I’ve pursued late season river walleyes for at least 25 years, mostly on the Allegheny River, but also the Ohio, Monongahela, Susquehanna, as well as a handful of distant rivers.

Regardless of the location river walleyes have more common ground than differences.

Pondering past fishing logs and photographs, I’ve observed a number of key points that will help those who brave the weather to put a few walleyes in the boat.

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Color conscious: Walleyes can be color selective, especially when the water is clear.My buddy, Dave Keith, reinforced this fact last year, when, after a morning of late season grouse hunting, we hit the Allegheny for an afternoon outing.The water was ultraclear and the day sunny and bright. I eased the boat behind a current-deflecting rock bar and set the boat up to do a slow drift down the slackwater pool.Dave tied on a blue leadhead jig with a white curly tail grub and tipped it with a minnow. I grabbed a rod with an olive-hued hair jig, tipped it and pitched it out.The day wasn’t a fast one, but all the hits came on the blue-and-white combo, with Dave landing a few quality-sized walleyes and a nice river muskie. I never had a touch on olive.I should have known better than to come armed with limited color choices. The next time out, I made sure I had some blue-white bucktail jigs and did well.A good color chart for walleyes jigs is: white in clear water, chartreuse and green in stained water and orange and firetiger in dirty water.Over the years, a chrome head with a smoke body also has been effective in clear water.•

Nasty weather: It’s no secret walleyes tend to bite better during cloudy weather. But it’s one thing to endure rain in June, another to do it in November. There’s nothing much worse than a 36 degree rain. Snow is better.That being said, some of my more productive outings have happened during miserable weather.Here’s the recipe to make it through a cold rainy day: First, check the wind. If it’s supposed to be windy and rainy, you might want to wait for a better day.A person can only deal with so much. But if the forecast is for occasional rain and light wind, consider going for it. Quality raingear will protect you for a few hours.Keep the outing reasonably short. I like to fish from early afternoon until dark this time of year. Take lots of gloves, as they are worthless when they get wet.I get by with open-fingered gloves while fishing, along with a pair of heavy mittens or gloves to wear during boat rides.Last season I broke down and started placing chemical handwarmers in pockets, which provide a toasty warm-up for the hands.•

Bottom of the ninth: On slow days, especially, it pays to hang in there until dark. When walleyes have shown little interest in your most skilled presentations, there’s often a flurry of activity during the “witching hour” the evening twilight period.Walleyes that have milled around in a slow pool during the day often move to feeding locations at twilight. Prime locations include the mouths of feeder streams, edges of deeper pools and gravel or rock bars.This is one time when I’ll use an anchor to hold the boat in a stationary position, particularly when past experience tells me where to expect the nighttime run of fish.Darker colored jig bodies tend to be most productive during the final inning of a river walleye venture. I’ve had good success with a pumpkinseed colored plastic body mated with a brown-orange two-tone jighead.Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.