Best Bait Presentations for Midwest Walleye and How to Catch Them

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Pre-fishing for the Sturgeon Bay Open bass tournament one spring, I rolled into Peshtigo Harbor armed with a Rapala HJ-12 Husky Jerk. The water registered 45°F—prespawn for smallmouths, postspawn for walleyes—when both species molest suspending jerks with malicious intent.

The boat slipped into 8 feet of water. Trolling motor deployed, long cast, lure quickly pulled down to running depth, long pause. Painfully long. Twitch. Thwok. The first fish was a male walleye, hanging around in the shallows where baitfish gathered in warming water. The second fish was another walleye. So was the 20th. And the next after that. Not a single bass.

SAFETY WEEK TIP

ALWAYS USE YOUR ENGINE CUT-OFF LANYARD

Make sure your Engine Cut-Off Switch lanyard is attached to your person. They’re required on all personal watercraft and boats under 26 feet.

SUSPEND TO WIN

The hardbait season for walleyes starts early and lasts through fall. It begins as the ice recedes—if anglers can force themselves to fish slow enough. In water under 52 F, suspending baits rule, but only if suspension is perfect and pauses are torturously long—20 seconds or more. Cast. Pull the lure down to running depth. Set the rod down. Eat a sandwich. Pick the rod back up. Twitch the bait. Fight a walleye.

Perfect suspension often requires some tinkering. Pull the bait down a foot or two at boat side and observe. In spring, it has to hang there without rising or sinking for long durations. That HJ-12 Husky Jerk rose on the pause and required two Storm Suspendots on the belly to achieve absolute neutral buoyancy—one placed just behind the central hook arbor (where the treble can’t tear at it) and another placed just behind the diving lip because the bait rested nose up. If it rests nose down, the second Dot should be placed just ahead of the hook arbor on the tail. The goal is to achieve a horizontal bait at rest.

Need perfect suspension right out of the box? Pull out your wallet and pay a few extra bucks for a few Lucky Craft Pointers in two sizes—the 78 and the 100. Never had one rise or sink on the pause, no matter what the water temperature was. Temperature can affect the buoyancy of some baits. Not Pointers.

Casting for walleyes is what it's all about. Feeling marble eyes strike is seductive. And no matter the season or which hardbait you throw, the optimum setup remains the same. Braided line, a fluorocarbon leader and a medium- to medium-light spinning outfit is perfect. Braid casts farther, especially with light balsa lures like the Shad Rap. A treble trailing a 1-inch piece of weed becomes easy to feel. Because it has very little stretch, braid allows you to rip that weed free while transmitting tactile evidence of the lightest strikes at the farthest distances. Braid is thinner, cutting through water more efficiently to take lures deeper than mono. And braid sets hooks with authority at 100 feet or farther.

FISHING PRO TIPS

I like 10-pound braids like Berkley FireLine (coated and therefore very forgivingwith back-to-back uni knots). But famous walleye pro Mark Martin goes even lighter. “Distance is critical,” said Martin. “So, I spool up with 6-pound braid for longer casts. That setup rifles today’s cranks so far from the boat it’s nuts. Low-stretch lines set hooks at distance with less effort. Medium-light rods definitely work best for protecting lighter lines. A fast action, 7-foot rod launches crankbaits way out there.”

In spring, Martin is slow and deliberate with jerkbaits. “A quarter turn of the reel and pause,” said Martin. “Another quarter turn and pause. In cold water, I fish the Original Floating Rapala the same way, but I take two small split shot and press them into the lure with a plier then check at boat side to see if it needs to be tuned. Same retrieve—a quarter turn and pause.

“Walleyes act like cats when stalking a Husky Jerk,” said Martin. They stare, tails twitching, and finally rip it. You can catch walleyes with a Husky Jerk in summer, especially at night, but you get more fish in cold water, during spring and fall. Last year, we had open water all winter on a lot of lakes, and Husky Jerks scored big on walleyes all season with water temperatures in the 30s. The key is actually the lack of action. Husky Jerks are not very erratic. The action is subdued compared to a lot of suspending baits, and that’s important in cold water.”

Braids are opaque and thereby easier for fish to see. Fluorocarbon leaders, tied to the braid with back-to-back uni knots, add a modicum of stealth and a whole bunch of abrasion resistance. Leaders should be 2- to 5-feet long, depending on water clarity.

