Don' t forget that if your fishing a river most rivers are cloudy and let less light in, thus making catching eyes during the day very possible. In lakes it is the not the norm to have a good run on eye during the day, unless early or deep. I would say your best bet fishing rivers is jig/grub combos, jigs tipped with bait or riggin with bait. riggin is a pickeral rig with a weight, baited on the bottom, take up the slack and wait for the jingle. Jigs combos or baited I let the jig fall and then if clean bottom let it drift along the bottom/popping it up slightly. If a stick, rock bottom that produces snags I will keep it just above the crap on a slow retrieve and pop. Walleye like to pick up lures on the down, so make sure to keep tension on the line as it falls to follow on those strikes. While cranks can work deadly, most rivers tend to have lots of sticks, trees, etc that love to eat up those expensive crank baits. I don' t mind losing some terminal tackle or jigs but when its 5-10 bucks a crack I get a little p' d. In my experience most river system the best practice for eyes, is a simple baited approach, live bait if legal (minnows or leechs work well). As far as time of day, i would fish it at all times, evening and night is usually the best time but I have caught them in rivers all day long, so try it and then see where you end up. I also like to look for an eddie, slack water after or before current peferably. Good luck!