Walleye and bait fishing

[Inconnu]

Hi folks! I am new here and from the other side of the continenet, so I hope you don't mind me asking a question that should pertain to Walleye fishing in general.
I have fished walleye for a few years in Northern British Columbia, limited to a couple of lakes and one river that is home to a good population of fish. In B.C. there was no bait fishing allowed, so we just fished with artificials, it is kind of habit forming. I recently moved to Alberta where Walleye are a more seriously pursued fish than they were in B.C.
Alot of folks use minnows for them, alive and frozen. I am struggling with changing to this form of fishing myself, though I in no way condemn the method, this is just my mindset.
Having fished alot of trout and salmon, I know the mortality rate on bait caught fish can be higher ( I usually flyfish them)and I did occasionally fish for them with my son, using worms and keeping a few for dinner. In most cases the trout were all deeply hooked and needed to be kept. So before I digress any further, is the same true of Walleye? I just want to keep my mortality rate down if I can, especially with pretty much 90% of the fishery here being catch and release.
I wonder if I am missing out on larger fish not using bait, but I really have no wish to increase the mortality rate of the fish I am catching on jigs, Rapalas etc.......I am on the verge of dithering here, so I'll stop and let you guys answer if you will.....Kerry:)

[pwrfshn]

Kerry,

This is a tough topic, but I share the same thoughts as you.

I've gone to 100% artificials and I have not noticed a decrease in my catch rate. This should be qualified with me saying that I prefer trolling crankbaits or stickbaits.

If I pull spinners or use jigs, I tip them with Gulp, Roboworm, PowerBait or Exude crawlers. The Gulp, Roboworm and Exude are my favorite in that order. The Gulp are a little tough to thread a hook through, but they seem to be the best producers. Cut the tails off the Gulp crawlers for your jigs and fish the bodies on spinner rigs.

Can't speak to the mortality numbers I just prefer to fish a different method.

[Kerry]

Thanks! I may never go to bait, but I was wondering. I usually use either jigs or Rapalas and I think I have only hooked 3 or 4 deeply enough that it caused alot of damage. In B.C. I could keep 3 fish per person as long as they were under 15 3/4 inches long, so there was a little room for keeping badly hooked fish.....Kerry

[Unlogged Texeye]

Circle hooks tend to cut down on gut hooking fish if you do decide to fish live bait.Once you get used to letting the rod load and not setting the hook you will find most will be hooked in the lip. It takes a little getting used to, but the upside is, that you will loose fewer fish once they are hooked.

Good fishing,
Texeye

[Inconnu]

Thanks Texeye! I was watching a show day before yesterday, where they were hooking plastics through the middle with a circle hook and fishing them that simply. I will probably give them a try though even without bait.

[Waconia Walleye Guy]

Greetings from Minnesota, home of live bait diehards!

I can be pretty devoted to spinner/crawler/bottom bouncer or jig and minnow presentations but check this out:

Three of us recently fished for a week in Canada at Atikwa Lake plus two days of PWT tournament pre-fishing and three tournament days at Lake Oahe in South Dakota without touching a minnow, crawler or leech.
We enjoyed good success, great live release on the fish, kept the boats cleaner and, not to be cheap, saved a few bucks on live bait. Of course, the live bait savings ends up going for the next batch of crankbaits, spoons and Gulp/PowerBait:-)

Our experience has been we tend to catch larger-than-average fish using artificials, especially while trolling.

Artificials are now our #1 presentation.

Thanks and good luck!
Michael in Waconia MN USA