02-28-2014, 03:10 PM
I'm no expert, but I DO have a technique for fishing the spawn that is effective (And no it's not force feeding).
I'm not going to give away any spots because they would get pummeled by other, less than honorable anglers, but generically here it is. The spots I like during the heat of the spawn and a week or two leading up to it are just like the inlet at Willard bay. They stop and hold massive numbers of spawners, but the problem is that if you swim a jig or spinner through then you tend to snag most of your catch, hence, you can't keep em. In order to fish these few hatchery type spots without snagging fish I tried just a plain old night crawler on a slip sinker rig or again a worm below a slip bobber drifted in the pools and eddies of these spots and have found two things.
1- I can catch an easy limit of non snagged fish in a relatively short amount of time. It's not usually fast and furious(some times it is), but somewhat steady. I think they aren't too hungry, but enough of them will eat to give me some steady action.
2- I have yet to catch a spawning female on bait. I don't know why, but it is only males and just the right size for the pan so I feel that I'm not making any significant impact on the future population because I'm not getting females.
By exploring the bear river from the bird refuge all the way to wyoming I've found awesome spots that hold good numbers of walleye during their spawn (cutler and oneida reservoir below, above, and all point in between) and it just always seems to work better to use the lowley worm than hardware that just ends up snagging them 9 times out of 10.
Just my 2 cents worth.
[signature]
I'm not going to give away any spots because they would get pummeled by other, less than honorable anglers, but generically here it is. The spots I like during the heat of the spawn and a week or two leading up to it are just like the inlet at Willard bay. They stop and hold massive numbers of spawners, but the problem is that if you swim a jig or spinner through then you tend to snag most of your catch, hence, you can't keep em. In order to fish these few hatchery type spots without snagging fish I tried just a plain old night crawler on a slip sinker rig or again a worm below a slip bobber drifted in the pools and eddies of these spots and have found two things.
1- I can catch an easy limit of non snagged fish in a relatively short amount of time. It's not usually fast and furious(some times it is), but somewhat steady. I think they aren't too hungry, but enough of them will eat to give me some steady action.
2- I have yet to catch a spawning female on bait. I don't know why, but it is only males and just the right size for the pan so I feel that I'm not making any significant impact on the future population because I'm not getting females.
By exploring the bear river from the bird refuge all the way to wyoming I've found awesome spots that hold good numbers of walleye during their spawn (cutler and oneida reservoir below, above, and all point in between) and it just always seems to work better to use the lowley worm than hardware that just ends up snagging them 9 times out of 10.
Just my 2 cents worth.
[signature]