Walleye Fishing Advice

[fishmania]

Im doing some walleye fishing on the weekend
Ive never fished for walleye before
What would you suggest for lures,bait etc

Thank You!

[Mike_W]

Are you fishing from a boat? Shore? Dock? What lake?
Typically walleye are shallow right now 5-15 ft of water trolling a 2.5" spoon like a five of diamonds or a crank bait like a walleye diver, spinner and bottom bouncer. Drift fishing a jig and minnow or leech or a lindy rig with minnow or a leech / worm. Anchor jig a minnow or leech or slip bobber.

[Braun]

Originally Posted by fishmania

Im doing some walleye fishing on the weekend
Ive never fished for walleye before
What would you suggest for lures,bait etc

Thank You!

first, two questions. where are you fishing? and from a boat or shore?

[Red Bullets]

No matter where you are fishing , a good reliable lure is a lead head without a rubbertail on it. Then hook a minnow thru the eyes. The retrieve is whats important. Slow and on the bottom. A small 6 inch 'twitch' of your rodtip every couple of seconds. Works good in rivers or lakes.
note* the smaller the leadhead the more natural the minnow action. If you use a 1/32 ounce lead head, use a small stinger hook on the minnow.

[Speckle55]

Originally Posted by Mike_W

Are you fishing from a boat? Shore? Dock? What lake?
Typically walleye are shallow right now 5-15 ft of water trolling a 2.5" spoon like a five of diamonds or a crank bait like a walleye diver, spinner and bottom bouncer. Drift fishing a jig and minnow or leech or a lindy rig with minnow or a leech / worm. Anchor jig a minnow or leech or slip bobber.

Agree

[Jwood 456]

If you have a depth finder then I would look for underwater structure such as drop offs on the edges of shoals, I would look for underwater humps and tapering underwater points. I would also look for islands that have some shallow shelf around them with a sharp drop off to follow. I would also recomend looking on Anglers Atlas to search out the lake you plan to fish and get a depth chart of the lake to pinpoint the fish holding structure. I have caught most of the walleye from 12 to 16 FOW, though a couple of times, I have caught them from 6 to 30FOW.

As for lures to use, I would use a jighead with a 3'' or 4'' single twister tail grub plastic body. What I would do next, is tip the jig with a shiner and hook it through the eyes. To keep the minnow on the hook, I break off piece of cheap unscented rubber grubs and slide it onto the hook over the minnow. Some of my other favorite jigs to use, are orange apex feather flasher jigs and lindy glow jig heads with a 3'' chartreuse gulp minnow body.

[Braun]

remember guys. he is a new - to - walleye fisherman. may not have lindy rigged in the past. not really an easy thing for a guy to just go out and do with no one showing him. its a very finesse presentation and a person may have trouble distinguishing bites from bottom.

to keep things simple I would use jigs with a minnow, a spinner rig or a crawling death with a worm or leech on 3-4 feet of line away from a 3 way swivel with a bottom bouncer or on a regular swivel with a sliding interchangable clevis above the swivel.

drift with the jigs. troll the spinners/ worm rigs. you can also pitch the jigs and slowly twitch them back to you.

Walleye also take crank baits. However they have to be in an aggressive feed for cranks. if they are not the slowwer presentations such as the jigs / rigs will be what you want. troll the spinners or other rigs at no more than 1.3 mph. that might even be fast. try different speeds.

if you are fishing from shore. I would try crankbaits. if you dont get walleye you might get pike.

[Willowtrail]

I've fished the last 2 weekends and my hook was just a 3/16oz jig head and a 4" single tail jig. Light line and let it sink to the bottom and reel in slow and small twitches on the way in.

5-15' of water off structure. (rocks)

Crankbaits were also working for the other guys fishing.

[chubbdarter]

Originally Posted by Willowtrail

I've fished the last 2 weekends and my hook was just a 3/16oz jig head and a 4" single tail jig. Light line and let it sink to the bottom and reel in slow and small twitches on the way in.

5-15' of water off structure. (rocks)

Crankbaits were also working for the other guys fishing.

BINGO

all the tech talk is worthless without structure this time of year

[Braun]

Originally Posted by chubbdarter

BINGO

all the tech talk is worthless without structure this time of year

agreed but we dont even know if he is in a boat yet. he could be fishing the NSR and everything in this thread could be useless

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

well cant go wrong with a jig minnow and slip bobber . Jigging , crankbaits , spoons , walleye spinners , inline spinners . Any of those will catch fish . All diffrent tactics , but will all catch fish .

