what am i doing wrong

[montana49er]

I keep hearing of all the eyes being cought, but none for me. I dont know if I am just in the wrong spots. Any help would be nice. I have been fishing just south of Jordan. Is there any tips you could give me. thanks Josh email is [email protected]

[DTro]

As simple as it sometimes seems, when it comes to a river, it changes from day to day. Really the best tip I can give (bar none) is time spent on the water.

When you spend 3-4 days a week fishing you get a real good feel to the daily changes of water level, clarity, and how it relates to specific structure.

Sometime fast current can be your best friend, other times your worst enemy. I'm not exagerating when I say day to day. We were fortunate enough recently to stumble into a pattern that held for a couple of weeks. A lot of that had to do with the stable weather. One big rain and forget about it.

General tips/guidelines for walleyes. Cold water is your friend, the walleyes congregate and in some cases will be in search of warmer water. Find the warmer water and or baitfish and you should be good. Spring time, look for clean water. This usually means creek mouths or manmade discharges. These spots can also produce in the fall during high water periods, but I prefer the deep holes and will work those first before anything else.

Experiment with baits, jig/minnow is tough to beat, but I think jigging spoons and blade baits could be a great choice at certain times.

[ec30_06]

look for some deep slack water next to current. Fish right on the seam between the fast and slack water. Spots don't have to be big to concentrate a few fish. another tip might be to search out a few deep holes with your electronics, and fish the holes that show bait fish. If all else fails try pitching rocky banks that drop into 10' or better. My last trip out I did pick up a few small ones drifting through seemingly featurless clean deep stretches. One thing I do whenever I am one the river is think where would I go if I was a minnow, and then If I was a fish where would I set up to intercept that minnow.

[hanson]

Can't believe how much information is in those 2 posts.

There is a big transition that has to be made between a lake angler and a river angler. Follow the food like Ed referenced. The interesting thing is it takes a couple years of a guy seriously fishing the river to apply this principle to the lake, and look out!

Most lake guys fish spots because they are "popular" spots, or they show up on a map. But you really will have more success if you follow the food. In the winter, that means green weeds early or whenever you still have green weeds. Weeds really set up the food chain.

I really got sidetracked there but food is important and fish, in general, in the river do NOT like to expend large amounts of energy finding their food (not in the current).

If you've seen the size of the walleyes we've been catching, they are eating very, very, very well!!!