Vertical Jiggin' for Walleyes

[jchirri]

I know this doesn't have to do with bass fishing but since the season doesn't open until the end of April its not a bad idea to try some jigging on the Detroit River for walleyes in the meantime. I'm definitely no expert when it comes to this, but I thought it might help out those of you who have never done it.  You need to familiar with a couple of things before you head out there like controlling your boat in order to keep your line vertical, and the right type of presentations/tackle to use.
 
Its tricky to learn how to keep vertical but after your first trip out there you should start to get the hang of it. Naturally the boat flows downstream with the current, but depending on what direction the wind is coming from it can slow or speed up your drift. With a north wind youre going to be flowing down the river really fast and your line will be way upstream because the boat is moving downriver faster than your jig is. In this situation you will point your trolling motor into the wind and pretty much follow your line until your right on top of it. If there's a south wind, it will slow your boat down as it goes downriver, so now your jig will be going downstream faster than the boat, in this case you point your trolling motor into the south wind and follow your line until you catch up to it. In an East or West wind you'll go downstream at the normal speed but your line will be out to the right or left of the boat so just point either east or west depending on which way the wind is coming from and follow your line. Bottom line when trying to stay vertical is #1 point your bow or stern(wherever your trolling motor is) into the direction of the wind and #2 just follow your line, if you do that you'll stay straight up and down. If the wind is really blowing you might have to constantly stay on the troll, and if theres no wind you barely have to use the trolling motor. When theres no wind just point the trolling motor upstream and most of the time you wont have to even use it if its calm. I suggest having a bow mounted trolling motor just because you can point into the waves and wont get waves crashing overboard, if you point the stern into the waves on a windy day it could get ugly. Most of you guys know this procedure due to fishing for smallies in the St. Clair River. I've noticed that a lot of guys just drag tubes in the the SCR for smallies without trying to stay vertical at all which I think hurts them a lot. It seems like the ones who finish near the top in the tournaments we have on the SCR are the guys who know how to control their boat and keep their lines straight up and down. This increases the number of bites you get, the amount of bites you can feel and your hookup ratio goes way up.

Now I'll explain my jigging setup. I pretty much use spinning gear for jiggin because its easier 6-6.5ft rod, if its too long you'll get tired of jigging after a while. I use 10lb powerpro braided line as my main line. Braided line is ESSENTIAL when jigging and I would use any kind of braid that you prefer either 8 or 10lb. At the end I tie a barrel swivel then about a 2-3 ft mono/flourocarbon leader. This leader should either be 8 or 10lb, never higher weight than that of your mainline. Then at the end I tie on my jig. The reason for the leader is when you snag on the bottom of the river you can just break off the leader or right where the jig is. If you tie directly to the braid it most likely wont break at the end so you could end up losing 40ft of line instead, or it may not break at all and your rod will break before the line does. Sometimes you get lucky with braid and pull the jig out of the snag but this almost always messes up the hook on the jig. For jigs I use 3/4oz, I think thats the best weight to use if you fish 30ft and deeper, or if your a beginner just to get the hang of it. The only time I'll use a 1/2oz or 3/8oz is when I'm in the trenton channel because all the water is less than 20ft deep there. So I'd stick to 3/4oz jigs you should have no problem feeling bottom. As far as colors of jigheads stick to chartreuse, orange, white and unpainted, depending on the water clarity. I never buy minnows, early in the season like late march or early april you might want to get some but I never do, I just use plastics. Any type of 4-5" plastic works good like minnow/fluke type baits, worms, shad type or goby type. They all work. I would also put stinger hooks on them, they increase your number of hookups A LOT.

 
Locations...you can fish anywhere from the lower end to the upper end. On the lower end you can fish the trenton channel a.k.a "the stacks" which is good all thru april and actually is best really early in the year because it has the warm water discharge and the water warms up faster there. You can launch from elizabeth park right upstream from the stacks or lake erie metropark(need a sticker) which is a few miles downstream. I only fish there if I have to and its usually early in the year, i dont like fishing this area because its way too crowded and way too many snags because of the shallow water. Moving upstream you have the wyandotte launch and just north of that the ecorse launch in front of mud island. When I launch out of this area I usually fish right infront of mud island in the channel there or I go north a couple miles and fish the steel mills. The launch I use most is the delray launch which is about a mile south of the ambassodor bridge. I usually fish right out in front of there and do pretty well. Then you have st. jeans launch further upriver almost near the mouth and you can fish any part of the upper river there, i've never fished that far up river but its good. I usually fish from 30-40ft of water, in general the upper river is deeper than the lower river. You dont need a sticker for any of these launches you just pay the fee each time. If you go on weekends you gotta be there really early or you'll get stuck waiting in line for a while. When the river is muddy a lot of times its not even worth fishing it. Pretty much if theres 1 foot of visiblity or more you can get away with fishing but if its less than that i wouldnt waste your time. I like it stained better than clear, because the fish are less spooky. Once may comes around and it starts getting later in the year the canadian side becomes a better bet to fish, although I've never tried it.

That pretty much sums it up. Its not bass fishing but is fun to do during April while waiting for bass season to kick off, and at times the bite can be really good. Its also very similiar to fishing for smallmouth in the St. Clair River so its gives you practice with that type of fishing. Good luck and tight lines.


-Jamal

[nitroderrek]

good info jamal.

i can add a little to that:

the main reason you cannot drag your bait in the detroit river is because of all the snags.  if you are fishing in front of the steel mills, and let your bait drag the bottom for just a few feet, it will be gone.  as soon as you feel the bottom, you need to jig up. 

another thing that has helped me is lure color.  first, just about all i use is chartruese when i fish for walleye.  it is just my personal confidence color... other colors will work though.  when it is clearer water, i use a chartruese plastic that is translucent... allows the light though the bait.  when the water is muddier, i use a solid chartruese bait, like a gulp grub.  that also works with sunny/cloudy as well.  sunny, use the translucent, and when it is cloudy, use the solid color.
but i determine what color to use based more on water color than the weather. 

i usually don't start fishing the detroit river until later in april.  if you go out early in april, you usually can catch the bigger walleye, but you catch way less fish.  and the bigger ones are the ones you want to eat anyways.  if you go out later in april, about the 3rd week or so, the fish are a little smaller, but they are the good eater size.  that time of the month you can catch them on the canadian side.  i fish the canadian side, just north of mud island, right across from the U.S. steel mills....  there are some salt piles there.

the easiest way to find walleye in the detroit river is just follow the rest of the boats.  if you are in a pack of boats, say 10 or more, you can quickly see if people are catching fish or not.  if you fish in an area for 1/2 hour and don't see anyone catch a fish, move.  if the fish are biting, you should see someone netting a fish every couple minutes.

also, when you fish in canada, you can keep 6 walleye instead of just 5 on the US side.  just remember, if you keep 6 in your live well, you can travel back to the US legally, but you cannot stop and fish the US side with more than 5 in the live well, per person. 

good luck, the soft water will be here soon.

nitroderrek