Canyon Reservoir Walleyes???

[Mike7759]

I'm stumped. I fish the Bighorn Reservoir in Montana alot. I can catch everything but walleyes. I've researched the net far and wide.

Problems.
The lake is huge. 70 miles long.
It is a canyon impoundment. Water is generally over 200 feet deep.
Much of the shoreline is sheer cliffs.
Ledges and points drop off very quickly.
The lake is full of carp making finding the fish difficult.

I'm going up this weekend again. The water is between 60-65 degrees.

Any advice for fishing this type of reservoir.

Thanks

Mike

[RJmjZ]

Assuming there are Eyes in the lake, and I don't know your lake. I'd tell you when they pull water fish it like a river. Trout seem to be the big attraction as prey? What other forage might there be? Trout go deep. Walleyes will go deep to get them.

This may not work at all but if it were me, I'd find areas (Longest expanses of water) with the greatest and most consistent wind west to east. Fish the east side where natural wing dams occur from the surface down to 50 feet or deeper. Fish the edge between fast and slack water. Use as much as a 2 oz weighted lindy rig with trout type / anatomically correct artificial baits. If they let you use live bait, get the largest you can 5"-8" or longer. With live bait and after the subtle hit, feed line for 20-30 seconds - sometimes a minute or more - before you reel in the slack and set the hook. Hover over the spots. The deeper you go the slower your presentation should be. You won't catch many but the ones you do catch will be monsters.

If you don't have the patience for this kind of fishing don't go.

[hempbake1]

Tough lake to fish for sure, been there before. Walleyes there tend to migrate towards the wy side in the fall. If your gonna fish on the mt side only start right at the border line and move north. We had the best luck pitching swim baits ( ripple shad ) on a 1/4 oz. jighead right down the side of the cliffs. work your way along the cliffs right up against them and pitch your jig right down the side. I mean throw that bait against the cliff and let it drop. This is where you will have to figure out how far to let it drop. sometimes ten feet sometimes thirty. The walleyes love to hang right up against the rocks and will pick up the bait as it comes down. click the reel and snap jig it or try reeling back up at a slow steady pace. Patience is KEY here, you will have to blindly move along huge stretches of rock cliff to pick up fish. Sometimes you will catch only one in a spot. Not my favorite place to fish, but if you can fish in wy,. (buy a 3 day license ) you may have better luck on that side of the border. Good luck

[Wyo-eye]

I fished the Fall Finale tournament last month and maybe can help out a little.
This time of year in Bighorn Lake there is big schools of emerald shiners cruising the surface and lots of little smallmouths up shallow in the rocks.
Pick out a section of shore that has some slope and rock slides (sometimes with those snaggy cedars) and pitch tube or grubtail jigs right up against the bank and I mean in 1 or 2' of water (even when clear). Work it back till 15' deep or so. This is about where you want the boat. Just a short underhand flip is all you need sometimes. Lime green/clear, yellow colors, mimic the shiners.
You will fight thru a ton of bass and an occasional crappie, but if you stay with it, you'll see a white tip on a tail. Sounds hard to believe, but target 5' to 10'. Sometimes you can see them hit, or see 'em on the bottom.
Casting a brown shad-rap type crank to imitate a small bass to the rocks can really get you a nice sized eye, also.
Devils Canyon area is a good place to start. Marker 40, 42, 31, too.
Stick with it, don't skip the early morning, although I got a 5 pounder at noon one day. Tipping the jig with a minnow is OK but not mandatory.
Good Luck!

[Mike7759]

Thanks, I appreciate the replies.

RJmjZ, Yes there are walleyes in there. The Fish and Game plant 4 million a year. The ones in there are big and fat as footballs. I have seen many at the cleaning station and a Doctor aquaintence of mine is one of the best fisherman on the lake and shows me pictures. He has promised to take me out but we haven't connected yet. I has great success catching walleyes on other reservoirs like Fort Peck, Canyon Ferry and Tiber. But I've moved within 45 miles of Bighorn lake and would love to make it my home lake if I could decipher it. Forage is emerald shiners, small bass, trout, crappie, yellow perch and crawdads.

hempbake1, I've heard of them fishing Walleyes against the cliffs at Lake Powell. Something I know about but haven't tried.

I've dropped the camera down in the coves at the 9 mile mark, BIg bull elk creek and seen very large walleyes under the carp but couldn't get them to bite. So I know they are there.

Wyo-eye, In the back of sheltered sun baked coves there is a big algae bloom going on with gigantic schools of small minnows sometimes 100 or more yards long. Are these shiners?

I haven't gone much farther than the 30 mile mark from Oke-beh. But I'll have to make the run. I already know alot of places where these techniques can be tried. I had a big long fish follow a crayfish shad rap back to the boat while fishing small mouth Sunday. After talking to you guys I now know it was a walleye.


Mike

[T Mac]

Mike... yes, Yellowtail can be a challenge.
Especially if you are used to fishing midwest lakes.

Where do you live?
I know guys from Billings who do well there, regularly.
They jig, crank and bottom bounce.
Fall and even later...in winters with open water, fishing can be really GREAT!.
A buddy of mine might be able to give you some good tips.
-Ask for "Luckie" in the fishing dept. at Scheels(Bllgs). He usually has good information.

Walleyes Unlimited of MT has a chapter in Billings- www.montanawalleyesunlimited.net
And so does Walleyes Forever- www.walleyesforever.com

[Mike7759]

I live in Hardin. BTW, I'm always looking for someone to take fishing. Any of you guys want to take me out and show me how to catch em, I've got the boat.

[Wyo-eye]

Yes Mike, those schools probably were E shiners. With all those and the small bass you can see why the walleyes are hard to catch, they have so much to eat.
An alternative to hempbake1's method of fishing the walls is to troll harnesses and cranks at different depths right up against the sides to cover more water. As he states, they seem to be in certain spots altho it all seems to look the same.
To further complicate things, trolling for suspended eyes in the middle of the canyon sections can be deadly.
It sounds like on Sunday you almost tied into a good one.
Your new home lake can be tough at times. I know cause its my home lake too. But even when the fish don't bite, you are on one of the most scenic lakes anywhere. You already know that.

[Mike7759]

I'm going back up Saturday I think. I'll try to post something in the fishing report section if I do any good. I have a 798si Combo and I can save and download waypoints on a Google map. I'll show you if and where I caught the fish.

[Mike7759]

I found them. Used jigs and minnows. Threw to the bank and jigged out to 20-30 feet. Found them at the big point which enters the main channel at Big Bull Elk creek, points in black canyon all the way back to the campground and at rock slides. Also, BIG small mouth. And an occasional perch, crappie, ling, trout and catfish. Water temp still 59-60 degrees. No turnover yet that I could see.

[Wyo-eye]

Sounds like the fall bite is picking up, I better hurry and get my elk so I can get to the lake!

[Mike7759]

A friend of mine went out Sunday and caught 40. He said they were spitting up emerald shiners and that all the coves were full of shiners. He used small minnows on 1/8 oz jigs. He also caught a huge brown trout.