MR Walleye Fishing the Tailrace

[Vollmer]

Two of us fished the Tailrace, yesterday. We got there around 6:00 am and fished until around 6:00 pm. We cruised down to our first spot, in the dark, and got setup on an area we thought would be promising. We caught a couple of small males pretty quickly. We spent the entire morning in that area, cruising up river a bit, then slipping back little by little, rinsing and repeating. We caught quite a few smaller males, ranging from 12"-17".

Around lunchtime we decided to go try out a few other spots, looking for other pods of walleye, and hoping for some bigger fish. While bopping around, we picked up a big sucker and a burbot, but no walleye.

We finished the day back in our initial area. The area was still loaded with the small males. We got right back into catching, almost immediately. (never leave fish to find fish, as they say) We were using our electronics to locate pods of 3+ fish and casting at them. I was pitching a jig/minnow, and my buddy was casting a jig/plastic, all day. The catch rate was about 50/50 between the two setups. In the end, I would guess we boated over 60 walleye on the day.

It was a REALLY nice day out, and I was quite surprised at the lack of boats that were there. We had that spot that we were in all to ourselves almost the entire day. I don't know if there was ever more than 10 boats on the water at one time.

 

[Rowdie]

They were all south. On the drive to Biz yesterday there were A LOT of boats in Ft Rice and Hazelton area.

 

[Pheasant 54]

On Saturday Hazelton had them parked all the way up the road almost to the highway

 

[Allen]

At ~0900 on Saturday, my buddy counted 71 boat/trailer combos at Hazelton. I am guessing it was higher by 1000.

All we could find were smaller (12-18 inch) males. And a 12 lb northern. I caught all mine sitting in 6 ft of water pitching a twister tail up on to a sandbar. I am guessing every bite I had came in 3 ft of water, or less. My buddies were sitting just a few yards away and were catching fish out in somewhat deeper water.

 

[Wall-eyes]

For some reason tailrace has not been good we went up 3 weeks ago only two fish and that was it. Been south gun range rest of time. I will say best fishing I have seen in a while and they are all over the place and depth

 

[Rowdie]

At ~0900 on Saturday, my buddy counted 71 boat/trailer combos at Hazelton. I am guessing it was higher by 1000.

All we could find were smaller (12-18 inch) males. And a 12 lb northern. I caught all mine sitting in 6 ft of water pitching a twister tail up on to a sandbar. I am guessing every bite I had came in 3 ft of water, or less. My buddies were sitting just a few yards away and were catching fish out in somewhat deeper water.

Thanks for the report. You'd think one or two guys would at least brag a little with that many boats out. BTW I'd take a limit of 16-18 inchers ALL DAY!!