Pitchin' Ferry

I can still remember my childhood years jigging monster rainbow trout along the shorelines on Canyon Ferry Lake. Dad and I would talk about how awesome of a walleye shoreline it would be if they were in the lake. Little did we know, there were a few walleye cruising around due to an illegal introduction in the 1990’s. And now, some 20-30 years later those very shorelines are where we fish for monster walleye. These shorelines gifted us the crowned champions of the 2012 Canyon Ferry Walleye Festival, and some other close calls and cashed tournament checks. I will admit, I love having the walleye in my home waters, but bucket biology makes us all look bad and is pure selfishness. We are starting to see it across more Montana waters. With this being said, with the population of walleye that is now in Canyon Ferry, in my opinion, it should be managed as a MULTI-SPECIES fishery. Walleye have gained huge traction and seem to be the “cool thing” now. And from an economic standpoint, it is and can be very beneficial to all of us.

Getting back to fishing walleye on Canyon Ferry...the month of JUNE IS KING! From early June until around the 4th of July is the summer peak for targeting the monsters cruising in the shallows! No matter how many times I reiterate this, people still don’t believe we catch these big fish shallow. Believe it or not, the deepest we have ever caught a 24+” walleye in Canyon Ferry is about ten feet. I know this is a hard concept to grasp, but think about it this way: Canyon Ferry does not support a population of pelagic baitfish like Tiber and Fort Peck. There is no forage base driving these fish deep to feed, other than the occasional guy trolling for trout who catches a suspended fish. I’m sure there are a few walleye cruising in the open water, but not a target-able population. Heck, there is barely a population of larger fish over 20’’ to target on Canyon Ferry, period. This is mostly due to mis-management and over-harvest of the primary spawning fish.

The good news is; we still consecutively catch these big fish year after year. The key is to keep casting your jigs right to shore! It does take some knowhow and building confidence, but it will come. I have friends who have fished Canyon Ferry since people started catching walleye and have never broke 20’’, but they also pull bottom bouncers in 18-30’ of water. Every year a few folks hire us to guide them and show them the ropes. This gives them a lifetime of knowledge in one day. Last year pre fishing for the tournament, I landed 5 fish over 24” in one afternoon, with a huge 31” being the biggest. So even with lower numbers of these big fish, they are much more catchable in the month of June. There is a lot less water between ten feet deep and the shoreline than the rest of the lake. You are just putting way more fish in a small area which then ups your odds! And even better news, shallow fish are there for ONE REASON ONLY...TO EAT!! You might have to cover a lot of shoreline, but if you get your bait in front of a shallow fish, you’re going to get bit.

Now for the lesson, there are a few critical things here I will cover. The first thing you are going to want to do is establish your “BUFFER ZONE”. A buffer zone is what we call the area between your boat and the shoreline. The key here is to keep as far from the shore as possible to not spook the fish, but also close enough that you can CONFIDENTLY and ACCURATELY cast your jig within a few inches of shore. You don’t want to have to get a running start to make the cast! Our personal buffer zone on a nice day is about 20 yards. Now if the wind is blowing 20 mph and the waves are crashing into the shore you will have to tighten up your buffer zone. With all the surface disruption from the wind, the fish will be much less wary. There are times we are less than ten yards from the shore. Basically the concept here is to move parallel along the shore casting your jig in front of the boat and covering water.

Now, let’s move onto the tough part of maintaining your buffer zone and fishing at the same time. The electric bow mount motor will become your best friend in this situation! And heck, they even make a remote you can hang around your neck to control your boat. Sounds easy right? Not as easy as you would think, I can promise you! It will take some time and patience learning to keep your boat in proper position at all times…especially when it’s windy or you have current or other obstacles or distractions. Before you go thinking you have it rough; there are times that I am guiding and running the boat while trying to free a client’s snag, tie another client’s jig on and bait another’s hook, but you can bet your butt I’m still in the zone!

By Trevor Johnson Kit’s Tackle and KT Sportfishing www.kitstackle.com

This makes a huge difference at the end of the day, and my remote almost never leaves my hand. One thing my father taught me that is better than gold, is to run your electric bow mount out of the back of the boat. This is most important when there is more than one angler on board. We have all seen the guy nosed into the shore catching fish and the guy in the back of the boat can’t make a cast to the fish. If you learn to run your boat out of the stern, and you are in the target zone, every angler in the boat will be in a perfect position to jig the shoreline.

Now, where to start?!?! Again, covering shoreline is the key here, but there are certain things we look for on a body of water. We have always been known as the North End Boys on Ferry, fishing the rocky structure and steep drops and points. The south end of Canyon Ferry is a massive flat with little contours; so in our opinion it is much better for techniques like trolling crank baits to cover large amounts of water more quickly. We spend the majority of our time from mid lake to north. The first thing we always do is watch the wind, and really pay attention to what the wind did the day/evening prior to your outing. Wind drives the food into a shoreline and disrupts and churns up rocks sending crayfish, minnows, bugs and other forage scouring through the turbulent water. THE WIND IS A MAGNET FOR THE PREDATOR FISH. In normal conditions we do like to try new shorelines, but the obviously textbook points and rocky shorelines speak for themselves.

Here are a few final tips to get you started:

Jigs: We mainly use 1/8 and 1/4 oz Glass Minnows tipped w/either a Gulp crawler or Gulp minnow. If there is more than one angler on board we also like to use a paddle tail to get a feel for what the fish want for the day. Our favorite paddle tails are ‘B Fish N Authentic X Pulsars’ and the “Fat Swing Impact by Keitech”

Rods: We like a medium/light 6-6’3” extra fast action rod

Line: We are mono guys and love the Stren Magnathin for pitching jigs! If you want even more feel you can use the braided super lines, but make sure to use a fluorocarbon leader. Canyon Ferry is crystal clear and the fish are wary. We would recommend 6lb test in either application.

Patience: Make sure to bring a cooler full of patience, even we have days where we lay an egg (meaning the big Zero). But, if you want to catch big fish, this is it! And if you get too bored, you can always swing out into deeper water and jig up a few smaller fish for fun.

Stewardship: If you take my advice, you are going to catch a big fish. Folks, I won’t get to in-depth with this. All I ask is that you do the right thing for our awesome natural resources we have available to us! Canyon Ferry is in rough shape with its population of walleye, especially the few larger spawning fish we have left. Our boat rule is anything over 20” gets released back into the lake. And I’m here to tell ya, letting a big 30” go and getting a few pics or a video is as rewarding as it gets. I was very blessed to have had the fishing opportunities I had growing up fishing with my dad. I now have a 3.5 year old daughter and an 18 month old son that I pray will have similar opportunities and experiences as I did. Cheers to “Jiggin’ the Dream”

Trevor is the co-founder of Kit’s Tackle “Jiggin’ the Dream” along with his father, Kit, and KT Sportfishing. He is a true made in Montana fishing guide, an insane outdoor enthusiast, a wild man in the woods and on the water and they even say he’s a quarter mountain goat. He’s a happy husband, a proud daddy to a beautiful little girl and boy, and two sweet dogs. When he’s not shoveling coal into the jig engine, you can find him on the water or leaving boot tracks in the wilds of Montana.

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