Dams host the majority of river walleye angling, particularly in late winter and early spring. Fish migrating toward spawning areas stack up in massive proportions in the first mile or so of impenetrable barriers.

Most anglers fish dams during low to mid water levels, when walleyes congregate in easy-to-locate, easy-to-fish locations in the main channel. The edges or basins of holes, large slow eddies, tips or sides of wing dams, bridge abutments, and riprap railroad grades all hold fish at times, depending on water level and current.

A trained eye often is more valuable than a depthfinder. Look at the surface of the river. Telltale lines, indicating edges where slack water and moving water meet, betray walleye location. Fish stack up along edges, facing upstream, waiting to dash out and pounce on a meal. Vertically jig a bladebait, jig, or jigging spoon. Or drift or hover a three-way rig along the fast-slow edge.

During low water, lack of current may allow walleyes to spread across the basin of the river. Small dips and rolls hold fish. Scan the basin with your depthfinder, looking for subtle irregularities. Then drift across them.

During high water typical of spring floods, coinciding with walleye spawning, walleyes often penetrate flooded shallows, spawning or taking up positions in and around brush, rock, or other current-deflecting objects. It’s a better habitat option for them than attempting to fight roaring current in the main channel. Baitfish and walleyes simply shift location to adjacent areas offering a favorable combination of depth and current.

Walleyes within the immediate tailwaters area and those dispersing downstream after spawning often relate to the shallows until the water level drops, forcing them back into locations in the main channel. A good river angler must therefore be prepared to fish a variety of locations and presentations, according to water level, depth, current, and cover conditions.

The best walleye rivers tend to be rather large and support naturally-reproducing populations. Yet many of the same tailwater tactics and principles also apply to smaller rivers in farm country states like Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Winter and spring concentrations below dams provide some of the best fishing opportunities in these areas, especially for anglers fishing from shore.

The rest of the year, fish disperse downstream and may not be concentrated in any particular section in strong numbers, yet the basic principles apply—react to current and depth, and select presentations appropriate to the conditions. In many instances, anglers need look no farther than jigs, three-way rigs, bladebaits, or jigging spoons for fishing tailwater walleyes. These three basic tactics cover most deep-water river situations, under a variety of current conditions.

Jigs

Jigs are the most versatile of all river techniques. They can be fished in every condition from the shallowest flooded cover to the deepest, fastest current, if the proper head design and weight is selected.

Most river fishing with jigs involves slipping slowly downstream with the current, using a subtle lift-drop-pause of the rod tip to impart a 3- to 6-inch rise-fall to the jig. Round or oblong heads ranging from 1/8 to 1/2 ounce cover most conditions. Colors range from fluorescent orange and chartreuse for dingy water, to subtle whites or blacks for clearer flows.

Many jigs have colored plastic bodies with inherent actions ranging from wild to subtle. Action tails, marabou tails, or simply plain marabou or hair all have their time and place. Match the combination to the aggressiveness of the fish.

North Country river anglers add scent, profile, and taste to their offering by tipping jigheads with 21⁄2- to 3-inch fathead or shiner minnows. Insert the hook point below the lower jaw and poke it through the top of the minnow’s head. To entice strikes, the minnow doesn’t have to be alive, but it should be fresh.

Whichever jig you choose for vertical jigging, impart a slow lift-drop-pause action with your rod tip, most of the time. Sometimes, however, a simple slow drag across the basin outproduces the basic bounce, though snags make this tactic difficult. Adapt to conditions.

When walleyes strike short, nipping your minnow’s tail, add a stinger hook to the combo. Many jigs have detachable trebles on a short mono or wire striker, which clip onto an extra eye on the jighead, trailing back to place the hook near the minnow’s tail. Insert one barb in the tail, or let the hook dangle free. Nippers quickly become lippers, foiled by the treble stinger.

For a different look, slowly troll upcurrent with heavyweight 3/4- to 1-ounce thumper jigs, again using a lift-drop-pause retrieve to trigger fish. Fishing against the current requires heavier jigs to maintain bottom contact, but may provoke strikes in a crowd of anglers all fishing with the current.

During high water, try casting lightweight jigs (1/16- to 1/8-ounce) to shoreline cover like flooded wood or boulders, using a lift-drop retrieve to slip or quarter the jig downstream as you retrieve it back to the boat. This is also a great tactic for shallow eddies, wing dams, or shallow midlake shoals.

For penetrating flooded wood cover, switch from standard round heads to weedless versions, to minimize snags. High water and flooded cover tend to be late spring and early summer conditions, however. Fall, winter, and early spring generally bring low water, reduced current, and fish more related to the basin of the river.

Most jigging techniques are subtle and require the use of light line. Six- or eight-pound-test monofilament teamed with a 6-foot medium-action spinning rod is a perfect combo.

Three-ways

Three-way rigs are versatile setups for presenting livebait, lures, or combinations of both, positioning your offering just above bottom to trigger a strike. A three-way swivel attached to the main line diverges to connect a leader and lure on one terminal and a dropper lure and weight on the other. Keep both leader and dropper short in rivers to keep bait near bottom and restrict line movement in order to minimize snags.

Versatile three-ways present all manner of lures and baits—plain hooks baited with minnows; floating jigheads tipped with minnows or crawlers; wobbling minnow imitators; streamer flies; even small spinners or flutterspoons tipped with livebait. (Avoid spinners for moving downstream because the blade tends to stop rotating and hang lifeless.)

The current causes all combos to dance, wiggle, or wobble enticingly. Match current, depth, and lure style with a bell sinker between 1/4 and 4 or 5 ounces, depending on conditions. When you get a strike, drop the rod tip back slightly toward the fish, then sweepset forward to set the hook.

