I headed out yesterday (November 5th) with friend Jim Price on a bright sunny balmy November day to try our luck. The boat launch at Selkirk Park was probably the busiest it has been all season. We quickly got the boat ready for launch and were soon heading south toward Lockport.
I decided to stop along the north side of the Selkirk golf course to try a trolling run with some crankbaits. Over the many years I have fished the Red, this spot has produced some really large walleye. While not as popular as others, it is always worth a check. Not so on this run at least and we headed further down river past Doc Reeds and towards the Miracle Mile (Lower Fort Garry) . A few boats were scattered along this stretch of river, most anchored near the main river channel.
We spot locked on little ledge in 10 feet of water which was loaded with baitfish on the Humminbird Helix 10. After a half hour with non stop sauger action, I hooked into a good walleye that managed to shake the hook.
Frustrated I said to Jim, let’s try a drift! The current was surprisingly strong on this day and it made us float down stream at a perfect speed. This really picked up the action and Jim hooked into a big walleye almost immediately. A short time later ten pounds of beauty ended up in the bottom of my net. The gorgeous greenback measured out at an even 28 inches before being released.
UPSTREAM OR DOWN?
As the day went on we alternated between drifting with jigs and trolling crankbaits. I often get the question about trolling direction, either up current or down? I almost always try both and let the fish tell me what they want. When trolling downstream, your lure will dive faster because of less water resistance so sometimes that can help. On this day we caught all our walleye going into the current. Trolling speed averaged 1.8 mph, a good speed with the water temperature at 39.4 Fahrenheit.
We used 1/4 jigs rigged with soft plastic. I used a Berkley Max Scent flat nose minnow as well as a couple different kinds of swimbaits. Jim caught his fish on a white Ripple Shad. Both were equally effective.
PLASTIC IS FANTASTIC
We had frozen shiners along but given the number of sauger in the system, it would have been a waste. Soft plastic works better in 80 percent of the situations that I fish. There are still people out there that don’t believe that but it is absolutely true.
Cranks of choice were a Flicker Minnow in silver and a Flicker Shad in a gold shiner pattern.