Help me with tips for jigging up walleye

[johnsgonefishin]

Looking for some help and tips on jigging walleye. I have done a lot of bottom bouncing with crawler harnesses in the past and have had great luck on many occasions but the idea of drifting and casting into a school sounds more fun and engaging.

I acquired about 30 jigs over the years but have never put them seriously to work. I have gumballs, swim head style, and even some helicopter looking ones. Here are my questions

1) What size weight of jig should I use for depths from 10-40 feet or so, mostly focusing on 20-30 foot depth?

2) what is favorite trailer, live crawler or plastic grub, or gulp worm or minnow or a combo like a grub with a piece of crawler?

3) If you rig just a crawler do you thread it on, hook it like a drop shot, or whacky rig it?

I am planning to use a 7ft medium fast action spinning rig with 6lb test fluorocarbon line. I would appreciate all tips and advice.

[AJ's Dad]

John,
If you have 30 jigs in your collection and are planning to jig for walleyes, you should probably stay home until you build up your collection a little more
I am now mainly a pike fisherman but in past years, walleye were my game. We had a saying. "If you're not losing jigs, you're not fishing for walleye".
It is not uncommon to lose lots of jigs in a sinlge trip. In fact, I know I have hung up and lost 15-20 in a day before.

That said, the weight of the jig is going to depend on how deep you are fishing, wind and current conditions. The theory I used to use was to go with the lightest jig possible for the water depth and conditions you are fishing. Use a jig heavy enough to be able to stay in contact with the bottom.
If you are fishing 10-20 feet of water and no wind, a 1/8 -1/4 oz jig should do the trick. Throw in some wind and you will need to bump up to 3/8 oz. Over 20 feet and I normally start with the 3/8 oz and so on. I have fished and caught walleyes in over 60 feet of water during cold weather months and had to use a 3/4 oz jig head.
As for style of jig head. I prefer the erie style. They seem to have a way of comming out of the rocks a little better than some others. I never did fall for the propeller theory type heads. They may have their days but for me a plain old lead jig head does the trick. I normally only buy the unpainted ones.

6lb line may find you losing more jigs. Wally's like the rocks and 6lb test can break off pretty easy. I normally use no less than 8 and usually spool on the 10lb test stuff just so I can save a few more jigs.

My main method used to be a jig head with a colored grub type soft plastic in the 2-3 inch size, and a half or whole night crawler gobbed on the hook. If you only hook through the worm onec, it can easily be picked off by the fish or simply wash off in the water. Recently I have started using the drop shot method of fishing for these guys. I have had days where I couldn't manage a fish on a jig, switched to a drop shot and a 3" gulp minnow set anywhere from a foot to 2 feet off the bottom, and started putting fish in the boat.
Everyone has their own style of catching walleyes but one method we used was to drag the bottom bouncer at a slow speed. When you catch a fish, throw out a marker bouy. Keep draggin in the same general direction, staying at approx. the same water depth and when you feel like you have stopped catching fish, throw out another bouy. Then we would loop around and fish that drift with jigs. The bottom bouncers help you locate active fish, then you can go back and jig up the ones that are active and the ones that may want a slower presentation to. Remember though. If you get on the fish and have an actual store bought bouy out, it can and will act as a "Boat Magnet" Many times other fishermen would see the bouys, tuck right in behind us and move in on our drift. We came up with the idea to use a beercan for the marker, then they just thought it was trash and didn't know we had marked fish. Heck, these days you don't even need the marker if yu have a gps fish finder. Just make a waypoint at the first fish and follow the trail of waypoints.

Drift rigs can be effective to. They have a tear drop type weight and a floating bead that help float the worm up off the bottom. I like the ones that have the double hook worm harness. I thread the top hook through the tip of the worm and the bottom one back where it fits and puts a sligth curve in the worm. That makes it spin and helps get their attention. This method workd well on days when there is a little widn. Just let the wind move you along and drag the drift rig.

There are others on this website that fish walleyes more than I do and they likely have some more, "Up to date" methods, but thats how we did it back when I thought I was a "Walleye Wizard".

