Deadstick Setup

[RignJig]

What's your standard setup for your deadstick for walleyes? I like the red Matzuo baitholder hook with a fathead, dorsal-hooked.

Any suggestions regarding other setups, tackle, line, bait, weight, etc.?

Also, what type of rod holder, if any, do you use?

[PerchJerker]

I like Gen-N-Eyes and similar baits, and usually hook my minnow behind the dorsal fin towards the tail. I use a few different rod holders but I think the most important thing is to have the rod tip over the hole and close to it, and to securely hold the rod if the fish is pulling hard.

[maros91]

I usually run a tip up for my second line and use a red hook with a shiner.

If not. Smaller red hook and a fathead.

[Team Otter]

Plain hook and minnow, tail hooked from the top.

[Team Clam]

Red Gamakatsu hook through the back end of the dorsal fin on a fat head. On Red Lake, right through the [PoorWordUsage] of the fathead. Those crappies cannot handle it like that.

Think outside o-the-box!!!

[Northlander]

Im with team otter on this one. make that minnow dance. If its not bouncing the tip of your deadstick than jig it a few times.

A good deadstick really helps. I just got a new Thorne Brothers Walleye Deastick and it telegraphs the minnows movements real nice.

I have also used the Jason Mitchel meastick as a deadstick and it worked well.

I prefer the TB rod though because it a bit longer and has a more moderate bend to the rod. I put a new Sedona 500 on it and man is it a nice set up.

[CALVINIST]

When you deadstick with plain hook and minnow, do you use splitshots? How far do you place 'em from the minnow? I have deadsticked with plain hook and minnow, and the last fish I set the hook on, a nice one, I broke at the hook set, I figure that the splitshots I used compromised the line. I use 4# Gamma esp. I used a couple splitshots about 10" above the minnow and a small one right by the hook to keep the minnow pinned down somewhat. I decided I would now use a rubbercore sinker instead of the 2 splitshots 10" above the minnow. Will this be adequate or will I still need to add a small splitshot by the minnow?

[looneyducer]

I haven't been setting them much lately, but I have had great success tying to a snap-swivel, attaching the snap to a 1/4 0z. silver DoJigger or Pimple with the hook removed, then tying a peice of mono to the bottom of the DoJigger, and tying the end of that, maybe three inches down, to a size 8 Octopus hook, like a dropper rig. I hook the minnow under the dorsal, and his own efforts wobble the DoJigger.

----------------snap-swivel-DoJigger-mono-hook-minnow. Fish.

[Royce Aardahl]

I usually like a plain brown or red hook #8 hooked just behind the dorsal fin and a #4 slpit shot up a foot or so. If I use a jig it'll be a verticle style hooked the same way.

[TCon17]

Only deadstick I could get to work this weekend was a blue glow frosty spoon and a minnow head. Tried every jig I had, plain hook and a split shot up 12-18". That little spoon sittin still with the minnow head jiggled a little very five minutes or so was the ticket.

[Fuzzbient]

The most dead stick eyes I've caught have been with a fathead on a red hook through the dorsal from back to front with a split shot 6 inches or less above it to keep it somewhat stationary.

I've been thinking about trying the button trick on the line between the rod eyelets to detect bites on this setup. Has anyone tried it with luck? This is the deal where you thread the line through a heavy button between two rod eyelets and pull the button down to have some play in the line and watch for the button slack to tweak on a bite. It's a float or spring substitute. I generally just wait for the rod tip to react.

[WalleyesWest]

I have been having good luck this year taking a pimple, putting 6 inches of line and then the hook #4 and a soft (key) glow bead.

just let it sit there and let the minnow do the work.