First and foremost, given that I am writing this report as an authorized guide for Kayakfishingstuff.com I need to first note that I wasn't catching these fish in a kayak. The reason being, I was fishing between 11pm to 5am on a river. I can not afford a dry suit and was fishing alone. The water temperatures were in the low 50degF to high 40degF. To be out alone, at night, on a river, in a kayak, in those temps, wearing waders is ill advised and inviting catastrophe. Suffice it to say had a fellow kayak angler been available to fish with me, or had I the cash to afford a dry suit I would have been in the yak and fishing the same exact area where these fish were caught. As well I would have been employing the same angling technique. I hope you ardent kayak anglers don't hold my discretion against me or this report. Thank-you!
DOING THE MATH:
Success or failure in angling is often contingent upon a myriad of variables. Some of those variables being weather pattern, water temps, wind direction, barometer trend, seasonal light levels, and in a river, flow rate and whether the river is rising or falling. These variables and often others have a direct effect on the behavior of various fish species. Not all species respond the same to the variables. When dealing with "variables" I automatically think of an algebraic equation. Mind you I stink at math and failed calculus in college more times than I care to count, but that's not to say I didn't get the concept, I just couldn't get the right answer. Thankfully, when it comes to angling nothing is cut and dry. Best of all with angling "close" is often as effective as it is in horse shoes and hand grenades. Let's move on.
WALLEYE:
I love this species of fish. It's often a finicky nibbler yet can get aggressive on top in the darkest hours of the night, very intolerant to light, and is quite active in the coldest seasons of the year. In my geographic region, that being Northeast Pennsylvania, the walleye extends the open water river angler's season. When the stripers of the Jersey coast have left for the concrete ships, and the river smallmouth are lockjaw at night waiting for spring, the walleye are eating.
When calculating the variables to success in walleye angling I automatically think of ice fishing. Perhaps the most vigorously sought after species of fish through the ice is the walleye. Why? Because it eats and forages actively in cold water. When thinking of ice fishing the first scientific truth that I keep in mind is that water is most dense at 4degC{approx. 40degF}. Being that water is "most dense" at that temp, means that the water at 40degF sinks and that is the warmest the water will be on the bottom, and I use that to dial me into my target specie's activity level at that temp, for this time of year. I use it as an activity barometer if you will. Walleye are often jigged through the ice by bouncing spoons with rattles of the bottom!
At this point you may be asking "How does this relate to the walleye in the picture at the top of this page?" Here's how. Recently the water temps have been unseasonably warm. The air temps in my area have been above average. We just had a rainfall, relatively warm water, that elevated the low rate and volume of the river...
My decision to target walleye the past two nights/early mornings is that the water temps are most conducive to walleye activity, and the water level spike would force forage to the shallows. By simply finding eddying water, one will find the "EYES".
EDDIES=WALLEYE
I went to a bedrock shelf, where there was an eddy down current of the shelf. The shallows on my river the past two nights were stacked with bait. The size of the bait ranged between 1/2" to 2" with some bait looking like 5" rapalas. The first night the river was rising but not fast. The walleye were hanging in a current break right below the shelf I was on. Last night the water was noticeably rising, and the walleye were actually breaking the surface feeding on bait. In the image above, the walleye with the origional bleeding rapala hanging out of its mouth, hit 10' from shore and took the rapala sitting still on top.
TECHNIQUE
Two nights ago the bite was RED HOT. The trick was to cast either the rapala XR8 or the rapala XRSH6 as far into the river as possible. Get tight and sweep the rod about 5' across my body. Stay tight and let the current take the lure and follow it with the rod tip. When the rod tip was pointing straight down stream repeat the sweep and the fall back. I did this until there was little current tension on the lure. This meant the lure had been swept into the break water. Then it was slight twitches and a little line pick up with about 4 second rests in between. The walleye where pouncing on the rest.
Last night the fish were working bait and rolling on top. Unfortunately the majority of the active fish were in the core and head of the backwash of the eddy. This was a problem because I could not walk along the muddy incline that fell into about 5' of water. I did hit 1 18" walleye on an original floating rapala, at rest after twitching it across the top for about 10 yards. It hit 10' from shore. I also had about 3 good swipes but they didn't commit.
FOLLOW UP
At this time it's today, so today Eddy Rider and I are launching the yaks and going to this eddy area and just downstream is a bridge. We will be working the water hard for the walleye. We just had a system come through that dropped 6" of snow and the river is falling. Hopefully the walleye won't be effected by the backside of this system. Tomorrow I will have a report up on what we encountered. My fishing season hasn't ended since I was 14 years old. I fish all year long and so long as the temps are above freezing I will be on the river until the ice jams close it up, then I will be ice fishing, or in my local trout river hunting trophy trout at night. Keep in mind that local river anglers fish the river through the ice and catch walleye in current, in a 5' column. You won't catch me out on the ice flow, but the walleye can be caught all winter long. Anthracite Outfitters is still booking trips. Give us a call and we'll tell you wether it's worth getting out.
Tight Lines!!!
Fish Tank