Anchoring for dirty-water walleye

By Gord Ellis

Lakes and rivers have always played a big part in our music tradition. Think of all those old songs like "Red River Valley." Water can conjure romance, as in "Moon River," or tragedy, as in Gordon Lighfoot's epic "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." But it's those muddy-river songs that really get to me.The Seeds' 1960s classic "Love that Dirty Water" is the most familiar to baby boomers, but my favourite's an obscure 1992 Bruce Springsteen tune. "No one leaves this life bud," sings the Boss, with spooky slide-guitar droning in the background, "without their shirt-tails dirty and their hands a little bloody. Waist deep in the big muddy. Waist deep in the big muddy!" Springsteen uses the image of a sprawling brown river to conjure up sin, regret, mortality, and dread.

Who hasn't had a feeling of dread when faced with a swollen, dingy river on opening day for walleye. Spring walleye fishing, particularly in rivers, often involves fishing water so thick you could grow potatoes in it. Catching dirty-water walleye can seem intimidating, even impossible, but it's not. Walleye are there. It just takes patience, a couple of boat anchors, and a few simple presentations to catch them.

During a tournament in Saskatchewan a few years back, I learned a lesson about picking the right spot in dirty water and working it hard. My partner and I were on a reservoir swollen with mountain run-off. We spent five days blasting up and down the mud bowl (as we nicknamed it) looking for active walleye, but boating few. One group of locals anchored under a bridge about 500 yards (460 m) from the boat launch. They fished with "pickerel rigs" -- three single hooks held down by a 1-ounce weight -- and never moved for two days. By fishing a back-eddy, they picked off wandering walleye that sniffed out their dead shiners.That team won the tournament, while dozens of "experts," including our team, blanked.

Anchoring on key areas in muddy water can put more walleye in your boat too. The key is to pick high-percentage spots. In a river, look for depressions or wash-holes where walleye lie. You'll need to use a depth finder to do this. Other good spots include bridges, where abutments create back-eddies and current on corners scours holes. In lakes, anchor at a rivermouth, off the tip of an underwater point, or at the base of a dropoff. Wherever you mark fish on your electronics, put down an anchor and work them. Dirty-water walleye aren't spooky.

For the best presentation control, use two anchors. In current, use a longer rope off the bow and a shorter rope off the stern. You can adjust how the boat sits in current by tying off the left or right side of the bow. You might have to make several adjustments to get right over a hotspot.

The classic "pickerel rig" is an effective walleye presentation in dirty water. Bait the three hooks with minnows and then drop the rig to bottom. You can hold your rod and feel for a bite, or just put it in a holder and wait. It's crude, but effective.

I prefer to jig. It's more active and precise. In lakes and medium current, I use a 1/4- to 3/8-ounce jig to stay on bottom. In heavy flows, a 1/2-ounce jig usually does the job. Bright chartreuse, orange, and glow jig heads are good muddy-water choices. When water visibility is really bad, I bulk up a jig with a large minnow and a fat scented-plastic grub body.

From an anchored boat, drop a jig straight down and keep it hopping on bottom. A subtle motion is easier for a walleye to pick up on in mud. From time to time, allow the bait to hang motionless. Dirty-water walleye often hit when it's sitting still. Occasionally, cast the jig and drift it slowly with the current. Rolling and dragging jigs along bottom pulls walleye from back-eddies and slack-water areas. Expect to get snagged a lot, though.

Casting jigs to wind-beaten shorelines is another effective technique in murky water. Look for wave-washed points, reefs, and boulder-strewn shorelines. Toss 1/8-ounce jigs to the shallows and swim them back. Shallow walleye are active and will thump a jig. I don't bother with bait in this situation; a bright twister-tail grub seems to work as well. Again, fishing a windy shore is much easier from an anchored boat.

One trick in dirty water is to add a rattle to a jig. Several tackle companies sell rattles, but I favour the Northland Buck Shot Rattle. Its silicon band holds the rattle chamber and slides over a jig's collar. If you find factory-made jigs with brass rattle casings, buy them. They have a different sound than plastic, and are audible at quite a distance.

Finally, add a stinger hook to your jig. Walleye strike short more often in muddy water, and that means lots of ripped minnows if there's not a small treble stinger.

Muddy water doesn't have to mean bad fishing. Walleye have to eat, and they'll bite if you put a bait in front of their snouts. Give the above techniques a shot, and you'll love dirty water too.