River Fishing

[outwalking]

So..I've never fished a river, or creek or stream or what have you.

How does one go about doing so? I don't have any gear for fly fishing; it seems to be the popular choice for this type of thing.

Nothing too complicated either! I like to keep it simple.

Thanks much!

[slivers86]

if you want to spin, use some small panther's. They seem to work quite well. depending on depth of the stream/river/creek. Rapala's work well in the bow, brown/rainbow patterns. I'm still pretty new, but those all work for me :)

[outwalking]

But like, what do I do with them? Lol!

Do I cast upriver, downriver, let my lure sit in the water somewhere, how does this all work? I haven't the first clue.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Panther martins are tiny spinners, Mepps are good for this too. Cast them slightly upstream and retreive them keeping tension on the line....depending on the river flow...the flow can force them deeper and down stream fast...you will be able to feel the vibration on the spinner in your rod more than likely.....by the time you get the spinner in it will be down stream from you IF you are fishing the flow.

Another thing to do is find a back-eddy or a pool that is slow flowing on the river....cast to the edge of the flow (you can see it) and retreive it back....again you want to feel the vibes from the spinner blades, so you know its working if the water is too murky to see it.

Fish any spoon or floating rapala in the same fashion.

If you are doing bait fishing....use a slip sinker rig with a gob of worms or a minnow...pick up a few different size of weights (1oz-4-5oz) to use in varying river flow speeds. Get a rod holder that sticks in the ground and a bell to hang on the tip of your rod.....wing it out, let it settle, put it in the rod holder, attach the bell....wait for it to ring, remove bell, set hook, reel in fish.... :) This would of course be for a river that allows bait...such as NSR.

Just a couple things that I do...

LC

[slivers86]

Mepps are good for this too
LC

I like the agila gold... the bows seem to enjoy biting it, not that I'm complaining or anything :D

[Lefty-Canuck]

I like the agila gold... the bows seem to enjoy biting it, not that I'm complaining or anything :D

Yah the Aglia are one of my faves....I like the ones with the little rubber fish at the back too!

LC

[NSRfishing]

where will you be fishing?

if its a walleye river jigs with curly tail grub and crankbaits weight worm and a hook will always catch a sucker if they are around

i have never fished for trout

[billie]

Learning how to 'read' the water is important. Fish like to hang where food gathers and the water speed is about 1 mph. Look for seams where different water speeds meet, pools under and after rapids, back eddies and obstacles.

Run any lure you put on your line close to you so you can see its action, a few feet away. Pull it at different speeds to see how fast it sinks and how it responds, spinners spin and crank baits wobble at different rates and speeds. This will give you an idea as to how to fish it. Try to duplicate the action using the flowing water and your retrieval.

I like brass colored blades for trout and lures with a touch of red seem to work better for me. Good luck.

[trapshooter]

Trout Magnet, Wooley Buggar w/ split shots, panther martins.

[Geezle]

The fish in the river that you intend to fish will mainly dictate the type of fishing you'll be doing.

I mainly fish the NSR, so I see a lot of pike, walleye, goldeye and suckers with the *very* rare sturgeon thrown in for variety.

When the water's clean-ish (which it really hasn't been at all this year) you can chuck any form of hardware. Big stuff for the pike like crankbaits, spoons and big spinners - smaller spoons and jig/rubber tail combos for walleye, and very small spoons or spinners for goldeye/mooneye.

When it's dirty like it has been this year it's a lot tougher to do well on hardware (unless you can find a feeder stream with cleaner water) and then I go to bait fishing. Chuck out a weight with a worm or minnow and just wait for the magic to happen :)

[outwalking]

where will you be fishing?


In the NSR near Devon, Wolf Creek (I need to do some more research..), any other random moving body of water we come to, provided fishing is allowed.

The fish in the river that you intend to fish will mainly dictate the type of fishing you'll be doing.

Heh, this made me laugh. You're right, of course. I'm interested in catching trout but I've never caught a walleye or pike in a river, and I've never seen a goldeye or a suckerfish - I knew about goldeye but seeing pictures of those suckers here was a new thing for me. Creepy looking things.

I caught that little Laker (but part of me still says "no black put it back"...) on a brown, yellow and bronze Mepps spinner with red fuzzies at the end. Lol. I'm a pro can you tell.

[Dust1n]

cast upstream and then let it drift then reel back up.
down and across for the most part