Slip downstream through holes or along current breaks, using a subtle lift-drop motion to maintain frequent bottom contact and keep the lure or bait near bottom. Anglers fishing key spots, confident that passing fish will come to them, often anchor or hover in place, allowing the current to present their offering.

Moving upstream with three-ways is effective, providing you use a heavy enough bell sinker to maintain proximity to the bottom. Avoid moving too fast, however; keep lures or baits in the strike zone long enough for fish to react. Wobbling lures (crankbaits) often become even more effective when presented upstream, since trolling against the current increases lure action, even though the boat is barely moving.

Anglers in Iowa fishing the Mississippi River often substitute a heavy jig for the drop sinker to simultaneously fish two lures at different levels—on bottom and higher. The upper leader may feature a twister tail on a plain hook, or a minnow, or a floating jighead. Sometimes, a double header occurs.

The relatively heavy weight of three-way rigs demands beefier tackle. Most anglers prefer about 10-pound-test mono and a 6-foot medium-action casting rod.

Blades & Spoons

Bladebaits and jigging spoons work equally well as jigs for vertical jigging presentations in rivers. Drift downcurrent, move slowly upcurrent, hover in place. Both have the weight required to stay down in current—typically 3/4- to 1 ounce.

Wing Dams and Pilings

Wing dams are prime structures on larger rivers. These manmade equivalents of Mother Nature’s rock points project from shore, deflecting current back into midriver to prevent erosion. Constructed primarily from boulders, they gather tangles of brush and logs, forming perfect hideouts for walleyes and smallmouth bass. Swirling water and downstream eddies betray their locations to the trained eye.

During high water associated with late spring, fish often move atop a wing dam, close to shore. Pitch small jigs or crankbaits across the top, retrieving them through pockets of calm water formed by the structure. During low water, more typical of summer, fish concentrate in the deep hole formed at the tip, though active fish may lie in the cushion of calm water formed on the front face where current deflects up and over the wing dam. Resting, inactive walleyes may lie in the eddy formed on the downstream side.

React to conditions. Fire crankbaits along the front face for active fish. Jig or three-way rig deeper adjacent pockets of calmer water for less aggressive walleyes, following the current break downstream until it dissipates. At times, move up close to the rocks, though you risk snags by touching them too frequently.

Bridge pilings are another prominent structure in tailwater areas. Highway or railway bridges crossing the river feature numerous concrete, wooden, or steel pillars that break the force of current.

For deep pilings, vertically jig the front face of the pillar for aggressive fish lying against the base. Then quickly move downstream, generally ignoring the sides where current is strong, repositioning in the slack water pocket behind the abutment. Once again, use a vertical presentation, this time for resting fish. If the river’s shallow, however, you may encounter broken rock stacked around the base of the pillars. Apply similar boat positioning, and switch to casting jigs or crankbaits into pockets of calm water above or adjacent to the rocks.

The Spring Flood

In most years, high water levels due to snowmelt and spring rains cause rivers to flood. Walleyes typically escape to the shallows to avoid the strong current. They may, in fact, spawn back among the flooded forest if suitable rock or wood cover is present. Many anglers stop fishing rivers at this time, thinking walleyes are uncatchable. Not so. They’re not as easy to catch, because it’s necessary to use tactics that dig them out of shallow weed and wood cover. Adjust your strategy, however, and you can continue to catch fish during postspawn.

Lightweight weedless jigs tipped with minnows, or simply plastic tails, which withstand more abuse than livebait, are one of the keys to probing flooded cover. Weedless jigheads—wire or fiber weedguard models, or heads rigged weedless (Texas style) with plastic tails—slither through shoreline cover. Pitch ‘em into or between flooded willow bushes, logs, and brush, using a combination of swimming and lift-drop motions to ease them back to the boat. Use the same 6-foot medium-action spinning gear as for vertical jigging, though you may want to beef up to 10-pound mono to withstand abrasion, compared to the typical 6- and 8-pound line for midriver spots.

In modestly high water, focus on flooded cover immediately adjacent to the main riverbed. During periods of flooding, backwater channels or tributary creeks may be more appropriate. These are common conditions during late spring, when spring rains combined with snow melt send rivers over their banks, often coinciding with walleye spawning temperatures in the 40°F range. Fish clustered below dams during prespawn suddenly penetrate the shallows, often spawning far from the main channel. Jigs, spinnerbaits, shallow-running crankbaits, slip bobbers and livebait all are candidates for shallow exploration until water levels drop and walleyes retreat to the main channel.

“One of the best places to find walleyes in the upper Mississippi in early summer,” says Wisconsin DNR biologist Ron Benjamin, “is in flooded wood cover along deep outside river bends, miles downstream from dams. Fish disperse downriver after spawning, and for a time inhabit flooded cover in the transition zone between the upper, narrow, free-flowing river section and the flooded impoundment formed by the next dam downstream. Big females tuck into the calm water adjoining current. If you pitch a weedless jig into the cover and apply patience and skill, the largest fish in the system are catchable.”

Reading the Water

The ability to read and react to changes in river current and water level are paramount to angling success. Walleyes continually adjust to these environmental factors, shifting and moving to take advantage of prime feeding conditions out of current.

During low water, walleyes may use a variety of midriver spots. With rising water, they typically tuck tight to shoreline structure. And when a river floods, they often penetrate the flooded banks. Recognize these changes and adapt your presentation accordingly. By following the fish and placing a bait on target, you improve your chances of getting bit. And tailwaters are prime places to strike back.