Missouri River Walleyes Still Going Strong

Missouri River Walleyes

This can be a depressing time of year for walleye anglers who live along the Missouri River in North Dakota. By this time of year, the bigger fish have either migrated downstream to deeper water in Lake Oahe in South Dakota or they are holding in deeper water up by the Garrison Tailrace. What’s left is a barrage of smaller walleyes. But this year is a little behind as cooler temperatures have seemed to delay everything, Missouri River walleyes are no different.

Early this week the weather finally broke into some mid-70 degree temps coupled with plenty of blue sky and no wind. This was just too good too miss and after a phone call to a buddy we were on the water an hour later.

I fished with the Mitzels from Dakota Country Magazine, and anyone who knows Bill and Jon know they rarely will pass up the opportunity to fish for anything, let alone walleyes in their favorite holes. After a couple hours in a long current seam, we had boated approximately 25-30 walleyes and saugers with some nice fish around the 16-18 inch range (perfect for fillets). We used the standard way to catch Missouri River walleyes, with a combination of trolling crankbaits against the current and pitching jigs while drifting downstream. Crawlers were the ticket as they typically are when the water heats up, and the usual Rapala #5′s were the crankbait of choice.

So it looks like some good fishing will continue for at least another couple weeks on the River and being it’s in the back yard with gas going over $4/gallon…I’ll take it.