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Jig or Troll YOU
SAY “JIG” AND I SAY TROLL… TROLL, TROLL (a la Beatles) by
Daniel Kiazyk
It’s surprising how a cool fall morning on
the river clears your mind about what might or might not work for Walleye.
On my home trophy walleye waters, the Red and Winnipeg rivers,
there are some commonly held ideas to approaching these rivers, but no
clear consensus exists as to how to tackle those “greenbacks --
walleye” of these two great rivers.
My own approach is a multi-pronged and flexible, I don’t really
have a hard and fast authoritative approach.
Too uni-dimensional and you’ll probably have a few good days and
quite a few not so good days. The
trick it seems (for really good walleye) is that to get to know what is
the “rhythm” of the river you have to be willing to sing a different
tune than other anglers might be humming any given day.
What does it mean to not be overly uni-dimensional
and to be multi-faceted in approach? Simply put I’ll see the same local
anglers and many visitors to The Red and Winnipeg rivers doing the same
thing week in and week out. Persistence
at times is certainly a virtue, but on the other hand you have to know
when you’re just wasting your time. To simplify what I’ll do on the
river on any given weekend, I’ve tried to boil down my approach to a
one, two, three, four set of considerations.
Firstly I’ll often start by looking at the
season where we catch our monster walleye. Fall itself is not some
singular season. The fact of the matter is that fall is truly dynamic.
Any number of factors will impact upon fish, producing an excellent
bite or fish with lockjaw. Trying to factor in these components will have
an impact on the approach you’ll probably take on any given day.
Changing weather is one constant that you can
count on in Manitoba come fall. Successive
lows can put fish down and in a negative mood.
Very often I’ll switch over to the jig in these situations.
Fish in this context need to have food dangled in front of their
noses. Having a crank pound
by slowly or quickly is not really a productive option for these fish.
I also find that if things get really tough I’ll work mornings
and evenings – with a long coffee break or siesta in between…
It also follows that as we move later into fall
and have steady warmer weather, I’ll resort to the crank with greater
frequency…. even if the water starts dipping into the high 40’s.
The important consideration is how long the high-pressure
system/warm front stays in place….
The longer the period of warmth, the better the bite will be.
Perhaps minnows/forage move back into the warmer shallower water areas to
make use of an environment that previously held no feed for them.
Secondly with regards to my approach to fall
walleye, water temperature itself becomes a really significant
consideration. This one factor seems to have one of the most significant
impacts on fall walleye behavior in our rivers.
I realize that it is often difficult to separate this from the
prior consideration but it is a necessary. Water temperatures that are
lower then 45 F even if a warm front has set in for consecutive days will
most often dictate the use of a jig, an approach different than that
suggested in the prior. Many, however, feel that 60 F water temperature is
a threshold for when they’ll start to pursue fall river walleye in
Manitoba. This generalization
is just that… as I’ve caught greenbacks in warmer water in the fall.
But, as a generalization, it does serve as a good rule of thumb.
Cooler longer nights (photo period), the first few hard and heavy frosts
and the corresponding drop in the river’s water temperature will often
signal the beginning of one of my favorite seasons of the year
Having
said when to start is one thing, but what tactic corresponds with what
water temperature is another. Much
has been written about the cold water crank bait bite and I realize that
what I’m about to say may fly in the face of all that.
Earlier in the season when water temperatures are above 50, fish
seem more apt to chase down a moving target like a crank or a spinner.
However, when water temperatures go down, below 45 F, the jig seems
to be far more effective on our rivers.
These two suggestions are generalizations and as such can be
discredited by this or that experience on the Red or Winnipeg rivers.
However having people come out and pay (with all of the expectations that
engenders) I’ll go by these generalizations and have few dissatisfied
clients.
I have been asked why I don’t think Cranks in
cold water on our two rivers are not the most effective method.
Why? Fish don’t seem as willing to expend as much effort to chase
down a crank in our murky water when temperatures drop. I realize there
have been articles written of late that say don’t put away your cranks
when the water drops into the mid 40’s, but the majority of these
articles have been written based upon experience of crank bait use in
relatively clear waters. If a bait is place right before a fish for a
longer period of time Fish in our rivers seem to bite it more readily (on
the Red and Winnipeg rivers).
A third significant consideration for
successful fall walleye tactics on the Red and Winnipeg rivers is
“where” you wet your line and with what tactic.
Large flats with nearly no structure calls generally for the cranks
while specific structural areas demand a more precise approach, something
the jig can provide. Hybrid
approaches do exist but their impact is not always dramatic or consistent.
Dragging a big minnow over the flats with a jig is one of the mélanges.
Also tipping a crank bait with worm (something we associate with
jigging) can help entice a curious follower.
In relation to the latter factor another tactic
that I’ll employ to put a couple more in the boat is the following:
I’ll watch and see how others are doing.
If things are slow, I might pick up and move to another proven spot
or I might switch to cranks or Jigs (the opposite of what everyone else is
doing). This past fall I made
the switchover to cranks when nearly everyone else was jigging.
I too had spent 2 hours jigging only to catch a couple of sauger
and one good walleye. Once
switched over, we caught 8 sauger and 2 good walleye in 30 minutes:
Boy did we learn that lesson the hard way, as one fishing TV
personality puts it when others zig you zag.
Finally I also see as significant the time of
day and tactics employed. Certainly
this is a question of preference, however, there seems to be periods of
the day when putting the jig down in specific areas would seem to be a
more effective tactic than covering water with a crank This generalization
can be adjusted if cranks are cast out over specific structures with an
effort to saturate a specific area. My
own preference is to set up and jig on a specific spot until the fish let
me know they’re not coming in (or the contrary, they there in numbers
– biting and I’m staying put) Usually the latter will run out by early
mid morning. It is from this
time that I’ll put on the cranks and test various depths/patterns that
have been productive in the past. The
jig will be brought out again to finish the evening in those areas where
fish will move up on or into before dark.
The antithetical nature of fall walleye
requires an effort to pattern fish given a number of conditions.
Jig or crank? As the
song goes, “You say goodbye, I say Hello” the answer is not always
clear. Your decision has to
be weighed in light of what you know about the particular fishery and the
experiences you’ve had with it over a number of seasons.
I’ve known anglers of both stripes who have had enormous success.
It’s just a matter of being in time with the rhythm of the river.
I’ll use a jig and you’ll troll ‘er low… who’s to
know…. it’s only in the end that we’ll know which way to go.
Contents copyright ©
1999-2002 Dan Kiazyk/Cat Eye Outfitter. All rights reserved.
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Galen
Sonntag
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