[chubbdarter]

Originally Posted by Braun

agreed but we dont even know if he is in a boat yet. he could be fishing the NSR and everything in this thread could be useless

river structure is just as important as lake structure

[Big Red 250]

Buy a dozen or 2 of 1/4 oz 0r lighter jigs in white, yellow, black along with a variety of twister tails. DO NOT use a leader. Be prepared to get hung up and lose jigs. 8 lb test mono line works good for beginnier's. Pinch your barbs. Go fishing, have fun catching walleye.

[Jasonp]

I use leaders all the time in the nsr when im walleye fishing. never had an issue. The only I didnt use one I got snapped off

[Scotty P.]

I'm in the same boat as fishmania (no pun intended). I will be trying to get into some Walleye for the first time this weekend. I will be fishing from shore and there are some great tips here. Thank you to everyone who posted.

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Originally Posted by Jasonp

I use leaders all the time in the nsr when im walleye fishing. never had an issue. The only I didnt use one I got snapped off

Not sure why youd snap off , not useing a leader , must be old line or low lb test . Im running 18 lb fire line on my walleye rod for the river and never broke off and dont use leaders .

[Jasonp]

I use 8 lb. suffix right now. Definately not old lol. But yes light

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Originally Posted by Jasonp

I use 8 lb. suffix right now. Definately not old lol. But yes light

Braided or mono ?

[Jasonp]

Braided. The new suffix 832 is what I use

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Originally Posted by Jasonp

Braided. The new suffix 832 is what I use

Huh and its snapping , Mind u Im using 110 lb I think it is , on my sturgeon set up and I love that line , doesnt seem to attract the junk that other line does . Weird it would snap .

[0liver]

Originally Posted by Jasonp

I use leaders all the time in the nsr when im walleye fishing. never had an issue. The only I didnt use one I got snapped off

May not have been a walleye? Pike are a whole different story. alot of the time guys use leaders just because the fact pike like to hang around where walleye school up....so imo use a leader and either a twister tail grub on a jig or those storm minnows work pretty damn good too..

[fishmania]

Thanks for all the advice guys!
Weathers not going to be very good this weekend but Im going anyway
Got the trailer all packed just waitin for the wife to get home from work then im outta here

[carterM]

Originally Posted by 0liver

May not have been a walleye? Pike are a whole different story. alot of the time guys use leaders just because the fact pike like to hang around where walleye school up....so imo use a leader and either a twister tail grub on a jig or those storm minnows work pretty damn good too..

I was with him when the aforementioned fish bit him off. It was either a walleye or an extremely walleye looking pike... I got bit off as well, most likely by a pike using 10 lb Suffix 832. I expected it to take longer to cut through the braid... It was just a sharp tug and then absolutely nothing.

[Muskeg]

If fishing from shore on a river at the mouth of a tributary try surface plugs. Small poppers, frogs, mice, floating crankbaits. Vary retrieve speed, usually a small wake will suffice. The key to this is to go after sunset. Follow the seams between fast and slow, and fish the eddie. Try to key in on drop offs and holes
If no luck go to jigs in common colors.
Here's a link to a video I made as an example, I was flyfishing but the point is the same. http://walleyesandflies.blogspot.com...h/label/videos

[TJG]

Originally Posted by carterM

I was with him when the aforementioned fish bit him off. It was either a walleye or an extremely walleye looking pike... I got bit off as well, most likely by a pike using 10 lb Suffix 832. I expected it to take longer to cut through the braid... It was just a sharp tug and then absolutely nothing.

Braid will do that under tension when in contact with the teeth
or the gill plate of a walleye or pike. Not a big concern,
but something to remember.

[CantThinkOfAName]

Originally Posted by carterM

I was with him when the aforementioned fish bit him off. It was either a walleye or an extremely walleye looking pike... I got bit off as well, most likely by a pike using 10 lb Suffix 832. I expected it to take longer to cut through the braid... It was just a sharp tug and then absolutely nothing.

I was going to experiment with Cortland Toothy Critter leader material this year. Its a tieable stainless steel wire. You should probably be able to find it in the fly-fishing section of WSS or FH. Hopefully be supple enough for walleye but strong enough for pike teeth.
I was all rigged up with it on my fly rod last night... but it was so damn cold out all I could do was bundle my hands in my jacket and troll. Still ended up getting slammed by a walleye on a crank with a leader attached when I was aiming for pike. Oh yeah and everything seemed to be in 4-8' of water.

[Dust1n]

here are some pointers.
-use flouro line as a leader and braid for a main line. i like using mono for just casting in shallow water with jigs.
-use colors that walleye can see best in the spectrum.
-dont use red in excess of 14fow pointless.