What would you do??

[spamoose]

Fished a tourney on sunday the 8th down on the ill. river at meredosia.It was 46 degrees on sat a cold fronmt approaching for sunday badly stained water very little current1 -3 mph 32 degree water temp how would you guys or gals fish this we fished two days without a fish and 22 other teams were skunked also,plus we had heavy barge traffic plus the river is down about 6 or 7feet.Just curious how you would fish those conditions.

thanks

[fatboy]

Ever try handlining ? I'm no expert but it's a nice trick to have in your bag.

Conventional theory would say to jig slow and deep on inside turns where breaks were present.

But what would I have done?
I hate to say it, but I'd probably have done just as badly as everyone else.
:-)

[chamookman]

spamoose- Man that sounds tough. Maybe pounding- 3/4 or 1 oz. jig witha large profile piece of plastic ( 4" lizard ) tipped with a minnow. Whistler type jigs work well for this. Hot or flour. colors also. Have seen this work in similar conditions. My .02 worth. Good luck- Bob WC#253.

[FJH1]

I'd vertical jig in the bends of the river (the deeper areas) with a big bright FireBall tipped with a nice fathead and a stinger hook. Sounds like a tough day.

Best Regards,

FJH

[DaveB]

3 way rig with a red hook and minnow worked VERY slowly up river. Just letting the minnow sit in front of there faces for a fews seconds as you creap upriver.

[REW]

I had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago on the Mississippi.
My buddy and I had fished all morning, without a bite. Although we saw quite a few boats; we saw nearly no fish. We did note one boat that did have a few fish in the boat. When we checked on his methods, he was using a very heavy weight to get down in the stiff current, using a very large 1/0 hook and a small crappie minnow.
This was fished very so slowly, and every now and then; a nice fish bit, and it worked out very well.

Before that, we had tried nearly everything, jigs, cranks, plastic, red tails and other things. The combination of the heavy weight, large hook (to get the fish, if it even got close to the minnow) and the small minnow to get the fishes attention - looking for a snack.

Finally, the minnow, was just barely moving.

We had had a terrific cold front come through the night before; which I am sure; is a big part of the severe inactivity on the part of the fish that day. The previous week, the fish had simply been snapping; nearly anything that I threw at them.

Take care
REW

This advice is great! That's why I love WC

In those conditions I probably would have gone a little different from the rest of you. I would have used a bead head prince nymph (size 10 - 16) with a four to five foot leader of 6# (or 4#) flourocarbon to a swivel with a sliding slinky weight above the swivel. I would have used the lightest weight I could get away with fishing deep inside edges with a down and across, let the current carry it then reel in at the end of the drift. Walleye eat a good amount of insect larva in their diet and when the fishing is really slow presenting a fly like this can be very good. I would have considered tipping with a small piece of nightcrawler for flavor.

Incidently, my largest walleye (32") came fishing just this method.