigs much while fishing down at the river. So do u get like some berkely 4 in plastics and then just put them on a jig head and cast?


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## rowdie (Jan 19, 2005)

I've put more fish in my boat off cranks than jigs, especially in May. I'm a rookie when it comes to river fishing, and finding the good back water spots isn't easy for me. I find more spots trolling cranks, and I catch most of my fish right in the main channel. Troll right upstream.


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## northdakotakid (May 12, 2004)

Look for deep water breaks with strong current ... the walleyes are very bottom orientated in this =heavy current and move very shallow to feed... we catch most of our river fish in 4-8 feet of water... less if you can find it.

X-raps are great in the shallows and SR-5,7's (shallow raps) ... I am not a gvery good jig fisherman so we tend to troll and cast cranks ...


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