Walleye anglers casting early in 2018
Late Saturday afternoon, the water temperature of the Maumee River at Waterville climbed to a frigid 39°. That's still too cold for the 41-45° water temps that walleye innately look for before they start their famous Maumee River spawn and feeding frenzy.
Despite that bone-chilling water, dozens of fishermen braved the current near Bluegrass Island and Side Cute Metropark.
"It's still really early in the season yet. But there is going to be plenty of good fishing to come," Martin Morrissette said.
Martin Morrissette came all the way up for Columbus to target the walleye. He says he's done this the last 16 or 17 springs.
His secret: "Same thing everybody else uses: a 3" twister tail, a 2/0 floating jig head, about a half-ounce egg sinker."
Here is the Saturday river report from Maumee Tackle, complete with a link to their site at the side of this page:
"Despite the cold nights we have had we saw some success out on the river yesterday. The conditions have held steady over the lat week and with today and tomorrows warm up we should see a slight increase in the bite. We have seen most fish come out of the Bluegrass Island area. Davis overlook and Jerome rd have also been decent spots to try. Not many reports from Ft Meigs but I know that that is always an area that produces.
Only thing with Ft Meigs is that after 2015 the river ice dug out the bottom where most anglers like to cross so any one 5’7″ or shorter may have trouble wading across- a canoe is a better option.
Current is slow for the most part so one trick you may try in these slow conditions is tipping your jig with a minnow or piece of nightcrawler. Some fellas tried it the other day and had some success-went home with 3 each.
The reason live bait isn’t used much this time of year is that the current in the Maumee is usually pretty strong, and between that and the rocks the live bait is ripped off each cast. Worms wiggle and squirm and smell pretty good, which is why walleye seem to like them, but when used to tip a jig, a worm imitates a dancing minnow, a flitting crayfish, or a swimming nymph.
On Lake Erie, nightcrawlers have been used for years as sweeteners on weight-forward spinner jigs like the Erie Dearie. This same technique can be used on a jig head. These fish like the smell, look, and feel of a worm. It may be just that little extra needed to trigger a bite on these sluggish fish."
