With the smells of spring in the air, most anglers in the Lake St. Clair region begin to look with eagerness toward the spring walleye fishery on the Detroit River . Thanks to a year round open season, this exciting time gives local anglers a chance to target walleye well before those in other regions can, and thousands of anglers take advantage of this fishery.

As a full time fishing guide on the river for 16 years, I've targeted these tasty critters my whole life primarily by vertical jigging. This fun technique matches light action tackle with deep water fish which is as exciting as it gets. I love jigging, and it works for all species of fish because the upward pull and downward fall movement mimics a weak or dying fish. In a typical river system, walleye are primarily facing up current and as you drift your boat, your bait simply shows up swimming in front of them near the bottom and becomes an easy meal for those fish.

 

The technique requires you understand the physics behind how this method works in order to get it to work for you. If you've primarily been a lake fisherman, you may find that the complexity of the river system and its strong current with drop offs, islands and humps, etc is a lot to deal with in the beginning. But if you follow some basic rules on boat positioning and tackle selection, you can figure things out quick.

The first thing you need is a suitable boat. Big cabin cruisers like the typical musky charter boats are not the ideal rig for jigging the river. A smaller, more maneuverable vessel like your typical 16-22 ft fishing rig is the way to go. You will also do best to have a trolling motor on the bow to help position yourself so you can keep your line vertical in the ever present spring winds.

The basic theory is to have your boat, jig and current all go the same speed as you drift down the river, hence the 'vertical' aspect of your presentation. The enemy is the wind, which wants to push your boat in all sorts of directions. Without the wind, keeping your line vertical is pretty easy, but as the wind pushes against the side of your boat, it moves it off its mark requiring you to correct the drift with the use of the trolling motor. I'll point the bow into the wind and use as much power as needed to fight the wind or 'chase' my jig in an effort to stay over top of it. You also benefit by using light line like 4-10lb braided line which cuts the water well and always catches more fish than say 25lb. Match that line with a quality 6'-6 ½' fast action graphite spinning rod and a 3/8 to 5/8oz jig with a good hook and 3-4" straight tailed natural colored plastic worm and you are set to start jigging.

So you need a trolling motor, light line, non-whippy quality rod, and a good jig with a sharp hook. Now comes the technique. I generally hop my jig about 12" at a moderate to fast rate on the way up, and then follow it slowly on the way down. The slow fall does two things; it allows the jig to make a larger and longer arch above the bottom giving the fish more of a chance to bite it, and it also allows you to feel the bite when one takes it. A lot of anglers do not hop the bait enough which, when sitting on the bottom for a second or two, gets pulled away from you inch by inch. Their next move is to say they can't feel the bottom and then start letting out line in an effort to regain contact with the bottom. The next thing you know their line is on a 45 degree angle which most often leads to no fish and lots of snags. In summary, as you drift down river hop the bait a lot and don't let it sit on bottom for anymore than a ½ of a second. If you lose contact with the bottom, the best thing to do is to take a few seconds and reel the bait up to the surface and drop it back down to the bottom. Just drift and keep hopping it. If you catch a fish, there are likely more there so pay attention to exactly where in the channel and at what depth that all important first fish came from, and then drift that exact location over and over.

So that is how I fish the river for the springtime months of April and May. The fish using the river are mainly moving from Lake Erie to Lake St.Clair and the other way around. As anglers we are simply targeting the fish that are passing through this waterway on their way to their traditional spawning grounds, which may be in the river, but mainly occurs on the big lakes. If you would like a more hands on detailed experience, a personalized guide trip can be booked through my website www.fishstclair.com

Good luck and good fishing! Jon Bondy