Good luck. I hope this helps.

[YJ Guide Service]

I agree with AJ's Dad. We use 1/4oz and 3/8 oz. Better bring a bunch cause like he said if your not losing jigs your not on the bottom. We use alot of 5" Jerrys Lure Design jig bodies...I usually fish between 20-40ft anything over that makes it hard to release fish...We use alot of odd ball jigs, lipstick jigs, and just plain ole grey round jigs...Dont spend alot on them since the river will eat them LOL...Most of the time we dont even use worms unless the river is full and the fish are spread out. Faster water you dont need them as well since its a reaction bite. We usually bottom bounce till we find the schools then jig them hard. Good luck Walleye are a blast and taste great...

[johnsgonefishin]

Awesome, thank you. I can usually locate some tight schools with bottom walkers but looking forward to trying some jigs soon to change stuff up a little.

[kevinb]

I don't walleye fish as often as I would prefer but youtube and The Next Bite website has loads of informative videos.
Usually when I go,we tend to use a worm harness.

[Lundegard]

From my experience, I would agree with the posts listed here, except for the line choice. Your rod and line don't match very well.....with that light of line, you have too "strong" of a rod. I like both of your choices, just not together. For the rod you mention, I would use Spiderwire Ultracast Flourobraid. This is by far the best braid on the market. Sinks like flouro, sensitive and strong like braid. At Roosevelt in depths less than 40 feet, you'll want a flouro leader, because it is often so clear. We catch our limits at Roosevelt in the winter in depths of 90-100, and we are using 1 ounce jigs, white grubs, half a crawler wacky rigged, with the flourobraid tied directly to the jig. In any case, I fish the Ultracast Flourobraid exclusively.

If you insist on 6 lb flouro as a mainline, use only Seaguar Invizx. Pair it with a medium light (or medium...not fast or slow) rod. You are going to miss bites this way however, unless you are fishing in 20' or less and the bite is aggressive.

I would agree with the drop shot method too. I have found it to be way more successful, more often than jigging. And lately, I have taken to drop jigging......tie a drop shot hook above your jig, and experiment with the plastics. You often will need to increase the weight of your jig to stay on the bottom, because the added drag from the additional plastic on the drop shot hook will decrease your sink rate. The Flourobraid combats this problem very well, however, allowing you to stay as light as possible on your jig.

[AJ's Dad]

I like and have used the drop jigging method as well. The problem I had was the knot. I lost several fish on the hook set. I would give a manly walleye type hookset, only to find that the line had broken at the top knot when the fish had taken the jig at the bottom. Any ideas on the best knot for this method would be appreciated. I like that setup. You get to fish on the bottom and get a hook a little ways up the line as well.

[Lundegard]

A carefully tied Palomar knot does the trick for me on the drop shot hook, even with a jig on the bottom.

[AJ's Dad]

Maybe I had some bad line. That's what I was tying but it managed to break off. I better back off on the manly hooksets.

[Natebg1]

I can certainly say from experience that using 8 to 10 lb Mono under the Palomar Knot for Walleye's is more than enough even on a manly hook set. I know some people like the 4 to 6 lb test which is fun too at least from a challenge standpoint just remember that the drag better be set very low so that once the hook is set the fish can run. If anyone ever wants to do some Walleye Fishing, Pike Fishing or Tiger Muskie Fishing give me a shout I am always up for going out with fellow Washington Lake members. Tight Lines.

Nate

[johnsgonefishin]

Thanks everyone - I jigged some up this weekend and I have to say it was a lot more fun than bottom walkers. I used the 6lb flourocarbon(even my biggest walleye of my life @ 7lbs would be unlikely to break 6lbs) and a orange /chartreuse jig head with a yamamoto green pumpkin grub and a piece of crawler seemed to work the trick. Thanks to all and I only lost 3 jigs. I liked feeling the bite and then doing a hard hookset when I felt them swimming away with it. Caught 12 ranging from 13in-19in with four in the 17-19 range.