We just finished shooting a trophy walleye TV show on the Detroit River, La Salle, ON with our good friend Pat Pagano who is the founder and director of the ICHA Handicapabe Fishing Derby. Mike Atkins was on hand to operate the camera boat. Conditions were a little better than yesterday and our main fishing area was just off Mud Island in the Detroit River, Michigan, USA.
Skies were overcast and they were calling for a major storm to hit by noon. We were fortunate enough to catch all of our fish before the rain. My wife Barbara landed two nice walleye jigging on the bottom and fishing the new Rapala Saphine baitcating combo loaded with the new Sufix 832 “ghost” colored braided line. Pat landed several walleye using the Rapala Shift Rod and Rap reel. I tested the new Rapala Concept Ti rod and Rapala Shift reels and also used the Sufix 832 in the new “yellow” color. The bright colored Sufix braid made it easy to detect when our jigs contacted the bottom and when we had fish on. We ended-up landing 8-10 walleye ranging in size from 16″-27″ in about 6hr. of fishing. We were forced to fish the Michigan, USA side since the water had about 2′ visibility, while the Canadian side only had 6″ of visibility.
The 16′ River Hawk boat powered by a 50 hp. Yamaha 4-stroke and rigged with a Minn Kota Terrova 80 lb. thrust and bow/console Humminbird sonars enabled us to stay on top of schools of walleye in 20-35′ of water.
We caught all our fish on jigs with stinger hooks and rigged with 4″ TriggerX plastic worms. We used the new Sufix 832 lines in the “ghost & yellow” color in 10 lb. test. We had to work for our fish, but ended up capturing some excellent walleye jigging action and giving viewers some great walleye river fishing tips.
April 29th, 2012 at 7:29 pm
Good day Italo
It was great meeting you ,your Barbara,and filming crew on Saturday morning at the LaSalle dock.Thankyou for spending a few moments with us on jig tips and location to fish the Detroit River as it was our first time there. Meeting you and your crew and sharing that photo moment gave it that special touch.We are planning another trip down to the river and after seeing the fish that you caught convinced us that another day was definitely in order.Can you please send us some information on obtaining the US license it would be greatly apprciated as we have never applied for this before.Could you please provide us with some more details on locations were to try and fish on the river. Please keep up the good work on your show as we watch them all the time.Do you know when this show will be on T.V. Once again Thankyou from the Strathroy group.
April 30th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Hi John…It was a pleasure meeting you too and the rest of your group! Water clarity in the Detroit River is one of the main factors that affects the walleye fishing. If the water is too murky, it’s tough to catch anything. If the water has 3-4′ of clarity the fishing can be excellent. If there are strong winds on Lake St. Clair, most of the murky water drifts down the Canadian side of teh river and that is what had happened this past weekend. All of the successful walleye anglers fished the American side and many of them were cathing their limits in 1-2 hrs. of either jigging or trolling with their traditional hand-lines. To get a Michigan non-resident angling licence just go to, http://www.mdnr-elicense.com/Welcome/Default.aspx , and follow the instructions to get your licence. The locations I normally fish for walleye at this time of the year on the Detroit River/Canadian-side is just off the south-tip of Fighting Island and along the “salt-docks” in front of the Windsor Salt company. If the water is murky on the Canadian side, we fish all along the Michigan shoreline that is accross from Windsor Salt Company all the way south to Mud Island (about half-way down Fighting Island, but near the Michigan shoreline). If we fish the current breaks in water from 15-20′ we jig with a 1/2 oz. jighead/4″ plastic worm If we fish 30-40′ deep, we use a 5/8 oz. jighead/4″ plastic worm. We normally also use 3″ long “stinger-hooks” with the 4″ plastic worm and find 50% of our walleye are only hooked on the stinger hook. Hope you catch your limit next time you get out….God bless you, Italo
December 20th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Hi Italo! Thanks for such a useful information on Detroit River fishing. I am planning to go there in April 2013 for the first time. Never been there and was wondering if you could avise on where boat lunches and hotel/motels are located near by? Thank you.
December 20th, 2012 at 8:55 pm
Hi Alex…You are welcome! It’s a wonderful spring walleye fishery. Best place to launch is the La Salle, ON public boat launch. From there you navigate up the channel to the north end of Fighting Island. You will see the cluster of boats fishing in pods in all directions. Just jig on the bottom with a 1/2 or 5/8 oz. jighead and 4″ TriggerX plastic worm or finesse minnow and you should have no trouble catching walleye!…God bless you, Italo