Low water river walleyes

[Zambookamike]

I am just baffled I fished all day yesterday on our small river slash reservoir here in mid ontario water levels are down about six feet tried evrything I had in the boat from I trolled cranks, spinners, live bait rigs
drifted, slow trolled to superfast troll, trolled deep trolled shallow, dead sticked worms / leech/minnows.
trolling cranks outfished everything 15 to 1 but no quality of fish I found out what color they preffered It was so obvious but could not figure out anything to get quality fish.

One thing that baffles me is depth when waters are lowered like that over a period of afew weeks I said to myself they will probably stick together in deep pockets True or not?

another thing is trolling cranks usually for me is an excellent way to produce quality fish
does anybody have a opinion on what Im saying or just a suggestion.

Its like women, one day youve got them figured out and the next they are playing you like a puppet

Lol

[Ziert]

Almost everything to do with rivers has to do with the flow of water. Stupid comment? Not really. I can be very stupid at times – but not this time (God help me).

How fast or how slow that flow is makes all the dif in the river walleye world as respects where they will hold and what they will be doing there. Deeper wing dams and shade is normal stuff to look for. But, also look for "Dunes" in the bottom content of long stretches of river that run in the direction of the seasonal wind. recent stronger winds are better, but some dunes can be left over from times gone buy. Also visit the hard bottom scoured out basin holes wherever you may find them. Fish these targets by heavy split shotting casting, or just a heavier river rig stopped up stream from the dune or hole, so that your leader and bait (only) drifts into and holds in the target area.

[Backwater Eddy]

Be aware of and vigilant to suspended forage and walleye.

Often when shoreline structure shrinks away during low water on rivers/reservoirs the forage and subsequently the predators move out and up.

Since the levels are low and the flow likely is also low or nonexistent rules on structure change. So I would pay close attention to old river channels and signs of suspended forage.

Common schools of thought is walleye are primary bottom oriented on rivers. I have found this not to be true, even under the ice.

Try this. Crank up your gain and head for the deepest waters available. Now look for a "Dirty line" of clutter somewhere in the water column. Odds are darn good the walleye will be just above or in that band of water. If you also see forage present in concentrated numbers factor in there location with the location of the "Dirty Band". Walleye will likely be roaming between the two when actively foraging.

Dial in the high percentage section of the water column with cranks, and start covering water.

[Zambookamike]

I found them and they were hitting hard, They were to the contrary of my thinking they were in shallow weeds and banks they preffered steep banks that were at least 3 to 5 feet deep right off the bank. We were there 2 days firts day they preffered worms and not the real ones the gulp natural second day it was big minnows with a trailer hook and you needed the trailer ,didnt catch any monsters but some 24" and 25"s
Its amazing how these fish can really move.

I am going to a bigger reservoir in 3 weeks its bigger and a lot deeper places 100 feet deep and deeper
fall is approaching crisp mornings, water is cooling down what do you recommend its a small local tournament which I fished last year and we didnt do good weighing 1 fish in 2 days

[Backwater Eddy]

I'm curious? Was the wind pushing into that cut bank, and was there a distinct mud line there?

[Zambookamike]

Well

Some places the wind was pushing on the bank some were the opposit of the wind, there was no mud lines at all, in fact I was avoiding them as the ones with mud lines were not productive. A thing that definatly was a patern the more deep you were the smaller they would get, than we would troll going closer and closer to the banks and the walleyes caught were quite bigger in fact the biggest one was caught in 2.5 feet kind of surprising. Fished a few tourneys this spring and the paterns was the same on different rivers I found It quite odd as the water level was low but It was coming up a few inches everyday.

[Backwater Eddy]

Interesting....sounds like a good situation for mini boards up tight?