Photo by Ron Sinfelt

The old saying "What goes up must come down" can be applied to walleyes after their spring spawning run in a river.

Legions of walleye chasers will be out there jigging and rigging for their wallhanger when the fish head upstream. Few anglers, if any, remain on the water when consensus amongst the most revered local river rats is that the big parade is over. Many people head for other rivers where the walleye wedding march plays a week or two later. Others stow their rods and get back to work.

Back when I was a professional firefighter, April was time to be a walleye gypsy by traveling literally thousands of miles to be there when fish were pointed upstream and eager to feed. Nowadays, I seldom travel more than a couple hundred miles from home, supplementing my fire department pension with a little more guiding work. Clients don't want to hear "you shoulda been here last week" at the end of the spawning run and before fish actively move into summer feeding patterns several weeks later.

As a guide, you may be able to tell folks that walleyes spawn primarily over rocky rubble bottom at night when water temperatures warm to 45 to 48 degrees. You can also tell those paying to sit in your boat that the big female fish they wanted to dance with for possible inclusion on the trophy wall at home is sitting in a slack-bellied post-partum funk with no interest in feeding. And that comes as close to telling the truth as a fisherman ever gets. But clients don't want to hear about last week, or see your card tricks, or marvel at your turkey-calling prowess without benefits of a call. Those 'eyes haven't left the river, so what are you going to do?

You may start with a reference to Wanda, that old female walleye now skulking near the bottom in an attempt to recover from losing nearly one-third of her body weight overnight during spawning. Catch and release of female walleyes is growing in popularity. Trust me, the hardest fish you will ever set free is your first walleye over 10 pounds. If you plan on keeping a few 'eyes for the pan, fishing is all about catching walleyes from legal size up to about 20 inches anyway. And these male walleyes have been on a feeding rip since the spawn -- much like teen-aged boys after dumping off their prom dates.

The key is presentation. Hooking up means putting something desirable in front of the fish you want to catch. You could be a veritable jigging machine, but after the spawn, the only bug-eyed fish that will see your jig hopping seductively over the rocky bottom are those big post-spawn females. Male walleyes are sliding back downstream from where they came, but in no particular hurry. They just coast a little higher in the water column, which has probably warmed at least a few more degrees beyond that 45- to 48-degree mark when the focus of the entire adult walleye population was centered on spawning.