New to Walleye fishing

[Waldershrek]

Another new guy here.....Been doing a lot of reading on here in an attempt to educate myself about this new world. I'm primarily a bass fisherman although I'm in my first few years of that.

I've gathered there are basically two methods of Walleye fishing, trolling and jigging. Since I have no walleye equipment, I'm looking at rods and reel set ups. For a jigging rod I have pretty much decided on a St Croix Eyecon 6'3" ml with fast action tip, 6-8 lb braid on a spinning reel (haven't figured out which one yet).

For a trolling rod, I have seen where Cabelas has a decent one and shockingly I have seen where Ugly Stik was mentioned a few times. I think I want about a 7' rod. I'm not sure yet on a reel but I think I want flouro line. I am favoring a rod/reel combo with a line counter and have heard good things about the Daiwa's as well.

For cranking I have my bass cranking rod which I assume will work? It's a St Croix Mojo Bass 7' MH rod with a BPS Pro Qualifier reel in 5.2:1 with 12 lb flouro.

For crankbaits I would just use my bass crankbaits and lipless crankbait. I will have to buy a selection of walleye jigs. I am having a **** of a time understanding how to use downriggers and dipsy divers but for now I'm not gonna worry about that. I'm also working on getting a copy of this precision trolling book but Ebay seems to be the only place so far.

I'm also trying to read as much as I can about Walleye habits and what not as that is all a mystery too.

[hommer23]

Just a few thing to think about when starting out.
1. don't buy cheap gear, you will have to upgrade at a higher cost.

2. try to hire a guide the first few time out it will show you the areas to fish and some tricks to use to get started.

3. Learn to tie your own harnesses and maintain your own gear and carry extra parts to fix gear on the water.

Most of the waters I fish there is no need for down riggers to catch eyes. Go get some 1 and 2 oz inline wieghts and bottom bouncers and some planer boards. I use the the rule of 1/2 the distance back at 1 mph for depth so at 40 feet back you will be 20 feet down with 1 oz wieght. If I troll over 2 mph I use 2 oz inlines. with bottom bouncers let the line out until it hits the bottom and the about 10 to 20 feet more depending on speed, you can feel the line and tell when the bouncer is running right. For jigging to start out just buy some 1/4 to 1/2 oz long shank round head jigs and keep your line as straight up and down as you can. Daiwa sealines 27 line counters are a good reel for around $100.00 new and the cabelas rods will work I like 8 to 8 1/2 foot to troll with but 7 foot also work. Just rember that walleye will come up to feed 4-6 feet so if you are marking them at 20 feet I will set my boards at 40 back (20 feet down), 35 back (17.5 fd) and 30 back (15 fd) and watch what depth they are hitting at and adjust you other boards from there. You can talk to the fisherman at the docks to see what size and colors they are using for blades and beads on the harnesses and tie some up with a quick change clevis. Have fun getting started and be safe.

[Jack Schilla]

I see you live in New York where I've never fished, but as one of the former Top 40 Pro Walleye Anglers in America, on the In-Fisherman Tournament Trail, allow me to state,....from my perspective, boat control, and boat speed, are by far the two most important factors to consider, when fishing walleyes. Understanding this can be a challenge, for someone that that has geared themselves to fish bass, as you say you've done. Great Lakes Walleyes are often upper, or mid water column oriented, because of water temps being warmer higher up, but inland lake, and inland river walleyes, are mostly bottom oriented. Not many anglers heavily depend on downriggers, or dipsy divers for walleyes, not that those methods are never useful. In addition to trolling, & jigging, another very important method for walleyes, is rigging; using Lindy sinkers, in your presentation. I suggest you try to study the forage base in the body of water you know walleyes are at. Then duplicate the color of that forage, at a slow enough speed, in a walleyes zone of awareness, and you'll be successful. Vertical jigging, nine times out of ten, you'll feel a light bite on the jigs drop, and using LIGHT 4 to 6 lb. test line in doing so, is imperative. Light line accordingly also is imperative for pitching jigs. Going to stinger hooks (small treble hooks in the minnows tail tied to the jighead) is sometimes the key to vertical jigging success with jigs tipped with minnows. Hope this helps & good luck!

[codybrown5991]

You can know every method of catching walleye vertical jigging, snap jigging, dragging, rigging, trolling, etc but if you have no idea where the fish are it will be completely obsolete so the best advice I can give you is learn more about walleye and their preferences as well as boat control especially if fishing a river

[Little buddy]

Phlueger supreme (spelling?) reels for jigging are relatively cheap and are great reels. Daiwa accudepths are great line counter reels for trolling and can be purchased for about 65 bucks a piece. Good luck..

[undguy]

Don't know if you have Scheels stores where you are, but they have very good trolling rod and reel combos from 6 ft to 14ft at reasonable prices. I have 2 eight footers and two 12 footers with line counter reels. You can also get leadcore reels.

[Weak Daze]

If you find yourself headed to Buffalo, get in touch with me. I am sure rebs and I can get you out with us for some walleye experience.