Jeff Knapp shows off the 26-inch walleye he caught and released last weekend from Pool 6 of the Allegheny River.

I flipped a jig-and-artificial minnow behind the boat, and then allowed it to trail out in the current along a rocky ledge.

No sooner had it reached the bottom in 12 feet of water when a solid ‘tick’ was transmitted up my line. When I set the hook, I knew it was a better than average walleye.

In the slightly stained water of the Allegheny River, the walleye was soon visible. Soon afterward, my partner Dave Keith scooped up the 26 incher. It was a welcome site, and one that made up for a couple months of relative fishing inactivity.

Last year, up until the third week of December, the action had been outstanding. Walleye fishing on both the middle and lower Allegheny had been good. Local lakes produced some nice bass, even as water temperatures dipped toward 40 degrees. But when you’re fishing open water in December, you consider each outing an extra blessing, knowing things could come to an abrupt halt.

Then a severe cold snap arrived to usher in the Christmas holiday. Extended cold weather through January froze the surface of lakes and locked up rivers and streams. When a warm and wet spell broke up the ice on the Allegheny, the resulting flow deposited massive amounts of ice on all the local ramps.

So even when river conditions improved, fishing it was not an option. I’ve never been one for ice fishing, so the winter had become a period of tying jigs and organizing tackle, and hoping for some windows of opportunity to wet a line.

During late January, Dave Keith and I made a trip to the Juniata River near Mapleton Depot. It was one of those ‘moral victory’ trips, just great to be out on open water. Our first time on the Juniata, with air temperatures below 20 degrees when we started at mid morning, the river wasn’t kind.

A fallfish caught mid afternoon kept us from taking a skunking. But we learned some things about the river that will be useful during a future trip.

A trip to the West Branch of the Susquehanna in February for wild brown trout and one to Keystone Lake last week helped shed some of the effects of cabin fever. But it was nice to get back on the Allegheny before the mid-March season closure.

What’s in store now?. Well, this could be a banner year for Pymatuning walleyes. The lake opened up a couple weeks ago, and when it did, with it came the evidence of a significant winter kill of gizzard shad, one of the primary food fish in Pymatuning.

Gizzard shad don’t handle cold water well, particularly when it chills off rapidly. The two prior mild winters did allow the lake’s baitfish population to blossom, which likely had much to do with poor walleye fishing the following years. Well-fed fish can be tough-to-catch fish.

With light walleye harvest the past two years, and potentially fewer baitfish this season, the table could well be set for a great walleye bite soon. And it could happen soon since Pymatuning does not have a closed season, and the walleyes will be moving shallow soon, likely during the next two to three weeks.

River Access

The winter’s dramatic flush of ice, along with periods of high flow, left access ramps unusable for trailered boats.

As of this writing, the following access areas are open: Oil City, Franklin, Parker, Templeton and Rosston. Significant coverings of mud remained at Cowanshannock and Kittanning.

The Brady’s Bend access remains closed.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle