We're headed up next week and will be camping somewhere between Lake 4 and Alice. There are plenty of places where the Kiwishiwi River dumps into lakes along this route creating some pretty good moving water.

I have little to no experience fishing this situation but everyone says to head to moving water. How close do the fish congregate to the flow and what are some good methods for this type of fishing?

Go to the northern part of Insula where the narrows are and fish there, you will do well. It's right by campsite #1323.

Fishing moving water can be easier.

Remember a couple things. One is that the current brings the food. They want to be close to the food. The second thing is that they like current breaks to hide behind to save energy. It might be an eddy from a point, a slack section in front of or behind a rock, and a dip in the bottom that they can use to hide under the current. Look for swift water and a break.

You can throw your bait right in the current and bring it by the break you are targeting. It is really fun to wade the shallows.

I love fishing moving water and think it can be extremely productive.

Basically any fishing method will work well when they're biting in moving water. A leech under a bobber floating down the moving water, jigging in the moving water, casting a lure (any sort of lure) and retrieving it roughly perpendicular to the current, using a subsurface technique like a Zulu - it all works well!

I'm not sure if this is always the case, but I've typically noted that I catch mostly smallmouth in the fastest part of the moving water and more walleye where the current is starting to slow down and the water gets a little deeper. It's pretty rare for me to come across moving water that doesn't at least produce a few fish quickly. Maybe 1-2 out of 10 rapids won't quickly produce fish - not sure if it's just the luck of the draw of when I fish them or what.

All of the above is on. All about tracing the current and imagining where you would be if you were a fish waiting at the " conveyor belt" of food that flowing water is. In my hands, jigs and senkos work well here. Expect to lose some to snags. Spinners and cranks perpendicular -or usually at like a 60 degree angle- is an easy way to do it and productive. If you are inclined, it is the perfect scenario to experiment with using flies.

There are different kinds of current situations. You do have the obvious rapids and falls where a river dumps into a lake or where one lake dumps into another. These are quite easy to fish. Just throw your lure in there. There are spots where on the surface the water looks to be all bubbly and moving fast but down beneath is clear water pool eddy current area. You never know which of these areas may hold fish. Some pools don't and other pools are honey holes. There are a number of ways to fish them. Personally I like to stick to low snag methods. I throw a countdown rapala or a lipped diving crankbait like a Cotton Cordell Walleye Diver. This gets the lure down below the rapid flowing surface water and down into the pool. These will usually bounce off the rocks rather than snag like a jig would.

There are other methods obviously. Another to consider if you have live leaches or soft plastics is just a simple hook and bait. Toss it in up current and let it bring it back by you. Similar to how a fly fisherman would fish it.

You also have neck down areas where one basin part of a lake flows into another basin. Where a lake narrows and then widens again. This acts like a venturi where the water flow speeds up and then dumps into another area. I love these spots. The current sometimes can be very subtle but if it is different to slack water around it there should be fish there. I like to troll my diving crankbait around as a search bait. Find where they are. Then you can target that area with your trolls or switch to another favorite method. Knowing which way the water flows you can often spot these areas simply by looking at the map.

Have fun

K

Sometimes when you bring a lure back upcurrent like a shad rap, it can be a deadly presentation.

Fish the eddys on the sides of the main current. Hard to beat a jig and grub in this type of structure. Just bounce it back on the bottom and yes you will lose some. Can use 1/4 to 1/2 depending on currents and wind. The eyes really move in at dusk.

Love to drift rapids with an slip cork and leech! Also, lindy rigging a leech and dropping it into a deeper hole below the rapids is good also! Position the canoe above the hole and let the lindy rig drop down into the hole and hang on. It is also situations like that, that I have hooked my biggest pike! last time was on a 3/4 pound walleye I had hooked!

Bruce

I would argue Walleye like to be close to moving water for feeding, but don't like to be IN the moving water unless they need to be. In my experience fishing the Mississippi they are always in the break areas that are calm. They will dart out into current to feed but go right back to the calm areas.

I was fishing moving water last week up in Quetico 10 days ago. The bigger fish were further out from the initial flow. Green pumpkin tubes and soft plastics such as RaZors and Zulus in pearl colors worked well. Start further out and look for the current flow out a ways. Then continue to move your way inwards a little at a time after the bite slows at your current location. You can catch fish all the way up to where the current dumps into the lake. Casting up into the current works best, but fish can also be easily caught fishing from shore. Casting out into the current from the shore and using subtle twitches in the current with a soft plastic jerk bait or swimming a tube will work.