Jigging Techniques

[bobO]

Just wondering what techniques guys use for walleyes. Everyone does it different. I might need to try a new trick if all techniques don't trigger a bite.

[icepike]

bob- last year over here in connecticut.i tried a new rig..it was using a buckshot rattle spoon and adding a dropper rig to it..about 5 inches of 10 l0lb flourocarbon.and on that dropper hook i put a crawler..nothing can resist a crawler..i found that out the easy way.. theres just one thing with the crawler..they have a tendancy to wrap up in balls due to the cold water(well i mean i would to)so i tried to thread mine on like i bass rigging a plactic worm..the way i jigged..on the lx3 i would stop it about 10 foot from bottom jigging hard a few times to get some attention and get that rattle moving..then i would back reel the worm down in a nice easy matter almost like the worm was decending by itself..-joe

[gvg_uwec]

do you suppose the berkley gulp crawlers would work the same way...ive never used gulp yet, thinking of tryin some this winter

[icepike]

besides lacking movement and the natural smell of a crawler i see no reason why they wouldnt work..there just something about real live bait that has caught my eyes.i was open water fishing yesterday for some yellows on a lake over here..and i was using a horizontal jig.similar to something you would use ice fishing..i added the end of a purple rubber room..the squigly part..and boy did it work wonders..

[Surface Tension]

If I'm jigging eyes in most cases I'll have on a Scenic Tackle Glow Devil or Pimple tipped with a minnow head or tail. Either has good action but Go Devils have better glow and colors IMO.

I watch my sonar and get a feel for what the eyes want but as a rule, a slow rise followed by letting the jig free fall. Now if were talking trout it be a quick rise with a free fall.

I may switch up to just the slow rise and hold it up if I have fish coming in but not committing. Or I may leave it in their face and give the jig a couple bumps.

I'm very confident with this and thats half the game right there.

[Jim Hudson]

Walleyes through the ice... when they are snapping, nothing beats a good jigging spoon to lure ol marble 'eyes up from the bottom... Which is what you want to do, the farther you can make that fish come up from the bottom, the more likely you will catch it.

My go to presentation, say with a Lindy Rattl'r Spoon, Swedish Pimple, or the host of other jiggins spoons, is to swim that lure down to the bottom first and foremost. Try not to get in the habit of free falling your bait to the bottom, slowly work it to the bottom. This way if there is a active fish around, as your presentation nears the bottom or it's location, the fish will instantly key on the lure and you will pick the fish up on your flasher.

Say right away you mark a target and it rises to meet your lure, I give it a few good subtle shakes, letting the treble of my spoon swing back and forth showing the fish whatever type of tasty morsel I might have attached to it. Usually these types of fish are instantly caught, and you have to do nothing more. But if the fish seems to be sniffing around, slowly rise the bait away from the fish as you continue to jig the spoon, letting it flutter in the same cadence as you were, or just simply move your rod tip up, pulling the lure slowly away with out any action. Hopefully this will seal the deal.

For what I would call blind jigging, where my bait meets the bottom with no fish around. My jigging presentation consists of letting my lure dangle just off bottom, letting it rest for just a quick second, where I then "pound" the bottom a few times, kicking up sediment, then rising the bait up inches from the bottom and pound the lure, love this with a rattling bait, like the Rattl'r Spoon (sometimes pounding this type of lure really hard can be the ticket). If nothing after a short while, I make a few sweeping jigs with the rod tip, allowing the spoon to jerk up quickly and then flutter back down towards bottom. Usually if there are any interested fish nearby, they will seek this out and then I can fine tune my jigging sequence to hopefully ice the fish.

By fine tuning... slowing or speeding up my pounding cadence, using shorter hops to flutter the spoon, holding the lure steady for sometime... etc etc...

But don't always rely on jigging spoons, the same type of jigging sequences can be done with smaller horizontal and vertical jigs, downsizing can be crucial during day time walleye fishing and or mid winter. Lindy Fat Boys, Genz Worms, Demons, Etc Etc can be worked the same way tipped with a variety of bait for a finicky bite.

Also, a lot of these same techniques can be used with swimming lures from Salmo (Chubby Darter), Nils, Rapala, or even the Lindy Flyer.