Hillsdale - Anyone Fish For Walleye There?

[John Wells]

Just curious. I read that walleye are plentiful there. I've never fished for them. Does anyone you know hunt them on Hillsdale?

[zummy]

Here in a couple weeks go drift the flats.

[Kansasoutdoorsman]

Drifting the flats, fishing the main point right by the dam or trolling cranks on the east side in deep water are three way but there are tons of places to catch eyes...

[John Wells]

I bought some crawler harnesses. Maybe troll them on the bottom with worms? I'll try the cranks too.

Do you think night time is better or morning / evening?

I'm pretty excited to try it out. I've spent the last 6 years fishing Truman 90 percent of the time, maybe 10 percent on Hillsdale for crappie. Walleye are new to me. I'm a complete greenhorn at it. Any suggestions are appreciated!

I like this website, tons of good info.

Drifting the flats, fishing the main point right by the dam or trolling cranks on the east side in deep water are three way but there are tons of places to catch eyes...

[Kansasoutdoorsman]

No one color is best for cranks but on the drifting I have seen a lot of fish caught on a an orange curly tailed 3 in grub with half a worm on as a trailer. Also the slow death has produced a good number of fish. The eyes at HD are very picky and the bite last most days for a few hours then lock jaw. You just have to be there when they want to feed which I have seen at 2 in the afternoon and heard can be 2 in the morning but I don't night fish, I enjoy my sleep to much and can normally catch fish in the sunlight (crappie mostly)

[DuckHuntingUSA]

For drifting I like lead head jig with a worm, and a floating jig tied off it with a 12" to 18" leader with a worm. Like chartruse, white, yellow, red. Sometimes they like the bottom, sometimes they're hitting the floater. Change to the good color as soon as you find it. Catfish can be a problem. Doesn't seem to work on big eyes, 26" and up don't seem to go for it on HD. If ya figure out how to catch 26"+ fish on HD, let me know.

[zummy]

Usually when I am drifting I am running a 1/8 oz jig head, and I have a different color grub on each pole. I cover the remaining exposed hook with a piece of night crawler. Once I figure out the color they like, then it goes on everything. Some days it doesn't matter, some are very color specific. The firetiger (green with an orange tail) is one of my favorites. Catch a lot of crappie when I hit the end of a flat and reach a drop off as well.

[PTShad]

I have never fished HD, but my advice would be to fish your harnesses and slow death rigs on bouncers along any drop offs you can find. The flats, the edges on those flats, the first/second break on a point, river channel edges...they all hold fish at some point during the year based on conditions. Trolling cranks will likely net you larger fish, but pulling slow death and spinner harnesses 0.8-1.5mph can be very productive. Just looking at the map, I would start on the point at the West end of the dam and go from there. The wind is your friend in walleye fishing too, go where it takes you. Good luck, it can be a very challenging game.

[JD1]

Alot of excellent tips here. I also troll a 3 way rig with a deep Shad Rap running behind a roadrunner or a beetle spin, normally a red head with a white body. I like to tap the bottom with these rigs. A little extra noise sure don't hurt. As mentioned before the cats and white bass/wipers like this rig also. Good luck.

[sah]

Dumb question here but I'm new to walleye also, what's the difference b/t a worm harness and a slow death rig?