My first experiences chasing early spring river walleyes were not always the best, from a catching standpoint that is. Early in my "fishing career" I learned from what I seen others do.  In the early 80's I learned if you drifted down stream and vertically worked a jig you might catch walleye and sometimes we did. Other times we just lost lots of jigs. Vertical jigging is done by every single walleye angler on every stretch of river throughout the Midwest. It has its time and place and it catches fish too. The vertical approach however does have its cons. The lunatic fringe of spring can congest prime areas and create quite a game of bumper boats. If you're not careful, accidents can and do happen. It can be a zoo.

In the last 10 years or so, I began going back to the roots of fishing. Simplicity. I stopped moving. Thank God I did. One of my top tools, nowadays, is a good river anchor. A Richter anchor to be exact. Myself and my quests 99 times out of 100 will anchor just up river from likely walleye holding area.

Once in position we cast back well beyond the boat. Let the jig hit bottom and employ a simple lift and drop. What happens here is the river's current pushes your jig and minnow combo back and the Earth's gravity pulls the jig down. So, in a sense, you can fish vertically well beyond the boat.

This technique works so well for a couple of reasons.

One: The snag factor. Ever cast a jig up stream? Sure. What tends to happen? Snag city. Why? I've never really been able to figure it out but snags occur almost 10 fold when fishing up stream.

Two: If your bait is in the water the chances of actually catching a fish go up by a factor of at least 10. What I mean by this is when casting up river, even if you don’t get hung up on the bottom, you have to work your jig too fast The current pulls it down and by quicker and your making many more extra casts, lessening your chances of making contact with a walleye because your bait is always out of the water.

Three: Better manipulation. When working the jig back beyond the boat, you have the greatest ability to manipulate your jig. Again, when doing so. I cast back and slowly lift and drop, occasionally turning the reel handle once or twice and lifting and dropping again. Walleye like all fish face into the river's current. This is an in your face approach which catches lots of walleye and is overlooked by most.

So, going into the upcoming walleye run, remember to bring your anchor and forget what you did in 09'. It can make all the difference.