Jigging Walleye

Home

Jigging for walleye is a great way to locate fish from ice out to ice on. Infact, Jigs probably account for more caught walleye than any other lure. But there is a lot more to jig fishing than tossing a jig out and reeling it in.

 

When the ice comes off the lake and the water begins to warm  the walleyes begain migrating to their spawning areas in the lake. The graet thing about spawning walleye is that 99% of them are going to be keepers and once you find them, you can score a limit in a hurry. When the ice first come off I like to use the old fashion jig and minnow. The added minnow seems to produce more fish for the first few weeks of open water. Once the fish are in their spawning area and the water has warmed about 10 degrees I like using a jig like a Mister Twister Exude formula 3" curly tail jig with a 1/4 oz. jig head. I'll toss it up on to shallow flat in about 3-5' of water and slowly swim it along the bottom to the edge of the drop off. it's not uncommon to find the fish in 8',10' or 12' of water so it pays to work the bait all the way back to the boat.

 

After the spawn, walleyes will begin roaming the flats and in stained or muddy lakes you'll often find them in 3'-6' of water right up to mid Summer. When the fish are shoallow there is no better bait to use tha a jig. I will usually use a jig inpregnated with a fish formula. like in Spring fishing I will use a 3' jig with an 1/8 oz. jig head and swim it back to the boat. It's kind of like bass fishing with a plastic worm, you fish it slow and cover as much ground as you can.

 

In clear water you will usually find the fish in much deeper water. Infact, you might find them in as much as 14' feet of water right after the spawn. When I fish in deep water I like to add a half of a night crawler or a leech to my jig. I will often use a 3' twister tail jig with a 1/4 or 3/8 oz. jig head.  There is a couple of ways to fish the jig in deep water. If I am fishing a sharp drop off I will vertical jig the bait, using my trolling motor to keep me on the drop off. If the water isn't to deep (10'-12') I might troll a jig to do this I will use a spinner head jig like a Road Runner jig and tip it with a peice of night crawler and troll it using my trolling motor. If the fish are real deep you can back slowly back troll or drift fisha jig. Agian, I would add a piece of night crawler or a leech to the bait. Some time the walleyes will short strick you bait. if that happens, try adding a stinger hook to your jig. to do this, take a piece of 8 lb. test line and tie it on to the bind of your hook. Then tie a #6 bait hook so it trails 3 inchs behind the jig and pin it in to the crawler or leech. You will find that 50% of your fish will be caught on the stinger hook.

 

I carry a varity of jig colors in my boat, I stick with basic colors like white, black, red, yellow, purple and chartruce.  I buy my jig heads in bulk from Bass Pro or Cabela's, I will keep 18, 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 oz. jig heads in my tackle box all the time, I also keep a couple of 1 oz. in my box for those real windy days. I only buy black jig heads, because I don't care if they can see the jig head or not, I do care if the can see the jig body so I put more time in choosing the right jig body.

 

Althought twister tail jigs were made for bass they are without a doubt the best walleye lure you can have in your tackle box. They're virsitle, inexpensive and  walleye love them.