bass and walleyes on the river

[andy j]

I am thinking about trying for some bass on the st. louis this weekend, where would be a good place to start, what presentations, My buddy is coming up this weekend and would like to put him on some fish, we will fish for walleyes also, We don't keep any bass and rarely keep walleyes and if we do only 15- 18 inchers. I have been catching walleyes up from boyscout 79-83 been doing ok but the hot bite seems short lived and then a lot of covering water to pick more fish. If you don't want to post I understand, my email is [email protected] thanks AJ

[Northlander]

Covering water is key. The fish are moving a lot and if you dont fish them a lot you wont find them without some hard work. A good easy bet is you can jig some up with ease by the 23 bridge and above.
Or just drift down river with the trolling motor keeping ya where ya want to be and jig and troll a spinner. Walleye alley has been good for that.

[musky hunter]

For someone who doesn't know the river well, try upstream by the 23 bridge and above. Bass can be found around rocks and in moving water. Frequently, bass and walleyes will be found together, the eat the same forage base. The bass tend to be just a bit shallower than the walleyes.

[musky hunter]

I should add, if you don't know the river well to ask at the landing where you can run you're boat. Watch where other boats go to stay in deeper water. The shallower the draft boat the better above Hwy 23.

[black max]

There are still some eyes biting up above the 23 bridge but the bite is definetly slowing down for eyes. I was just up with a buddy a couple days ago and we managed to catch about 30 eyes. We also hooked a couple pike, two smallies and a few rock bass.

We got all of our fish jigging with fireballs going down stream. The stretch of water just up stream of walleye ally was a good spot for us that day for the eyes. The bass were hooked a little further up stream. The biggest eye we caught was 21in. Lots of 16-17inchers. Water temps on the river were around the low to mid 50's depending where you were.

[Northlander]

I took Eric out by the dam and by the 23 bridge area. Still a lot of 15-23" fish up there. Jr's rattle jigs in orange/chart and gold worked again as did some home made chart short shanks. Plastics werent really popping due to the slow flow of the river I guess. The more the plastics move the more agressively the fish seem to hit them. We did trick a few though and with some rather large offerings.
The smallmouth season is here and they are going fairly well. Lots of them being caught by those jigging for walleye. Also caught a few on Beetlespins and a jointed rap.

See ya on the River!

[This message has been edited by Northlander (edited 05-29-2004).]