Light walleye bite

[musky hunter]

While walleye fishing has been good for me lately, Sunday challenged me with the lightest bite of the season. I've been using a 1/8 ounce jig for most of the season with 4#-10# spiderwire and a 7' graphite spinning rod. Sunday I was using shiners for the first time this year because they've been so hard for me to find. I could get hits, but they were so lite as to hardly pull scales off. So I went to a treble stinger, and still couldn't get a good hookset, most got off within 10' of the boat. I've run about a 70% hooking to hit ratio all year, but Sunday it was down to 10%, and those I did catch were small. Anyone else experience that negative bite, and anyone solve the problem? Maybe I should've stayed with the smaller and cheaper chubs.

[HOGEYE]

I'm on the Rainy River and been experiencing the same thing. The small ones all seem to rob me. By switching to a slip/bell sinker setup and a small Gamakatzu I am able to hook many more. Hooking behind dorsal fin.

[CANOPY SAM]

It might seem a little strange to most people, but I've had pretty good luck switching to a crawler when the bite gets really light this time of year. I use the same system (1/4 jig head with a really light stinger about 4 inches back). Seems like the eye's will really welcome a fat crawler instead of a minnnow this time of year - sometimes. I've had really good luck doing this on the Rainy. You gotta weed through the rough fish and small walleyes, but the bite is a lot more aggresive, and you'll catch some nice eye's as well.

[musky hunter]

I haven't used a crawler all season. Not that I don't like to, but I just haven't needed to. Guess I'll have to bring some out with me next time I go out.