River Jigging for Trophy Walleye

Walleye start to migrate into river systems in the fall, and large numbers of fish are often concentrated into small areas in the spring. Areas of river systems fill up with huge schools of fish, these locations can change by the day as fish migrate upriver to spawning locations or drop back down river after they’re done. It is important to note that not all walleye spawn at the same time, and you will often have many days where you can target both pre and post-spawn fish. Presentation and location is everything. I could be called a “River Rat.” I grew up riding my bike to Saginaw River in Michigan after school to fish every chance I could get and would hop in the boat with Dad on the weekends. Fishing river systems is where I’m most comfortable, and I’m going to share what I’ve learned over the years as my fishing evolved towards targeting trophy size fish.


The author Brandon Owczarzak holds up a trophy walleye caught jigging a Salmo Slick Shad soft bait.