favorite walleye fishing methods??

[mike frisch]

I am sitting here dreaming of open water. I can't wait for the walleye opener here in Minnesota. I love slow trolling or drift fishing a 1/16-ounce Fire-ball Jig baited with a fathead or shiner behind the boat waiting for that first bite of the open-water season. Trolling or drifting jigs during the early season along with live bait rigging big redtails in the fall are my favorite walleye fishing techniques. To pass some time between now and open-water, I am wondering if other anglers would be interested in sharing their favorite walleye techniques?


Mike Frisch
Fishing the Midwest fishing team member
Elbow Lake, MN

[Catcrazy3]

I am partial to Lindy rigs and nitecrawlers or leeches with slip bobbers early season; summer is usually more panfishing as the wife fishes more then; late summer to early fall is pulling plugs or fuzzy grubs tipped with fatheads; late fall until ice is fireball jigs and big fatheads.

[mata]

Jigs!! How can there be any better to hook up on a good walleye bite.

[Hot Runr Guy]

First of all, my favorite fishin' hole is the Turtle Flambeau Flowage in northern WI. When the TFF was first created (by damming the Turtle River) there was a tremendous amount of fallen timber on the surface, which created a number of "log jams", where fish were known to hide underneath. The favorite (actually, the only) method of fishing these "jams" were to use 10-12-14' long cane poles, with 3" bobbers, and the biggest chubs you could get from the bait shop, suspended underneath. No reels, no drag, just your skill and strength in lifting an angry walleye straight up in the air, thru the labyrinth of entangled timbers, and swinging 'em in to the boat.
To this day, every year in May, my brothers and I return to the TFF, bringing the cane poles along, and continue the tradition our father taught us. Certainly it's hard to endure the pointing and snickers from the other guys on the dock, but I can sit in my boat for hours, just waiting for the pop-pop-pop and watching that big bobber take off and run under the logs.
HRG

[fireboat]

I have a secret spot on the river in SD where I catch walleye on cranks. Have gone back to that spot year after year, same week. Sure feels good when they try to rip the rod right out of your hands. Have you ever seen walleye feeding so shallow that their dorsal fin was exposed? I have. I know why they are there and I know what they want. They want me to catch 'em.

[eyeballs]

The thought of walleye opener really gets a guy excited for spring. Openers for me have always been a traditional time spent drifting or slowly moving with the bowmount during the day and casting cranks in 2 to 6 feet at night. Gota love the opener night bite! We always try to determine if it's an early or late spring. Some years we really get into them with leadcore in basin zones off spawning areas.

[icedog]

My favorite method is pitching jigs to shallow cover (1 to 5 ft. deep). I have caught more walleyes in less than five feet of water than I can count. I am a sensitivity freek. Give me a high end rod, a superbraid, and i'll experiment all day with jig and plastic combos or shallow cranks to weedlines, shorelines, rocks, trees, etc.

[Larry Mac]

My Favorite method is jigs, jigs and more jigs. We have caught thousands of walleyes jigging. Shallow, Deep, Current, Eddies, Drifting, Back trolling, Reefs, Weed lines, pitching it doesn't matter. There is something about that tap tap tap that gets my blood pumping. It is truly fishing in one of its simplest forms. A Plain Jig tipped with a piece of meat is a wonderful thing. When we go North with new guys and we get into the boat and they ask "where is you tackle box" and I reach into my pocket and pull out a handful a jigs they really look at me funny. By about the second or third day I usually ask them “where is your Tackle box” and they smile and hold out a handful of jigs. You got to love it, thanks for the post.

Thank you,
Larry Mac

[Lundexp]

With me, it depends on where I am fishing. I have many methods which consist of jigging, pulling bottom bouncers with lindy rigs, trolling crankbaits, flipping crankbaits, drifting simple plain hook and splitshot tipped with a minnow. Of them all, my main method is Jigs followed by lindy rigs in second. I admit my tackle box with 4 organizers is loaded up heavily. One is a full assortment of different colored jigs, second is a assortment of crankbaits, third is full of octopus hooks, split shots, sinkers, fourth one has spoons and some other misc tackle. The funny thing is, out of all the tackle I have, pink jigs are my favorite and only use several of the crankbaits and use plain hook and splitshot on my simple rigs...Ummmm, sounds like it's time for me to pull them all out and do some reorganizing and weeding out.

[arajan48]

Slip bobber and gulp leech. Anchor boat in deeper water with wind in back and let bobber and leech drift towards and into weed beds. Gets them everythime.

[ILScott]

I personally like to pull bottom bouncers with a 36" spinner rig behind it, tipped with a small portion of worm. Troll in shallow water less than 8 feet next to weeds. Use fireline and pull right through the weeds and the walleye are sitting on that weed line. To weedy to jig but I do like to jig for them also. I make my own spinner rigs.

[adamjjf]

Gotta stick with the jig. Either casting a pink lead-head with a white twister through shallow water or jigging a black head with a chartreuse twister tipped with a leach off the bottom. This is the only way I catch walleyes.

[eyemike]

If some one told me that I could catch walleyes if I rolled little balls of $hit and put them on a hook, I would try it:rolleyes: I love to jig em, crank em, lindy em, little joe em. there is nothing like the lite tap of a jig or the jarring slam of a crank. When I know that I am giving that walleye exactly what it wants man is that great feeling. Mike

[Skis]

South Dakota fishing: Jiggin' with plastic or a minnow, pitchin' or draggin'

Minnesota fishing: Lindy Riggin' with a leech

Wow I need to go fishin'!!

[Big Tyee]

I like trolling and drifting jigs. My brother-in-law got me started jig fishing in North Dakota on Lake Sakakawea back in the late 70’s. We fished with a jig, chartreuse, white, or black twister tail and minnow. Man we caught some real hogs. :bigsmile: When I started walleye fishing I used the Lindy rig and had good luck with that too. The last couple years I have been pulling Raps most of the time and doing pretty well. I guess I like variety, but there is something to be said for the jig. When you start to lift that rod tip up and there is that thump, thump on the other end of the line. :eek: How about when it’s a head shaking pound, pound and the rod tip bends down, you know there’s a big ol sow walleye on the other end. The hook is set and the jig stays down on the bottom. All of a sudden she starts taking out line. Your putting on just enough pressure to keep her hooked but not break the line. What a rush I can almost feel it now.:blush: Oh my I have to stop my heart is starting to beat too fast and I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it. :help: