Artificial Baits for Walleyes
 

We've now been fishing Canada for walleye for nearly 20 years. Other than for the fly-in destinations, our live bait (minnows) have always been free, so we've never really had a reason to use anything else. This year for our fly-in trip, we had to buy our minnows and most of them died within a few days because of the warm water temps (62 F). Rather than using stinky dead minnows, I started using artificial baits on my spinner rigs and jigs. I had no idea how well they would actually work, but I was pleasantly surprised. The artificial baits were absolutely awesome, to the point where I doubt I'll ever use live minnows again. When you miss a bite, you don't have to constantly reel up to see if the fish took your bait, and a single plastic can literally last all day.

I used this on my jigs: [url]https://zmanfishing.com/store/categories/elaztech/TRD_minnowz[/url]

I used this on my spinner rigs: [url]https://www.sliderfishing.com/category.sc?categoryId=23[/url]

What else should I consider for our next trip to Lac Seul? I'm sure we'll still have a few crawlers, leeches, and minnows as back-up in case the fish are really finicky, but I plan to focus on plastics.

Our recent fly in in August, I purchased 1/2 flat of crawlers to use for slip bobbers, etc... I didn't really use them but felt the need to use them up when jigging so they crawlers didn't go to waste. My wife was using plastics. We'd get a double, I'd reel mine in, net hers....then I proceed to rebait and she drops over the side of the boat and hooks up again, net her fish and then proceed to get back to rebaiting while she again drops over the side of the boat an immediately hooks up. This happened anytime I chose live bait and she was using plastics (100% of time she used plastics). She'd catch 4 to my 1 just about every time.

Dead minnows work just fine too. I usually keep using the same minnow until I can't get it ti stay on the hook anymore. Plastics work as do Cheetos.

I use artificial baits 99% of the time. In a pressured lake, live bait will very likely give you a big edge. I have been on fly-in lakes with lodges that receive fairly heavy pressure, so live bait/live bait rigs were a better option. At outpost lakes, you really shouldn't need live bait at all.

I always bring the following artificial baits for walleye fishing:

1) curly tail grubs in white - 3/4" - many brands, all will work
2) paddletail minnow in white (e.g., Northland Impulse Minnow, Berkley Powerbait Rippleshad, Berkley Havoc Grass Pig Jr.)
3) blade bait or lipless bait (e.g., Johnson Thinfisher, Rapala Rippin' Rap)
4) deep diving minnow-style bait for trolling [in the fall] (e.g., Rapala Deep Tail Dancer)

Of course, in a higher pressured environment and no access to live bait, you can always run a Lindy rig, Harness or Slo-Death rig etc.. with artificial baits. There are several Gulp products I use in these cases - pinched crawler and 3" fry are both great. There are probably a lot of others you could use.

[QUOTE=Mojo-NC;6598700]We've now been fishing Canada for walleye for nearly 20 years. Other than for the fly-in destinations, our live bait (minnows) have always been free, so we've never really had a reason to use anything else. This year for our fly-in trip, we had to buy our minnows and most of them died within a few days because of the warm water temps (62 F). Rather than using stinky dead minnows, I started using artificial baits on my spinner rigs and jigs. I had no idea how well they would actually work, but I was pleasantly surprised. The artificial baits were absolutely awesome, to the point where I doubt I'll ever use live minnows again. When you miss a bite, you don't have to constantly reel up to see if the fish took your bait, and a single plastic can literally last all day.

I used this on my jigs: [URL]https://zmanfishing.com/store/categories/elaztech/TRD_minnowz[/URL]

I used this on my spinner rigs: [URL]https://www.sliderfishing.com/category.sc?categoryId=23[/URL]

What else should I consider for our next trip to Lac Seul? I'm sure we'll still have a few crawlers, leeches, and minnows as back-up in case the fish are really finicky, but I plan to focus on plastics.[/QUOTE]




Curious what colors you have found to be better than others on those TRD minnows on jigs.


