Max Wilson shares an important tactic for targeting spring river walleye.
Casting jigs out into the main channel simply doesn’t create enough movement when the current is slow. Therefore, when the current drops down, Wilson will switch to lighter jigs and drag them up current with the trolling motor. With a good cast behind the boat, he’ll pull his jigs slowly upstream about 0.3-0.4 mph with a cadence that involves a slow pulse pulling the rod forward and letting it fall back to touch the bottom.
Plastics work well for this type of fishing and Wilson recommends any type of swimbait with a paddle tail. In this clip, he using the B-Fish-N Pulse-R on a 1/8th to 3/16th ounce Clam TG jig in this video. Pair this with a Medium-action rod like the 7′ 1″ JTX for a little bit of give with a solid backbone to really drive that hook home.
During this time of the season, fish are pretty spread out in these areas as they are going through transition zones to get up to their spawning areas. This makes it hard to sit on specific pods of fish, so dragging plastics is a great way to cover water to find more fish.
