Best technique for walleye in the weeds

[sib]

Fished a lake for the first time sunday. It's full of weeds and from the dnr plantings over the last 5 years, full of walleye too. So, I've been trying to come up with some good techniques for dealing with the weeds and wondered how others pull em from the weeds.

A few things I plan on trying or did try on my short time on that water:

Weedless jigs(any suggestions on brands would be great).

Dragging crawler harnesses over the top of the weeds.

Trolling stickbaits over the top of the weeds, also casting into the shallows at night.

Slip bobbers and jigs.

What else is successful in the weeds? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


"go outside and play"
sib

[WeedEater]

Pulling or Casting Cranks on the weedtops can be very good, Look for clues on your Graph that show you that the fish are up on the weedtops getting active, even just a slight chop or prime hours of the day are good for this. Also look for areas that seem to have signs of Baitfish, watch your graph and look for birds in the area. Then just keep Crankin', switching up your Cranks until you start hitting fish. There's alot of hit and miss and covering alot of water with this kind of fishing, but if the signs are there the fish usually are too. If you don't see them don't fish for them, Try one of your other tactics that you listed. Hope this helps...

[scottcny]

I like to throw a white /th oz. white rooster tail spinner with a piece of crawler on it. Retrieve at moderate speed over top of the growth.

[Borch]

Depnding on what type of weeds your fishing will also influence what I used. I love fishing cabbage. I use 1/16 oz jigs and leech(panfish usually tear up crawlers). I also like using rattle baits(like rattle traps)it easier to rip trough the weed if you get hung up. Also using a live bait rig with a floater and a bullet weight at the base of the weeds along the edge.

[Tackleman]

Give the spongy bug a try, it's a weedless floater. phelpstackle.com or Gander mountain stores.

[RANGER]

Four sticks of dynamite, a case of cold beer and a dip net! ;-)

Hey, it's as lethal as gill nets and about as humane too, no, it's MORE humane. LOL

Anyway, when Ol' Marbleyes is in the weeds, my Bass hat goes on backwards! Pork rind, Corolina rigging plastics, Zara Spooks at night with Hula poppers right there, Johnson spoons with (yuk!) a piece of pork strip, rubber frogs at dusk or dawn, slip bobbers, etc., etc.

Then I start talking like, "Huh, so you think THATS A HOLE SHOT?? I'll show you a hole shot - WATCH THIS"!!!! WOT - women and children FIRST!!!!


RANGER


"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD!"

[REW]

A couple of extremely effective techniques.

1. Weedless jigs -
a. The northland weed weasel. For lots of northern lakes the
firetiger color is great, as are green, chartruse, and lime.
b. Lindy timber jig. This was the jig made famous by the Wi. fishing guide who invented it and used it with great success in the heavily wooded flowages of northern wi.
c. Lindy rig, with a wire walker. Get a wire walker -- i.e. a pencil sinker on a long wire leg. If necessary, make some your self, with the wire as long as the weeds are deep. i.e. up to a reasonable point like a foot or two. By using these long legged wire walking sinkers - and making sure that you fish a tight line, and don't let the sinker tip over -- the wire walker simply walks through the weeds and doesn't get hung up. Then use a floater on a relatively short snell, so that the bait doesn't settle into the weeds, even on a pause.
d. A three way rig - with the bottom dropper line as long as the weeds are high. This allows you to keep your bait nicely above the weeds. Then use one of the new lindy weedless weights to tie on the bottom of the 3-way rig.

e. Finally - crank baits worked over the tops of the weeds in a trolling type environment work ok.

f. If you can get some ideas as to where the fish are located - fan casting openings in the weeds with a crankbait can catch you lots of fish as well.

Take care

REW

[John in MN]

Fish them like bass with a power worm, 4 or 6 inch, Texas rigged or use a jig and skirted grub, rigged weedless.

[Gilligan]

I drift over them and either sight pitching 1/8 oz jigs tipped with crawler/power bait grub into the openings or go heavy..1/2oz jig that has enough weight to sink thru the weeds, you will only get to pump jig 1 or 2 times before you got to pull weed. It's alot of work but very effective.

["COMA"]

Drop shotting.

[Gilligan]

Wow, they got a name fer it?? Never heard that one! :-)

[BradB]

I like throwing beetle spins at weed walleyes. I make them with a #2 colorado blade and use 1/8 ounce jigs with thin 3" twisty tails. Depending on the type of weed and depth you can throw them at the edges, over them, or through them to some degree. Walleyes seem to have no hesitancy at hitting my beetle spins that way.

[caleb]

I second teh drop shotting. Nothing will work better in the weeds.

[Kevin B]

My first choice for casting- wobble jigs tipped with minnow. I let the jig sink into the weeds occasionally while retreiving. Sometimes just a straight cranking retrieve, sometimes a hopping or pumping retrieve.You'll learn how fast to retrieve them in about 15 minutes. Second choice - Erie Dearies tipped with crawlers. Third choice - Beetle Spins as mentioned in post(s) preceeding mine.
I'm talking about casting into water that is from 4-7 feet deep, with heavy weeds blanketing the bottom and extending halfway up. Seems like you already know some of the best techniques.

[GORD]

Pull a variety of light shallow presentations behind a planer board. Keep the boat at a distance.