Reading water during high levels and fast flow in order to find walleye is not as hard as it may sound. In fact reading water during near flood levels is the most straight forward time to locate river walleye and sauger. This time of year it is common for me to guide customers that want to learn how to fish high water. I start them by saying animals fish included, need to conserve energy as much as possible. Then I point to the middle of the river where the water is roiling and churning and flying downstream, flowing at over 110,00 cubic feet per second and ask, “if you were a fish would you be out there?” They always answer correctly and say, “No.” Thus eliminating the main channel as where they are not, effectively reducing 75 percent of the water that you need to search.
With the main channel eliminated an angler is then forced to look to the edges of the channel. However this is where reading the water comes into play. Because when the river is high, the flow of the river does not stay where it normally would, and often the fast flow is from bank to bank and then up in the trees. In other words many cross sections of the river is acting as if it was the main channel, flowing extremely fast from bank to bank with no slow water in this cross section.
Again fish need to conserve energy, so in fast water, walleyes and saugers look for areas of slower water called current breaks. These are areas where the current is slowed considerably from the main channel. Back flows, eddies, back water bays, lock channels, are all current breaks. These areas can have moderate or nearly no flow and these are the areas you will nearly always find the fish.
More about these areas. Back flows are areas where the water is flowing so strongly that it breaks off and makes a hard turn to the side, and then comes back 180 degrees reversing direction. Back flows can be as large as 100 yards or the size of a long driveway. Back flows to me are really oval shaped eddies. Eddies are more circular in shape, like a small whirlpool, eddies can be quite large though. Backwater bays are good areas, but normally only on the seam between the fast and slow water. Lock channels (of the lock and dam systems) are very similar to backwater bays these are areas out of the flow.
I mentioned current seams. These are areas where the fast and slow water interface. The fast water is toward the main flow and the slow water on the flooded shore side. Seams can be hard to find on windy days, but when the wind is light can be seen easily. Over the years I have found if the slow water is “dead” (no flow) then the seam is the place to be. If the slow water is a moderate flow then the seam is not as important and the walleyes and saugers can be spread out anywhere in the slower water and not on the seam. In this above scenario you need to read the water.
Vertical jigging is very effective in these areas, a whole plethora of presenations take fish this time of year, I really just wanted to touch on location here though.
This article is intended for the high fast water period on the Mississippi that we have had for the last three weeks, the theory is good on any river though. The water will drop some, but in general stay high from rains keeping current conditions in play for a good month well into May. Keep catchin’.
Turk Gierke operates Croixsippi Guide Service.