Fish Tales and other Drivel
By Dick Baker
Connecticut River Walleye have SEX on their minds!!
Wow! It’s been a wonderfully easy and short winter and it looks as if it will be a warm and long spring. I’ve packed my ice fishing gear in the cellar and brought out my spring rods and tackle box. No big surprise is the large array of jig heads , many to be donated to the bottom of the Connecticut River! Yup! The Connecticut water is warming up and the walleye are moving upstream with sex on their minds. The thousands of walleye that spread out in secret hiding holes later in the year will be gathering and moving as far upstream as possible. They will eventually find a deep hole next to their favorite spawning site and begin to feed while they wait for the water temperature to get up to the magic 45 degrees. They will still be a little cold and lethargic but they will be found in numbers. The best method will involve live bait and slow motion retrieve. OK! So your first project is to locate annual spawning sites. Walleye spawn in rocky gravel bottom from 2 to 20 feet deep. This won’t be in the heavy current but it will need some current or good wave action to keep the eggs free of silt. Spawning normally begins when water temperature reaches 40 degrees and will end about the time when the temperature exceeds 50 degrees. The best spawning sites are used annually, with actual spawning taking place from sunset until midnight. If you aren’t lucky enough to know a successful local fisherman you might find it helpful to contact NHF&G biologists Gabe Gries or Jason Carrier (phone 603-3529669 or email gabriel.gries@wildlife.nh.gov or jason.carrier@wildlife.nh.gov ) . In 2009 Gabe and Jason completed an April walleye inventory study at Bellows Falls and Vernon Dam. Pre-spawn walleye are also going to be found in the same location year after year. That will be on a 30ft. deep flat that is out of the
main current and just downstream of the spawning area. If you fish from a boat these fish will be obvious on your fish locator. They will show up as solid marks about two
structure. I’ve been told that 99 percent of the river walleye will swim upstream as far as possible before stopping to deposit their eggs. For that reason I often find
Comfy day on the shore of the Connecticut River. You won't catch many walleye this way but sometimes its irresistable!!....photo by Dick Baker
feet off the bottom. At the outlet of a VT. stream I once was confused by what I thought was a mass of walleye. I fished over them for two hours until I caught one on a whole crawler and realized that they were suckers. Suckers generally show up very tight to the bottom while walleye will hold further off the bottom and actually give a better return signature. WHERE- The two most famous of NH’s spring walleye fisheries are below Vernon dam at Vernon Vt. and upstream at Bellows Fall just north of Walpole NH. Both areas have limited small boat access but shore fishermen often do well too. Both sites produce lots of trout so you’re not limited to the whims of finicky walleye. The 2009 census recorded many rainbow and brown trout and even some big brook trout caught while bouncing jigs and crawlers in search of walleye. Although spawning walleye might be found at any of the small creeks and streams that enter from the VT or NH side of the Connecticut the preponderance of the pre-spawn walleye will be found at the bottom of the first upstream
myself, near home, fishing the waters above Woodsville, NH upstream to the small, Dodge Falls hydro-electric plant opposite the old Rygate paper mill. It’s a beautiful and secluded place to fish and produces some of my biggest yellow perch of the year. The sad story is that the best walleye fishing is the VT shoreline just south of the old paper mill and dam. Some mean spirited landowner has posted the entire stretch. You can toss a stone from the public roadside, over the posted signs and splash it into what used to be a great shore to sit and wait for a walleye to take a weighted crawler or shiner. It’s still accessible if you take the risk of launching a canoe below the hydro-electric dam and fight your way down and across current to the VT shore. I’ve done it before but I’m always hesitant because the flow is directly related to the whims of the huge Comerford Reservoir hydro-electric dam several miles upstream. If you try it. remember to wear your life vest on and don’t try to anchor in the current. WHEN-There is little doubt that the most productive walleye fishing
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is during the first hours after sunset or a couple of hours before sunrise. I love to fish these hours during the summer when I can even set up camp along the river when the evening temperatures are balmy. But, after a long winter of frigid and windy weather on the ice, I like the idea of fishing the first 50 and 60 degree days. They seem so warm in comparison. A 50 degree April day can quickly become a below freezing evening as soon as the sun disappears. The mornings are even more so and require all of the clothing layers that I wore while standing on a foot of ice. I have the ultimate respect for those hardy fishermen who don’t even show up at the spring walleye sites until the edge of dark. But, I do catch walleye during the day and I only require a couple for my evening meal. HOW- After many years of stalking Conn. River walleye my tackle and methods have become very simple. My 4”X 6” plastic box contains a dozen jigs in sizes 1/4 oz. and 1/2 oz. Colors can vary but I’m attracted to bright green and bright yellow and green. These will be fished with night crawlers. I know shiners can be a super bait but I don’t like carrying a bucket and 2 gallons of water around the slippery shoreline rocks. The remainder of my box contains a half dozen yellow/green #2 floating jig heads, a packet of small golden swivels and a dozen 1/41/2 oz. bell sinkers. When I’ve located a fishy looking spot with a reasonable current turning into a calm backwater my chore is to hook the head of a whole crawler onto one of the floating jig heads. The floating jig head is about 18” below a small swivel with one of the bell sinkers sliding free above the swivel. I cast this colorful and tasty treat into the near edge of the current and release line until it has gone deep and swung out of the current and into the calm backwater. Now, I
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