Prior to last month’s cold snap — when the weather was relatively mild — I had the opportunity to revisit some spots on the lower Allegheny River, places that have traditionally provided action for walleyes, sauger and muskies during the winter months.  Those two trips reminded me of how important habitat edges are in locating fish.

The first spot I pulled up to is a deep hole, one that had likely been dredged decades ago.  

It bottoms out in 40-some feet of water.  

The afternoon, though barely above the freezing mark, was sunny and calm.  

You can’t ask for much more at this time of year.

I set the boat up above the upriver perimeter of the hole, where the depths are in the 15 to 20 foot range.  

As the boat started to slowly drift downriver with the current, I dropped a quarter-ounce leadhead jig, one tipped with a large fathead minnow, to the bottom.  

With a hand on the electric motor and eyes glued to the sonar unit, I kept the jig within a foot of the bottom as the drift continued.  

This meant playing out additional line as the depth gradually increased.  

The initial drop into the hole was quite gradual, but from 25 to 35 feet the bottom fell out quickly.  

I open the reel’s bail to allow the jig to fall into the depths.  

About then a large school of fish appeared on the sonar unit.  

Then a sharp tap telegraphed a walleye take.  

A couple minutes later a 21-inch walleye was in the net.

Not surprisingly the school of walleyes was set up at the base of sharp drop into the hole.  

There they were shielded from the stronger overhead current.  

It’s a spot that’s been good during the 25 plus years I’ve been fishing for walleyes in the lower Allegheny.  

I pulled out several more fish, though small ones, before I left the area.

A couple days later my friend Dave Keith and I were fishing another section of the river, and were again working the edge of a pool.  

But in this case the edge was one that went from deep to shallow.  A deep hole ended, quickly giving way to a shallow area not more than six to eight feet deep.  

Holding the boat along the lip of the hole we pitched jigs on to the edge of the shallow flat. Again I experienced that strong tell-tale tap, the kind typically produced by a bigger walleye.  

The reactionary hook-set slammed the hook home.  

We’d drifted well down the shallow flat by the time Dave slipped the net under this walleye, and egg-laden female that taped out at 27 inches.  

He held the fish for a quick picture before we released her.

It’s common for fish and wildlife to use edges.  

These areas are often the transition zones between places that provide cover and ones that furnish food.  

Like a grouse found along the edge of a clear-cut, but not far from an acorn-laden oak flat.  Or a whitetail buck that skirts the edge of thick bedding cover on its evening journey to a corn field.

It’s fairly easy to identify edges in smaller streams – the tail of a pool, edge of a rock, incoming riffle.  

But in bigger flowing waters it’s wise to look at the big picture…to recognize the edges of prominent holes, as likely spots to hold gamefish.  

Jeff Knapp is a fishing columnist for the Butler Eagle.