So I've caught a lot of walleyes over the years while bass fishing. I've caught them on crankbait, spinnerbait, jerkbait, jig, tube, rattletrap; never caught any on topwater or a worm. My question is, when you're not trolling for walleye and just casting, are the lures much different than bass lures?
I fish them as much as I can but I'm not an expert. My circle of friends here are all walleye fisherman. The biggest difference I notice when casting is its all the small thin cranks (shad raps, flicker shads, flicker minnows) never the wobblers that bass guys throw. And the plastics are all pretty skinny. Nothing close to the creature baits, just all worms or paddle tails. But I think a lot of that is just what they've always been told. I fished a tournament as a Co last year and guy told me he jigs speed craws for walleyes. Says everybody looks at him like he's crazy but like he said all that walleye sees is the movement it doesn't care what it actually is.
Yes, I'm primarily a walleye fisherman. I hardly ever troll for walleye. We like to fish the shallows when the water temp is right and the minnows come shallow to spawn. I would say there's probably not much difference in lures. Don't use creatures or frogs. Everything else is in play. First choice is a 3" twister tail on 1/8 jig. Second is #7 or #8 shad raps. smaller original raps of the long thin profile are good. I also love using square bills when craw dads are coming in. Rattle traps also work well.
I catch tons of walleye while smallmouth fishing using Silver Buddy's, Hopkin's Spoons. Jigging Rapala's and other blade baits. I have also caught my share on standard bass crankbaits.
Two years ago I got into a mess of walleyes using a Ned Rig. I have caught wallaye on top waters and spinner baits as well but those don't happen every year.
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I was going down a grass line one time and was using a bandit 100 in black splatterback color and caught a bunch of them. Maybe they were feeding on crappie at the time
Catch many will bass fishing. Jerk bait seems to catch most of them. I prefer to fish for them with a jig&minnow in July
I live on the Bay of Quinte, so I like to mix up my day between largemouth and walleye.
I never troll, only cast for walleye using:
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I cast deep weed edges using a Rapala Tail Dancer 14 in a Hot Chub colour, now discontinued. I lost my favourite faded out bait last year to a big bite right at the boat (probably a pike). Fortunately I stocked up on them at the time, so I placed one on the dash of my truck for the winter.
I occasionally stroll for suspended walleye (wind drift with the trolling motor) using a Smithwick Suspending Rattling Rogue Black back/silver sides/orange belly. This requires a long line approach (100 yards back).
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I'm an accidental walleye fisherman... If I catch one by accident while bass fishing I'll spend a little time trying to catch a second, third or forth... Bass fishermen have to eat to... Dan
I have fish for them back when I lived up North, most memorable one was night fishing buzzbaits for bass on Lake Vineyard in Michigan and caught a 4lb walleye. I've caught them on spoons, spinnerbaits, crawler harness on bottom bouncers, jig with a grub body, crank baits (always thinner ones, Rapalas mostly), inline spinners, but that is the only one I've ever caught on top.
Are the lures much different than bass lures? Not really, but some bass style lures work better for walleyes. Big paddletail swimbaits, Rippin Raps, Jigging Raps, and thin profile lipped crank baits seem to be mainstays. They also love jerkbaits as someone already mentioned. Also, they seem to target spawning crappies where we fish (MN) and will sometimes go crazy for a swimjig with a Rage Craw/Speed Craw trailer when that happens. Like bass, they love when a lure makes cover contact or behaves somewhat erratically. Perhaps not surprisingly, they eat much larger forage items than most anglers are accustom to casting.
For the most part
Walleye hit bass baits
Allot is going to depend on the lake and forage
On the great lakes, they suspend allot, there feeding on bait balls
On inland lakes were there planted. there very weed orientated vs suspending
On my home waters of Devils Lake in ND Walleye are very Bass-like. It is a fun fishery. From late June through ice up fish can be caught in 2 ft or 52ft. Pick your poison.
We cast from ice-out to ice-up (in addition to other methods). I have said for years that if I could get a Bass guy up here for a few weeks and teach me weedless methods and patience around weeds my checkbook would be a bit thicker after tourneys.
Shad Raps and paddle tails from multiple companies are king here; but other baits (some that originated in the Bass world) are starting to be used more.
I know on my home lake they like chatterbaits aso
SHHH!Originally Posted by RANGER487
Jerkbaits, grubs, in-line spinners (Mepps). Usually early evening until dark on shallow flats near channels. Not many weeds here, so I look for rip rap banks. I catch a bunch with streamers on the fly rod. During the day I generally troll.
Erie Dearie with a crawler in the weeds here on the Saginaw Bay.... We flat out smash em! They actually pull through the weeds pretty good. We also catch a bunch at night throwing Beno's. Its similar to the ol' lazy Ike.
Walleye cranks generally have much thinner bodies.
I catch the bulk of mine on jerkbaits and paddletails but I caught some flipping docks while bass fishing.
Walleyes will bite anything and everything bass do we all so catch a lot of them pan fishing too.
River fishing I use thunder stick jr and #11 rapalas. Rarely fish lakes for them.
I've caught them a lot on jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and cranks (probably have caught the most on a Wiggle Wart which definitely doesn't fit with the thin, subtle cranks you see walleye guys use most and like has been discussed), but it's generally when the water is colder. Last spring I sight fished one that I saw chasing bluegills...tossed a Neko rig about 15 feet in front of it and it nailed it. I've never seen anything like that before and likely won't again, but in any case, to quote Zona: I separated that one from its sides!
In general I very rarely catch them in the summer (and really rarely catch them at all) unless I find some current in a place that doesn't usually have current. I'm guessing they just set up deeper and/or don't feed during the day a whole lot where I'm bass fishing. I also figure that using a lot of the same techniques I use for bass (with the exception of topwaters) at night instead of during the day would produce well, but don't know that for a fact. I live in MN but I'm definitely no walleye fisherman...except maybe through the ice. I've gotten *serviceable* at that. I have the excuse of being a transplant at least.
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