Location with Walleye

We finally got out in the boat in MN to do some Pre-Spawn river walleye fishing. The fish were thick and the weather was great. Here are the tactics we used to find and trigger these big Females. LOCATION - The fish had not pushed up to their usual spawning flats yet, so we worked our way down stream fishing holes and current breaks. The DI and Sonar helped us view clusters of fish pinned tight to the bottom and when we finally came across some larger schools we would spot lock on top of these fish. They were holding in 14-20 Feet slightly above the deeper holes or flooded structure on the bottom. TACTICS- Casting hair jigs and plastics cross current and hopping them along the bottom with the flow is a great way to cover water and entice bigger females. These fish wanted it slow and easy along the bottom so small hops or a gentle lift of the rod is all that was necessary to move the bait. Neon Colors typically work the best for these fish and are most common in spring river scenarios but the water clarity was above average and we noticed the switch to natural colors such as gold, olive, black, and brown were working much better. Dragging a minnow on a jig performed the best for us in terms of numbers. A gold jig head and fathead minnow did the trick when we hovered over our wpts and tried to stay as vertical as possible in the current. One other big factor to our success was using a Floro 6 lb 10 ft leader attached to our braid. This seemed to be a big reason we were putting lots of fish in the boat compared to the others in the area. The clearer water made this invisible line and natural bait color shine. When normally stained water will allow you to get away with straight braid more.