I flipped my jig in a little eddy that was caused by the tip of thewingdam. As the jig carried the fathead minnow to the bottom I felt afamiliar tick on the line. I set the hook immediately and the pull onthe other end of the line told me that I probably had a walleye. With alittle fight from the fish and some from the current I landed a nice 18"walleye. The fall is a great time to get to a river near you and catch somewalleyes as they start to move up towards the head of the pools or startstaging along the various breaks as they head towards the dams. Riverwalleyes bite all year, if you know where to look and how to fish forthem. A river walleye unlike lake walleyes have to fight current all of theirlives. Therefore, the walleyes in the rivers have adapted to be inareas that offer current breaks so they don’t have to fight the currentall of the time. These current breaks are anything that diverts thecurrent and allows slack water. The slack water areas are found belowthe dams where an eddy is formed by the water being drawn over the damand rushing downstream causes a slack water area on each side of thedam. Other obstructions cause slack water might be below wingdams,behind rocks, a depression in the floor of the river, a stump or fallentree, or man made obstacles such as bridge abutments. The key to locating walleyes in the river in the fall and early winterstarts with locating a series of obstacles and then allowing your baitor lure to present itself in a natural manner so the walleye can racefrom behind the obstruction to acquire the offering and then race backinto the slack water area to digest his meal and await another. In the fall of the year the turbidity of the water subsides andwalleyes are more visually stimulated as they see food floating by theslack water areas. This is not to say that all walleyes see their foodbefore they strike and in some cases they strike more out of vibrationand smell than they do from visual identification. One reason that I like to use jigs while fishing for fall walleyes in ariver system is the control an angler has. Vertically jigging forwalleyes gets my blood pumping and believe me on those cool crisp falldays when it would be nice to be on shore burning a campfire. You needall of your blood pumping just to stay warm. With the proper head design and weight, jigs are the most versatile ofall river techniques, from the shallowest flooded cover to the deepest,fastest current. The majority of river fishing with jigs involveseither slipping the current or drift fishing the current breaks. Thepresentation is a simple lift-drop-pause method of jigging, raising thejig some 3 to 6 " as you slip downstream. The jigs that I prefer to useare Northland Fireball jigs because of the rounded head. The roundedhead allows the jig to bump along the bottom and not get hung up insnags or brush. If you are as vertical as possible the jig will standup allowing the hook to be exposed away from the floor of the river.When you tip the jig with a fathead minnow the minnow stands up andlooks like it is trying to pick up the jig. As the minnow strugglesagainst the weight of the jig it sends out wounded signals and thenatural scent attracts the walleyes and allows them to hang on just thatmuch longer. If the walleyes seem to be just biting the tails off theminnows the Fireball offers an additional eye so you can easily attach astinger hook. The stinger hook is a great addition in cold waters offall and spring. Colors of the jigs should be bright in dingy water. Colors such asfluorescent orange, chartreuse and my all time favorite gold are greatfor fishing those fall walleyes. Anytime that you can bring attentionto your bait it will help you up your odds for catching those fallwalleyes. Weights may range from 1/8 to 1/2 ounces, but usually stay with theweight that is the lightest so you have contact with the bottom. Riverwalleyes have a tendency not to suspend as much as the walleyes in thelake and you don’t have to worry about missing a strike zone that is inthe fish column. I will tip my jig with some plastic if I want to slowdown the rate of fall, but current usually fights gravity faster anddefeats the purpose of vertical jigging. Slack water fish can also be found by pitching jigs of 1/16 to 1/8ounce to shoreline or cover like flooded wood or boulders. The anglerin this situation should use a lift drop retrieve to slip or quarter thejig downstream as it is retrieved back to the boat. This is a supertactic for fishing eddies, wing dams or shallow mid river shoals. This fall grab some jigs, slip on the coat, and head for the nearestriver. Look for slack water and you will find some good fall walleyes.It is my understanding that the Winnipeg river is a great place to lookfor some monster slack water walleyes right now.