It’s somewhat of a tradition along the Allegheny River, one that follows the adage that walleye fishing doesn’t begin until the time firearms deer season opens.

When many folks are calling it a season — or did so a couple months earlier — things are just getting started for the river walleye anglers.

Typically by late November — when we’re enjoying Thanksgiving holidays and rifle ranges are booming with an annual influx of last-minute rifle checks — water temperatures on the Allegheny are around 40 degrees.

Smallmouth bass have become tough to catch, sulking in wintering holes, responding perhaps to finesse baits put right in front of them.

But walleyes, they’ll bite right up until the time the surface freezes.

Hit things right and you can have the best day of the year.

I recall a post-Thanksgiving Saturday a few falls ago when Dave Lehman and I fished the West Hickory area of the Allegheny, which is a few miles upriver of Tionesta. Throughout the day we’d had consistent action, picking up an occasional walleye along with a bonus smallie or two.

During the afternoon we began working a long eddy that runs right along Route 62, one formed by a rock bar washed out at the mouth of Little Hickory Creek.

While deer hunters buzzed north along the nearby highway on the way to camp, I tossed a bucktail jig toward the bank, while Lehman slowly worked a suspending jerkbait.

Each drift produced a couple of nice walleyes, all nice fish in the 20 inch plus range.

It was during our last drift of the day that Dave set hooks into what stands as his personal best walleye, a 31-incher that pulled the scale down to just shy of 12 pounds.

It was a couple falls later that Andy Vetula and I did a late fall trip to the same general area, this time motoring upriver into the Trunkyville eddy.

It was a stretch Andy was familiar with, for many years having owned a camp along the river’s western bank.

Over the year’s I’d heard many of Andy’s tales of fall fishing along the Allegheny, which typically included a comment that “you didn’t need to measure the walleyes there,” the implication being that the fish were obviously of legal size.

Our day didn’t do anything to refute his claim as several ‘eyes — all in the 20 to 24 inch class — found their way into the livewell.

Good late fall fishing certainly isn’t limited to the free-flowing portion of the river.

The lower Allegheny, which entails about 70 miles impounded by eight lock and dam systems, has good (sometimes great) action for walleyes.

Fish stack up below the dams as well as deep holes, particularly those associated with incoming creeks or runs.

I suspect it’s been around 30 years since Dave Keith and I made our first trip to the lower Allegheny, fishing the waters below Lock and Dam 7 in Kittanning during an icy day when we warmed our hands with a propane heater we’d brought aboard.

We caught walleyes, quite a few of them as I recall, in the mouth of the lock chamber.

And even though they were all sublegal, it put the spark to a blaze that’s become a traditional part of my life: late season outings for river walleyes that span the winter and early spring, if conditions permit.

Outdoor traditions often include names of places that conjure up memories. Deer stands that have produced plenty of buck sightings; grouse covers where ruff rockets out of thickets.

And walleye holes where marble-eyes consistently bite during the frigid months.

And like the names of the deer and grouse spots, my monikers only have meaning to me and my regular companions.

Places like “the Monkeyball,” “Upper Garretts” and “Waterdog.”

The long range forecast calls for mild weather through the month, during which I hope to add a few more memories to this tradition.

Jeff Knapp is a fishing columnist for the Butler Eagle