By Bob & Ginny Riege

Each year spring and early summer I can be found on open water in a river not far from where I live. River walleyes provide an excellent tune up for catching pre-opener walleyes because in my home state of Minnesota the border rivers are open to walleye fishing year round.

When fishing a river the important thing to remember is that the current will rule how and where you should fish. In the spring of the year walleyes move up the river to spawn. Many of them look for shallow flats and rock and ruble points to provide shelter and protection of the eggs they are about to lay. When traversing a large flat the walleye is exposed to a lot of cold water. Therefore, the walleyes have to periodically find a place to rest out of the current. One of these resting places might be a depression in the bottom of the river. Here walleyes can recover from moving in the cold water and feed if a selected prey happens to be swept down river by the current.

The first area to check are current breaks adjacent to a hole. This is where the most active fish will be. I like to start out with a Rattlin’ jig tipped with a minnow and a stinger hook. This type of presentation is a great cold water walleye bait for active or neutral fish. At this time of year I shy away from casting crankbaits, because the walleyes seem to move so slowly that the crankbait is past them before they realize what happened.

First check the hole and determine its size, shape and location, by slowly motoring over it while watching your depth finder closely. Identify the upstream lip of the hole, and then motor upstream 50 to 70 feet and anchor. Use enough rope to position your boat about 10 to 20 feet up river from the front lip of the hole.

Using light spinning gear with 6 to 8 lb. test line, tie a small plain snap and attach an original Rapala or Husky Jerk. About 18 inches above the line attach a rubbercor sinker just heavy enough to keep you bait on the bottom. The rubbercor weight is relatively snag-free, and it’s very easy to change sinker size without retying knots or damaging your line.

Toss the lure downriver into the hole, and let it sit. Don’t move it!

It’s usually best to position the lure so it’s slowly rolling, swinging and wobbling in the current, right on the lip of the hole. On occasion, with slight shifts in current, the bait darts a few inches to either side. From time to time, it’s a good idea to drop the bait into the hole or to move it slightly forward, in order to check out a little different territory. Every once in a while you may elect to move it a few feet, but generally it’s best to leave it sit and allow the current to do the work.

The bait will often sit among the walleyes for 5 to 10 minutes before a reluctant fish rolls over and decides to grab it. You may move to a different hole or simply stay stationary over this hole awaiting an influx of new walleyes as they move upstream.

When you finally decide to get that boat out of storage and the need to catch some spring walleyes has got you itchin’ for fishin’ slide over to a river and discover that there is fire in the hole! Walleye fire that is!