Now that October has arrived, the hunt for walleyes begins in earnest. Though they are catching some now, it will get better. The first rise in the river will get the walleyes going. If it is not in the form of rain, the lowering of the Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam is usually enough to spark it to some degree.
The Shikellamy State Park is scheduled to start removing docks the week of Oct. 4. This usually takes about a week. If all goes well, they expect to start lowering the dam bags the following week. After Lake Augusta is drained, they usually test and check the bags, putting them up and down several times. This makes the walleye anglers nuts because the walleyes relate to the current and putting the bags up and down changes the current flow and direction. If you are out there fishing below the Adam Bower Dam during this time, you must pay attention to what is going on with the dam. Raising and lowering the bags is not an exact science. At a certain point in the deflation, the bags may dip and the change in direction and flow can come quickly. Eventually the bags will be down for good and the walleye will set up in traditional areas.
If the water level remains low, the better fishing will be a little ways downstream, below the lowhead power dam at the power plant. Remember to stay away from either dam. At the Adam Bower Dam, boats must stay at least 50 feet away from below the dam, 200 feet away from the upstream side. At the lowhead power plant dam, boats must stay one hundred feet away from the downstream side and two hundred feet away from the upstream side. Fish commission officers patrol these areas regularly and you could be fined.
Gear and tackle for walleye fishing is fairly simple. Medium or medium light rods in the 6- to 7-foot range work well. The higher dollar rods are more sensitive, but there are reasonably priced rods on the market that do an adequate job. A smooth reel with 8-pound test is the norm, though some anglers drop to 6- or even 4-pound test. I stick with 8 because I hate losing big fish. Some use 10-pound test, but most feel that they get a better presentation with a thin 8-pound.
In the live bait department, drifting a shiner or nightcrawler with a couple split shot up the line a foot or more works. A minnow or crawler on a painted jighead is also a standby.
Most fall walleye anglers use jigs and plastics. One-eighth-and one-quarter-ounce jigs are usually all you need, along with a handful of soft plastic twister tailed grubs or bell tailed plastic shad. Smoke, motoroil and chartreuse or variations thereof are the popular colors.
Another weapon that is unique to our walleye fishery is the shallow running floating stickbait. Straight floating Rapalas, Rebels and similar lures are a staple of the nocturnal angler. During daylight, the jigs usually work better. As light fades at dusk, the shallow running plugs often get the nod. Our walleyes will readily come up off the bottom and smack a slowly retrieved minnow-shaped lure, especially at night.
Now’s the time for some Pennsylvania surf and turf, fresh venison and fresh filet d’ walleye.
-- Ken Maurer, Herndon, is a licensed fishing guide and a regular contributor to the Outdoors section. Contact at kenrose@tds.net.
Sports
October walleyes
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Shikellamy Braves rally to stay alive
SELINSGROVE — With 11 losses, the Shikellamy girls basketball team is teetering on the brink of elimination from the District 4 Class AAA playoffs. And on Wednesday night, it looked like the Braves were going to go quietly into the offseason when Selinsgrove built a 14-point lead early in the third quarter.
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They learn to be tough young
It's difficult to recall exactly how the sequence unfolded because it happened so darn fast. Shikellamy made a couple baskets, and the crowd began to stir. It was still anybody's game, and the Braves had some momentum late in the third quarter of a recent run with Danville.
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Motorsports: Selinsgrove, Lincoln speedways to host 360 sprint series
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Girls basketball: Records fall, Red Tornadoes stay unbeaten
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT -- An overflow crowd zealously cheered Tierney Pfirman's pursuit of the South Williamsport scoring record throughout Tuesday's game, until their breathless faces matched the Mounties' royal blue.
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High school roundup: Rosini pin lifts Ironmen over Tigers
DANVILLE -- Steven Rosini's pin over Connor Houseknecht in 37 seconds in the final bout of the day at 132 pounds prevented disaster for Danville as the Ironmen pulled out a 40-36 Heartland Athletic Conference crossover victory on Tuesday.
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College sports notebook: Antensteiner starts, finishes fast
ANVILLE -- Ines Antensteiner, a member of the powerful Lewisburg girls track & field team for the past four seasons wasted little time making her presence felt in college. On Monday, Antensteiner, a freshman at Lebanon Valley, was named the Middle Atlantic Conference's Indoor Track & Field Athlete of the Week after a pair of event wins at Saturday's Ducharme Invitational.
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Bill Bowman's column on college sports: Tale of two teams in the clutch
Because basketball season is so long it is easy to forget that one or two moments in a single game can essentially make or break an entire season. While teams might play 30 games or so, most of them come down to a couple of possessions, spots where one little thing can be the difference between winning and losing, between making the postseason tournament or turning in the uniforms.
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Sports court strips Contador of 2010 Tour title
MADRID -- Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title Monday and banned for two years after sports' highest court found the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping. The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day.
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H.S. boys basketball: Selinsgrove rallies to top Southern Columbia
CATAWISSA -- In a battle between two schools better known for their football programs, Monday's game between host Southern Columbia and Selinsgrove naturally featured plenty of physical play. After a combined 43 fouls and 55 free-throw attempts, the Seals finally pulled it out. Reserve guard Tyler Krebs made five foul shots in the final minute and a half in Selinsgrove's 54-53 victory.
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High School Bowling: Kratzer, Hartranft take home Pro-Am titles
SUNBURY -- The name might have changed, but the results were the same. Now called the 13th annual Best Bowl/Strike Zone High School Pro-Am Scholarship Challenge, the two-day tournament was another success as it pitted some of the Valley's best young bowlers against each other in friendly competition.
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