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River Jigging
By Turk Gierke

River fishing and jigs are synonymous. Jigs have caught more walleye and sauger than any other lure, hook, and plug -any presentation – river walleyes are caught on jigs.

Whether the reason is simply that jigging is one of the oldest and most used presentations thus catching more fishies or simply that jigs are the best presentation on a river – that is debatable.

Jigging does seem to be best when walleye are in tight concentrations especially walleye that are relating to structure, a jig either cast to shallow fish or vertically drifted for deep eyes it is a great way to go.

The biggest factor in catching any variety of fish is putting the lure near its face. An angler can be fishing a sharp hooked yellow eyed black colored 1/4 ounce jig tipped with a lively quivering fathead minnow and ever so lightly hope it down a gravely current break and if there are no fish home, naturally there will not be a finned friend on the hook. A jig can cover ground fast through the water or in a barely moving snail fashion - in ways no other lure can and many times not as snag free or costly on the pocket book.

Location
River jigging is best accomplished with one thing in mind; walleye in rivers stay tighter to the bottom as the current they are swimming in increases. The reason being that as water flows the water nearest the bottom slows down by the friction of the river bottom, and creates less resistance for the fish.

As well walleyes body design, the tail of a river eye and the head shape is adapted to river life. Energy conservation is my reasoning in why they hug the bottom tighter. I’ve found jigging much higher than 8 inches off the bottom in moderate or faster current is not a good idea.

Finesse
Touch is one way to tell if the jig is on the bottom, as the lure touches and then rests on the bottom the rod tip becomes lighter as less weight is being held, but sight may be used as well.

For vertical jigging, if there is a bow or sag in the line, the jig is resting on the bottom and not keeping the line tight by the weight of the lure.

Naturally a cast jig will fall through the water until reaching bottom, as the lure is falling the line moves with the lure, when the line stops moving the lure is on the bottom.

Location Break Down
River walleye relate to current breaks – rocks, points, sand dunes, sunken wood, pilings, anything that will deflect the force of the current for them, walleye essentially “draft” behind current obstructions as participants draft in racing events.

Sometimes a current break is created as waters meet or where the current is moved into midstream by the shoreline or bridgework and slack water is created. The edge of the slack water and current is another form of current break that walleye and so for that matter all fish use.

In this type of area the walleye can get good gas mileage while feeding near the fast moving water or on baitfish that are also feeding in the slack water.

After detecting a perceived bite on the jig, there is no guessing game, unlike live bait rigs that employ slip weights, when jigging set the hook on any tap, bump, or hard hit immediately. A pole tip should be near the water while fishing but once the hook is set the tip which upon set (moderately fast) should be pointing towards the one o’ clock position.

Weights
Use as light a jig as possible but naturally one heavy enough to keep contact or slightly above the bottom. Anglers commonly use a range in weights from 1/16 to 5/8 ounces with 1/8, ¼, and 3/8ths ounce weights being the most common.

Jigging slowly downstream through areas where the current meets slack water or through another area such as scattered rock on a sandy bottom are great places to start. Slowly hop a jig just a few inches off of the bottom, right past that walleye nose – deadly.

Sounds easy on paper, newcomers will likely lose ten straight jigs before a fish, many veterans claim to never lose equipment and that just means they aren’t pushing it. It has been said that when a skier stops falling they aren’t pushing it anymore and staying in their comfort zone.

At times you need to say I don’t care about this lure and fish it aggressively. An angler should question and choose whether they would rather waste time and money retying lures or play it safe but catch less fish, a tough choice.

Year after year, during any season and especially early spring and particular fast water level rises, somewhere in the river system there will be eyes...just laying behind a rock, feeding and growing fat, that’s a walleye, and jigging is a time honored presentation to successfully catch those walleye. Keep Catchin’
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