Thanks,

[QUOTE=valley366;6598790]Curious what colors you have found to be better than others on those TRD minnows on jigs.


Thanks,[/QUOTE]

I only used one color of the TRD MinnowZ and it was the Bad Shad. I didn't hook it through the head like a regular minnow but instead threaded it onto the hook so that it extended straight back as you would do with a twister tail. I'm sure other colors would have worked just as well. I was hesitant to use it at first but then caught 20 walleyes mostly between 18-22" in about one hour. I'm convinced they work just as well as live bait and you don't have to constantly rebait, just drop it back down.

The small 3" paddle tail minnow on the spinner rig worked just as well as live bait too.

I'm hooked!

[QUOTE=adempsey2.0;6598754]I use artificial baits 99% of the time. In a pressured lake, live bait will very likely give you a big edge. I have been on fly-in lakes with lodges that receive fairly heavy pressure, so live bait/live bait rigs were a better option. At outpost lakes, you really shouldn't need live bait at all.

I always bring the following artificial baits for walleye fishing:

1) curly tail grubs in white - 3/4" - many brands, all will work
2) paddletail minnow in white (e.g., Northland Impulse Minnow, Berkley Powerbait Rippleshad, Berkley Havoc Grass Pig Jr.)
3) blade bait or lipless bait (e.g., Johnson Thinfisher, Rapala Rippin' Rap)
4) deep diving minnow-style bait for trolling [in the fall] (e.g., Rapala Deep Tail Dancer)

Of course, in a higher pressured environment and no access to live bait, you can always run a Lindy rig, Harness or Slo-Death rig etc.. with artificial baits. There are several Gulp products I use in these cases - pinched crawler and 3" fry are both great. There are probably a lot of others you could use.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for this information. I've looked up your suggested plastics and bookmarked the websites for future use. I'll have quite the assortment of plastics for next year on Lac Seul.

One of our goals this year was also to practice the technique for catching fish using Jigging Raps. We used Tom Boley's technique and caught fish on every size and color of Jigging Rap that we had in our boxes. My only complaints about that technique are 1) it's a lot of work doing it in 25+ FOW as compared with jigging, and 2) ripping them up would often cause my braided line to wrap around my rod tip. Next time I use that technique I will definitely use mono or fluoro line, but it was a really fun way to fish for a while.

Berkley Gulp 3" smelt

[QUOTE=Mojo-NC;6598700]We've now been fishing Canada for walleye for nearly 20 years. Other than for the fly-in destinations, our live bait (minnows) have always been free, so we've never really had a reason to use anything else. This year for our fly-in trip, we had to buy our minnows and most of them died within a few days because of the warm water temps (62 F). Rather than using stinky dead minnows, I started using artificial baits on my spinner rigs and jigs. I had no idea how well they would actually work, but I was pleasantly surprised. The artificial baits were absolutely awesome, to the point where I doubt I'll ever use live minnows again. When you miss a bite, you don't have to constantly reel up to see if the fish took your bait, and a single plastic can literally last all day.

I used this on my jigs: [url]https://zmanfishing.com/store/categories/elaztech/TRD_minnowz[/url]

I used this on my spinner rigs: [url]https://www.sliderfishing.com/category.sc?categoryId=23[/url]

What else should I consider for our next trip to Lac Seul? I'm sure we'll still have a few crawlers, leeches, and minnows as back-up in case the fish are really finicky, but I plan to focus on plastics.[/QUOTE]

We often use a jig with a curly tail type soft plastic and may tip with a quarter of a nightcrawler depending on how fast we're fishing it and if they're biting. Works great usually.

Spent a lot of time on Lac Seul, plenty of choices for sure. For searching, I found that a Gold/Pink Hot N Tot was just great. Cast a mile, troll, bounce off rocks, fast or slow. Seemed to get the larger, aggressive fish. Everything in the lake will hit it, even caught a medium sized musky on one. Bottom bouncer with a plain Kayle hook and minnow trolled slow or drifted over a reef or point was very productive when the fish were a little fussy.