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Canada Fly In Fishing Review
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Rock On For Walleyes
Rock is attractive to walleye during different periods of
the year. At some point throughout the summer, there will
come a point where many fish are utilizing structure that
features rocks. Round rocks, rubble, rip rap, rock reefs,
these rocks can come in several shapes and sizes but there
is one universal factor, rocks can be difficult to fish
because of snags. If your rig or jig falls into a crevice,
you are wasting time breaking off and retying. Another
factor to consider is that many of these sweet spots are
small enough or complex enough where you have to slow down
with some accuracy and fish these locations with live bait.
Vertical live bait presentations have long been favored for
tackling snaggy and gnarly rock piles by walleye anglers.
One of the more snag resistant sinker styles for fishing
rocks for many years was the simple and traditional egg
sinker. Anglers would fish the rig nearly vertical, keeping
the sinker off the bottom out of the rocks. Snell length was
adjusted so that the bait could float close enough to the
rocks without snagging up.
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The rigging setup for many walleye anglers changed
dramatically with the advent of the No-Snagg Sinker made by
Lindy. The No-Snagg can still possibly get snagged but the
shape and design allows anglers to get much closer and fish
rock much more aggressively. This isn’t an infomercial for
this particular sinker but I have been able to fish some
extremely snaggy bottoms for a week or more without loosing
the weight to a snag, pretty amazing.
In order to stay close to vertical or at a forty five degree
angle that enables these rigs to stay as snag resistant as
possible, an angler has to be able to easily adjust weight.
If this is difficult to do, anglers won’t do so or will try
and compensate by speeding up and slowing down. The easiest
system I have found for keep sinker weights extremely
adjustable is using quick change clevices that anglers use
for quickly changing spinner blades. These work great for
giving anglers flexibility while rigging as well.
The presentation is often slow where the angler is
continually finding bottom momentarily before lifting the
weight just off the bottom, allowing the bait to swim down
towards the rocks. Most anglers are using a super line like
Fire Line for the main line from weight to rod tip and using
a mono snell (Berkley 10 pound XT). Fluorocarbons are often
avoided because these lines will sink, increasing your
snags. Snells are often kept short as well for rock duty,
often less than four feet.
Long rods really rule for rigging because you can pick up
the weight and take the slack out of the snell, really
connecting to the fish when you sweep the rod. Another
advantage is that you can use the rod to pull or keep the
weight of the sinker into the cone angler of your sonar.
Often, if you are going slow enough and you can keep the
weight straight down enough, you can watch the weight and
actually see fish, the bottom will appear to rise or you
will see the fish just off the bottom. Fish that are off the
bottom often appear as a larger band while the weight
appears as a smaller narrower band. When you jig the weight,
the band on the depth finder will appear to go up and down
like a heart beat monitor. We designed a couple of rods
specifically for live bait rigging called the Jason Mitchell
Elite Series JMSS70MLX and the JMSS76MLX which are seven and
seven and a half foot rods constructed of some of the
lightest and most sensitive graphite we could find with an
action that is perfect for rigging.
When probing rock covered structure with rigs, a GPS and
simple marker buoy are essential tools. Map chips also help
so that you know exactly where you are on the structure. A
general rule of thumb is that the active fish are on top of
the structure but usually, the sides or base of the rock
formation generally holds more fish. Also, walleyes have a
tendency to move up on top of rocks if they are smaller,
larger rocks the (size of a small car for example) seem to
hold more fish at the base. Also, not all shallow fish that
move up on top of rock piles are there to eat.
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There are also situations where fish move up on top of rocks
just to warm up and speed up their metabolism. Many anglers
make the mistake of just fishing the top of structure
assuming that if fish are active, they will be on top
feeding. This is not always true and anglers would often be
further ahead and fishing the structure through because the
dips, sides and bases will often hold the most fish.
The fact that walleyes use rocks is nothing new but many
anglers are often intimidated to fish some of the best
structure on the lake because of past memories of snags. A
few essential tools and a few adjustments can make any
angler much more efficient however. Try some of these tips
and tactics this open water season to put a few more
walleyes in the boat.
Editors Note: The author, Jason Mitchell is a legendary
guide on North Dakota’s Devils Lake. Information on
Mitchell’s Guide Service can be found at
www.fishdevilslakend.com.
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