RR walleye ?? for jig em up or ahab or anyone

Well, Jig-em has ice fished the beast way more than I have as this is the first year I have ever fished it.  What I have noticed is time of day is a huge factor when targeting a walleye bite.  What time of day did you catch your fish?  If I was a betting man, it was between 4:30 and 7pm.  I have caught plenty of pike and even a sauger during the day, but all eyes have been just before or just after dark.  If you caught a nice fish in one spot, I would fish it 2 more evenings.  If you don't slam another one, move on.  That is my rookie Red River observation so far. 

catfisher Said:

When you guys are trying to find spots to fish the river what makes you stay at a spot or do you move alot?  I found a new spot fished it saturday night and caught a good 24" walleye fattest one ive seen in awhile.  That was it other than goldeye.  Fished it Sun morning and nothing but goldeye.  What im getting at, is that enough to make you think there is more/bigger ones in that area or find a new one.  Do you guys fish the same spot most of the times out or switch?  I thought this year would be great on the river with the low water but its not producing as well as i would have thought.  Any advise is greatly appriciated

Thanks,

 Ahab must be using the a net   he either know what he is doing or  he is buying fish from Josh.  Capt catches way too many nice fish

catfisher Said:

When you guys are trying to find spots to fish the river what makes you stay at a spot or do you move alot?  I found a new spot fished it saturday night and caught a good 24" walleye fattest one ive seen in awhile.  That was it other than goldeye.  Fished it Sun morning and nothing but goldeye.  What im getting at, is that enough to make you think there is more/bigger ones in that area or find a new one.  Do you guys fish the same spot most of the times out or switch?  I thought this year would be great on the river with the low water but its not producing as well as i would have thought.  Any advise is greatly appriciated

Thanks,

The only thing that makes me stay in a spot is depth, current strength, and MAYBE structure. Depth trumps structure by far. By the sound of it, you should concentrate on that location some more. Don't give up if you run into schools of goldeye, actually, that's a good sign. (or can be, as long as you aren't in 15 FOW)

The rest will come. I can't give out too much information but it sounds like you're doing better than most. As stated, time of day can and will be an important factor also. Early morning and early evening can be great, yes, but mostly for numbers. The bigger size fish can be caught mid day.

I'm still waiting for some cold weather. I got a snowmobile for guiding (I don't want clients to have a stroke trying to help me haul the ice house up and down the cliffs of the Red) but still have several open-water spots in the middle of the river. So I'm not venturing too far which limits my success. I have caught tons of pike and sauger, with the occasional nice eye but nothing worth writing home to mom about yet. So Lord, please send a few days of good ol' ND Winter COLD so I don't have an anxiety attack every time I log onto fishingbuddy in the morning hoping there isn't a picture of a big Red River Walleye.

What seems to be the magic depth? Ive fished the red on ice for many years now just started exploring more this year. Maybe a pm if you want to be more careful about divulging info. I'm a 100 miles away

No worries there. Anywhere from 3 to 7 foot is a good depth. Doesn't necessarily need to be close to shore, and for dang sure doesn't need to be in the main channel, although if you can find a gravel flat or really unappealing structure like that, that goes on for quite a ways (like 100 yards) and is in the middle of the channel, that'd be a great spot too.

Too many people think "hey, I bet there's some bigguns in the middle of the river" and it just requires too much work fishing in those depths and currents.

I don't know about the red river since I have never fished it, but on the ice for walleyes I like to be in 12 to 22 feet of water with around 17' being my most productive.   In the spring I'll go real shallow close to shore in the bays where they start coming in to feed on frogs that start thinking about waking up. although I don't think depth is always as important to whats around it, like deep water, a shoreline, trees, weeds open flat, etc etc.  In the summer all bets are off when it comes to depth, as long as it's deep enough to cover their backs I'll fish it. 

what is the average depth of the channel in the red?

 In the Grand Forks area the average depth is probably in the 16-18 foot range.

MuskyManiac Said:
 In the Grand Forks area the average depth is probably in the 16-18 foot range.

I am pretty sure that is with normal water levels.  I would take about 6 feet off that number right now.  Running with a boat got pretty nerve racking watching the depth this fall.  Yes there were some holes that deep and deeper, but channel seemed 9-12.  But then again I was fishing up by Drayton and sometimes near Oslo.

Captain Ahab Said:

MuskyManiac Said:
 In the Grand Forks area the average depth is probably in the 16-18 foot range.

I am pretty sure that is with normal water levels.  I would take about 6 feet off that number right now.  Running with a boat got pretty nerve racking watching the depth this fall.  Yes there were some holes that deep and deeper, but channel seemed 9-12.  But then again I was fishing up by Drayton and sometimes near Oslo.

I was just going to type this. Spring & Summer are different than Fall/Winter and your guess is pretty close.