Martin says successfully choosing and presenting lures for walleyes has a lot to do with conditions like water color, water temperature, time of day, and seasonal factors like when most baitfish tend to be small and when they tend to be large. By early summer, most baitfish remain small, getting progressively bigger through fall. In spring, a size #5 Shad Rap (2 inches) is optimum. By fall, a size #8 (3 1/8 inches) becomes far more effective.

Balsa baits—like the new Rapala Shad Rap Elite—rise quickly for fishing slowly around wood and weed cover, where an immediate pause after contact allows the lure to rise above trouble. Shad Raps have been the gold standard for decades, with a tight wiggle and roll that defines the best trigger for walleyes—an action emulated by almost every company that manufactures a walleye crank today. The Elite Series is basically the same lure as the original Shad Rap but with a dozen stylish new color patterns in two sizes.

As waters warm further in early summer and beyond, some pros turn to more aggressive cranks with wider bills and broader profiles. Minnesota guide Tony Roach often opts for Rapala DT-series cranks in summer. Not that shad-style baits won’t work anytime ice-out to ice-up, because they will. Wide wobblers, by comparison, produce best within a narrower range of temperatures—from 60°F water up to 75°F or higher.

PRESENTING HARDBAITS

As spring wears on, more aggressive retrieves begin to make more sense. But when waters are 45°F to 58°F, cast, reel the bait down to its running depth and slow the retrieve to the point that the tip barely vacillates from the vibration of the diving bill. When the lure makes contact, pause briefly, giving walleyes a chance to turn and zero in on the source of the noise. During long pauses, the bait floats up too high. Simply resume a slow retrieve after two seconds.

Casting Shad Raps and Flicker Shads can put walleyes in the net all year. The Flicker Shad has a weight-transfer system for “bullet-like casts.” The durable plastic body is slow rising. Berkley claims that more walleye-tournament money has been won with tight, rippling Flicker Shads than any other crankbait.

Shad-style baits are always effective, but those with a more aggressive wobble take over in summer. The “wave action” of the Yo-Zuri 3DB Shad is hard for walleyes to resist. Like its predecessor, the Yo-Zuri Hardcore Shad (still available on eBay), the body is constructed with a hard polycarbonate frame that rises slowly after making contact with rocks or bottom, allowing for longer pauses so walleyes can find it easier. It features a weight transfer system that conveys weight to the tail during the casting motion. Letting loose with a 3DB or Hardcore Shad is like pulling the trigger with a Winchester XPR. When it hits the water, weight transfers back to the front and is held in place with a magnet. Even into the wind, it carries as if fired from a rifle.

In summer, retrieves should be a bit more erratic. Not in the extreme, like snapping and ripping the bait with constant speed changes that are so effective for smallmouths. Reel steadily for a few feet, then pull and pause, reeling up slack before continuing a steady retrieve. Inject a few short, hard snaps, moving the rod tip 6 inches or so. Keep the rod tip low and off to one side, occasionally sweeping the rod slowly to the opposite side, making the lure change direction in a slow, deliberate arc. But remember that braid delivers whatever action you impart immediately. It’s easy to overdo things when snapping and ripping baits with braided line.

The Rapala X-Rap Shad has an internal long-cast mechanism and casts like a gunshot. It suspends, hovering on the pause. Summer walleyes are especially susceptible to an erratic bait that stops and hangs in their face mid-retrieve. A follower has to make a decision—eat or retreat. For predators, most of the time, retreat is not an option. It can be left in place after making contact with cover or structure, giving walleyes time to find the origin of the sound.

When casting with billed cranks like the relatively new Rapala Shad Dancer (an extremely effective summer option), the worst thing you can do is simply reel it straight in at a steady pace. Like a good pitcher in baseball, develop a variety of pitches. Change speeds. Snap the rod tip a few times while reeling. Pause. Sweep the rod from one side to the other. Steady and slow is good, but not all the way back to the boat. Throw the high, hard one once in a while. Throw changeups to feel more walleyes strike.

By the same token, having a lure arsenal that includes slow risers, fast risers and suspenders expands opportunities to work every kind of cover, structure and situation more effectively. At least some walleyes are always “on crank.” Take advantage with the right bait at the right time.

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