Swimbait Walleyes

[monster musky]

If anybody reads In-Fisherman I'm sure you've heard Doug Stange talk about fishing 4"-5" shad bodies on a 1/2oz to 3/4oz jig head for walleye. I was wondering if anyone else uses this technique for big walleyes?

[B K'S DAD]

Yes all the time on leech

[Northlander]

I have been doing this for years and yes it works at times. Its not all glory like he says.

[james_walleye]

We use K-grubs for walleyes, which is basically a 5" twister, and they work well.

[tommyk]

I have not tried the swim baits yet, but I have used K Grubs alot on the Mississippi and, like mentioned above, they are big and they work. But like any big bait, there is a time and place. I think even more so with those swim baits since they need to be fished a fairly rapid pace to get the desired action compared to big curly tail grub which does not take much to get the tail going. So with the swim baits not only do the fish need to be willing to take on that size food, but also need to be aggressive enough to react to the speed it is being fished. Again, I have not personally used them, but those are the observations I have made reading about them and seeing them on fishing shows.

[Northlander]

One thing I will add is I dont always use that heavy of a jighead on mine. If Im fishing shallow I will only use a 1/4th oz. I really like to go a bit smaller on the hook size and barely expose the hook point and fish these over or along weedbeds. The fish coming out of those weeds seem to really pound the baits. I will also use the jerk shads in that situation.

This is a pretty aggressive approach and you can cover a lot of water quickly. You can cast these a mile when using the heavier jig heads.

I always catch a mixed bag. Walleyes, catfish, pike, ski's and smallies.

When fishing a local trib to Lake Superior I have even caught a few Lakers and Salmon.

Like I said before it has a time and place and isnt a cure all by any means.

[PerchJerker]

I use them at times, usually not quite as big or quite as heavy as the ones Stange talks about. Just an example, last opener we were catching walleyes non-stop on 5 inch baits with 1/16 and 1/8 ounce jig heads, and fishing them slow, not ripping them the way he does.

[riverrat56]

I've caught alot of fish on 1/8 ounce jigs and Sassy shad's or Mimic Minnow tails, similar presentation but smaller than he uses. I swim these back, similar to a crank bait, but not as fast as he was showing, when shallow walleyes won't hit a crank they have saved a few days.

Personally I feel that show was made under IDEAL conditions, and he talks up big swimbaits way to much.

[PerchJerker]

Personally I feel that show was made under IDEAL conditions, and he talks up big swimbaits way to much.

Yep. In a lake that's LOADED with big walleyes. And with not a lot of structure like he was fishing in that particular location.

[Northlander]

I agree 100% guys. He way over does the swim baits.

The big ones have a small time and place the smaller ones a bigger window. Like everything else it doesnt work all the time but man its a blast when they are popping the big ones like he uses.

[Superduty]

I'm a bass guy, but I firmly believe that shad style swim baits are easily the most effective plastics for walleyes. So many options: vertical jig a shad body for spring river eyes, long line troll a 5" or BIGGER swim bait for shallow eyes at night (use a swimbait instead of a rapala), hop swimbaits down a weedling like Stange writes about...They work!

[markkstanley]

They would work on Minnetonka if I could just keep the muskys, green carp and pike off them. I know one of Stange's shows was on the pond - you can see Garrison in the background. I've been using the baits for a long time (deadly for striped bass) and always have some ready to go. if walleyes are in the weeds (cabbage not milfoil) swimbaits are my choice.