Walleye jigs
Not like it’s a news flash, but walleyes aren’t bass – not by a long shot. Where they live is one thing; how you catch them is another. Consider the jig the ultimate bait for either flavor of fish. Jigs are most often found with rubber legs and plastic or pork trailers for bass, and overwhelmingly with a little color on the head and plain-and-simple live bait for walleyes. But wait, there’s more …
“The bass guys spend a fair amount of time working with different rates of fall,” said Crestliner pro Scott Fairbairn of Hager City, Wis. “In walleye fishing, I’m not spending so much time worrying about the action. I’m more concerned about the kind of structure and current I’m fishing.”
That’s why the basic jig design for walleyes is a ball-head, a round jighead that does the job in most situations, usually in sizes from 1/16- to 3/8-ounce depending on wind and current. To compensate for wood or rocks, Fairbairn likes a jig with a light wire hook to bend free from snags. In current, he might deviate from the ball-head to opt for a Northland Whistler, a narrow jig used to slice running water with greater hydrodynamics. (Fairbairn removes the accompanying propeller.) All of the above are suited for the mainstay of walleyedom: bait in the form of a minnow, half night crawler or leech.
That said, plastics are playing an increasing role, even with bait. Though it’s not what you’d expect, Fairbairn likes to go with a big plastic, boosting from a 3-inch to a 4-inch Berkley Power Minnow, even if tipped with a small minnow, when walleyes strike short. With its negligible additional weight, the plastic provides greater surface area to help fish inhale the bait. Plastics without live bait – minnow bodies, ringworms, grubs and jig worms – are another option that, though effective, are somewhat in the formative stages.
“We’re going to need to adapt what the bass guys know to learn more about the plastics we’re going to use for walleyes,” Fairbairn said. “But it will only happen when anglers start to get more confident in plastics.”
If walleye anglers try it, they just might like it.