Fish-Hawk.Net

just out from my cottage on the ottawa river near castleford there are old piers, which have had the tops blasted off many years ago and now are 12ft by 12 ft slabs of concrete on the ottawa river bottom. This was for many years a great place to jig for walleye. Now i cant seem to catch them consistently. I have cought them on occasion and last year even pulled out a 7lb walleye, but i want different techniques to try and catch good numbers.any tips on what lures to use and how to present them?? thanks

Farlane

Maybe the problem isnt the presentation mr Farlane . Maybe the fish are just not there all the time? How deep are the old cribs in?

Buddy of mine is doing pretty good with large walleyes on the Ottawa, 3-6 feet with lots of weeds near deepwater, biggest at 28" so far.

The next Ottawa River Walleye i catch..........will be my First

I haven't tried it this year (too much trout fishing) but last year I was using a Slow Death Hook with a worm. that should work well with a slow retrieve over the old slab. Good Luck

All the walleye we've caught so far have been on texas rigged chartreuse/white Senkos drifted along the bottom.

the top of the pier is about 6 ft, but bottom around is 25-30 ft. only caught bass while casting directly on top of it

Perhaps if you gave us the GPS coords of the old pier, we can give you more specific advice. Just kidding!

Believe it or not, I caught several eyes on the O from shore. Usually on light spoons and don't ask me why but that's what works for me at a specific spot.

BM

Well from my experience they do school a lot so it's possible that they have just moved away a bit ... I know that I've fished where they will absolutely not bite one thing even though we know they are there ... if you have a boat try bottom bouncers with a worm harness or small rapallas .. sometimes they work and you can cover a lot of territory to perhaps find a school ... I've also been fishing with leeches and caught no walleye (but lots of like) whereas fishermen just a few boat lengths away are catching them on minnows with floating jigs ... so you can try a few different types of live baits ... they are likely down quite low so these techniques will get your bait/lures down to the fish ...

If they are there they gotta get hugry sometime ...

You need to be versatile if they aren't biting the same old lure. Are you jigging with live bait (worms, leeches, minnows?) or plastics? Try mixing it up. This summer, I am catching most of my eyes in the Ottawa system on jigs and green/yellow twister tails. If they are really slow, I tie on a single hook with sinkers and a worm. This often works.
It may also be the times you fish. I find that eyes tend to be most aggressive during stable weather (at least 3 days of similar Temp/pressure/winds) and, of course, around full moon time.
Keep us posted on the problem! The fall is the best time to get the big ones!!!

we usually use a bright coloured jig head with yellow tails and a live worm. but these are catching us mainly catfish

The last 4 saturdays on the ottawa have netted me 50..yes 50 eyes!! Started with a plain jig tipped with a worm,on bottom jigging and drifting with the wind.The bite was light and most fish came off in the net,but productive.Switched to a black maribou jig tipped with a worm,well the eyes destroyed it,they smashed it over and over again.Ive gone through 4 of them already.A black bucktail works too but the maribou is dynamite.Match jig size with wind conditions and put out alot of line.Im drifting a spot 28-30 feet deep off a 15-20 flat and next to a 35-40 drop.The drop off gets me cats,the trough eyes,the flat bass,all with the same black maribou.On a windless day I thrw a slip bobber set at 1 foot above bottom,smaller jighead,tipped with a large minnow,that got me a 6 pounder,which i matched yesterday in all that wind with the maribou..