Going to be in the Kawishiwi triangle area from Farm EP next week and I was wondering how you folks target river system walleye this time of year? I've usually had good luck in current above and below rapids/falls but I've never fished this area or this time of year. I'm thinking depth & water temperature isn't as big of an issue with river systems since it's partially moving water, but that's just a guess. My plan is to fish the usual summer spots including around islands, reefs, and moving water. Any thoughts on the wheres and hows?

Also- I'm thinking of taking my PiranhaMax 4 and possibly a few dozen minnows, but I don't want to overdo it. Would I be better off fishing the obvious spots lindy rigging and jigging with crawlers and plastics than hauling in the extra weight?

Thanks in advance!

I don't even use live bait in the Fall any more. I'll troll cranks in the evenings and go vertical with blade baits during the day.

We're heading into the Kawishiwi river from EP30 on Sep30th and would love to hear how you found fish.

We almost always trip this time of year and my free advice (guaranteed or your money back) is keep going deeper until you find the fish. Things change quickly based on weather that time of year and fishing with it.

Last year we had intel from a guy who left 2 days before we went in and they were killing everything on topwater, specifically buzz-plugs. We called every store on the way up trying to track them down. You can imagine how many clerks thought we were asking for butt-plugs, but....

We eventually found them and spent days trying them. But the only lure that caught anything much was a deep diver (Rapala Deep Tail Dancer 11 Fishing lure, 4.375-Inch, Purpledescent, which dives to 30 ft). I wish we'd gone deeper sooner in the trip.

Looking forward to hearing what worked.

Thanks to both on the advice. I have a deep tail dancer already in the box. If I can fit a 2nd it'll come along, too. I guess I'll throw a couple blades back in.

Amarillo- I think I'll scrap the minnows as they're a bit of a hassle and keep the finder- especially if we're going to be searching deeper water.

How about 3" white plastic grubs on a jig? That or half crawler on a jig might be my minnow alternative.

I'll do my best to post the results when I get back home.

zman shads (4-5") are the best soft plastic for minnow replacement. If you cant find those, a scented plastic like gulp would be a good substitute.

Chuckles: "Looking forward to hearing what worked. "

Hi Chuckles-

It was pretty slow out there from a fishing standpoint but busy from a people standpoint. We planned to camp at the split, but campsites leading up to and down from that point were almost all taken. We camped further south at site 1133 and ended up searching the main part of the lake and marked several walleye on the bottom. Started seeing them at 16-18ft where depth started to bottom out. Actually had a few bites there with a Gulp minnow, but no takers/hook sets. We also saw a lot of marks out in 'no man's land' at about 21' between the point S. of the camp sites and the emergent rocks across the lake. Wind was blowing from the NW and there were several marks along the SE shoreline where the down slope bottomed out around 18'.

As for actually boating them... no such luck. Vertical jigging was impossible with the wind and was almost impossible for drift fishing for my skill level. In hindsight I should have changed to trolling cranks or getting heavier weights for Lindy rigging- but for a few reasons we called it quits for the afternoon and never made it back on the water for the evening bite.

Crawlers didn't seem to be drawing bites, but I wouldn't discount it. Wish I could give you better information, but it was slow. All the fishermen we passed by at camps or in a boat said that it was 'slow' or that they barely caught anything. Back at the outfitter they told me that fishing in general has been bad since the second week in June this year. Hopefully with the cold weather they'll turn on and start a nice bite in the fall for you.

One last note for anyone headed to Clear Lake- I have no idea what's going on in that lake. DNR shows an uptick in walleye population but I didn't mark a damn thing in that lake. Granted- we only fished it one afternoon/evening but it could be that they were in the rocky/weedy shallow parts in the south and hard to mark. In the searching we did in the few deep holes in that lake showed zilch. It either got heavily fished out and the DNR didn't feel the need to restock based on the last survey or we just didn't know where to fish. I'd bet on the latter :-)

Thanks for the intel. Sorry the bite was tough. Hopefully we can catch enough for you and I both :) But I might not bet on that...

I hope so. Best of luck! Let me know how it goes.

jcheese: "I hope so. Best of luck! Let me know how it goes."

Let's just say that we were kind enough to leave the fish for the next guy...

Seriously, great trip but it was tough fishing. We'd heard of guys just a few days before who claimed to catch 50 walleyes a day and we were in the exact same spots, but the temp had dropped 20 degrees in 2 days and the few fish we did catch had empty bellies.

Forgive me for a really dumb question. When you mentioned Clear Lake are you referring to Clear lake Iowa?

Clear Lake in the Kawishiwi Triangle.

Chuckles:

Let's just say that we were kind enough to leave the fish for the next guy...


Seriously, great trip but it was tough fishing. We'd heard of guys just a few days before who claimed to catch 50 walleyes a day and we were in the exact same spots, but the temp had dropped 20 degrees in 2 days and the few fish we did catch had empty bellies. "

Hey Chuckles- only a couple months late replying here. :-)

Thanks for the update and sorry you didn't have better luck. We had a great trip, too. Funny how I focus so much on the fishing before we go yet afterwards I can recall the campsites and lakes in vivid detail but I forget exactly what and how many fish we caught. But maybe the fish weren't worth remembering this trip!