walleye spawn nolin river ?

[ukfishin]

when will the walleye be spawning up in the nolin river ? i herd it is normaly in march sometime. i have never fished for walleye but would like to give it a try this year. what is the best bait and way to present it

[walleyemaniac]

dunno much about nolin as far as where, but when depends on temp. Once the water temps hit 42 degrees walleye start to spawn. Baits are everything from crankbaits, spinners, spoons, bladebaits, and my favorite the good ol jig tipped with minnow or night crawler. I almost always throw a 3" twister tail in chartreuse, white, pink, or fire tiger, with various jig heads, flat head styles, roadrunners, whistlers, good ol round heads, in various weights, 1/16 oz to 1/4 oz depending on conditions and current. Jig head colors in orange, chartreuse, pink, white...

I rig a jig by putting body on first, then threading live minnow on so it presents like its swimming upright, usually by taking the hook up through the bottom of the mouth and out the head. If using crawlers, I don't put a body on, just run the whole crawler up onto the bait keeper on the jig head, and pinch an inch off the tail of the crawler.
If they start short striking, I have some homemade stinger hooks that I'll add to the jig.

Ideally, If you can find em with search baits like cranks and spoons, then you should stop and throw jigs in there. They hang real close to the bottom and jigs are just easier to keep down there. You should retrieve by just jigging about two feet back to you at a time. If you aren't hitting bottom, you generally won't be catching walleye. At certain times of the year, they have been known to hit top water baits.

Check out WalleyeCentral.com for tips and ideas. They mostly deal with Lake Erie and that area, but have some good info about the species.

There are times when they will hit like a truck, but most of the time, they are very light biters, and you need a good sensitive rod.

Good Luck.

[walleyemaniac]

dunno much about nolin as far as where, but when depends on temp. Once the water temps hit 42 degrees walleye start to spawn. Baits are everything from crankbaits, spinners, spoons, bladebaits, and my favorite the good ol jig tipped with minnow or night crawler. I almost always throw a 3" twister tail in chartreuse, white, pink, or fire tiger, with various jig heads, flat head styles, roadrunners, whistlers, good ol round heads, in various weights, 1/16 oz to 1/4 oz depending on conditions and current. Jig head colors in orange, chartreuse, pink, white...

I rig a jig by putting body on first, then threading live minnow on so it presents like its swimming upright, usually by taking the hook up through the bottom of the mouth and out the head. If using crawlers, I don't put a body on, just run the whole crawler up onto the bait keeper on the jig head, and pinch an inch off the tail of the crawler.
If they start short striking, I have some homemade stinger hooks that I'll add to the jig.

Ideally, If you can find em with search baits like cranks and spoons, then you should stop and throw jigs in there. They hang real close to the bottom and jigs are just easier to keep down there. You should retrieve by just jigging about two feet back to you at a time. If you aren't hitting bottom, you generally won't be catching walleye. At certain times of the year, they have been known to hit top water baits.

Check out WalleyeCentral.com for tips and ideas. They mostly deal with Lake Erie and that area, but have some good info about the species.

There are times when they will hit like a truck, but most of the time, they are very light biters, and you need a good sensitive rod.

Good Luck.

[kentuckykingfisher]

I believe they start their run a little bit before the white bass do so I'd say middle to late march depending on water temps. I caught a few last year during the white bass runs and that was early April.