Walleye fishing
 

Hey I was just wondering what are some of the crank baits you guys like to use. I've only been walleye fishing for about 4 years and the past two years I have been fishing for them more and more and have grown to love it. I had been using a rapala original floater and last summer I had a friend of mine with me give me a XPS professional series hardbait minnow and I caught 3 Walleye over 20 inches in a 5 minute period. Thats all I use now and I have every color, best walleye crank bait IMO. I hear that people like the Long A Bombers a lot but I've out fished the guys beside me using the Long A's pretty much every time. I'm always very confident that I'm going to catch one when I hear them hitting the top of the water when they're chasing bait fish. Its always a good night when thats going on. If you have any tips how to catch walleye during late winter or early spring I would really appreciate it. I usually don't start catching them till May but I want to start earlier this year. Also I've never been river fishing for Walleye, how much different is it? Include any other tips if you want, the more I know the more I can do to try to catch more.

The picture below is a Walleye I caught last summer in Virginia at a small lake, it was 27 inches and 9 pounds. Hopefully there will be more like that to come this spring and summer.

NIce walleye..what happened to your face man?? lol

Real nice walli congrats ( i love to eatim) ( when fishing for them in the past on lures -lake or river i just always stuck with minnow/baitfish lures like Rapalas,seemed to work pretty well then)

Flicker shads and thundersticks are my go to for trolling.

I've never tried trolling for walleye but I guess right now would be the best time to do that since they're in the deeper parts of lakes around here. Yeah I'm just not a fan of Rapala lures because they have no beads and Walleye seem to respond better to crankbaits that have a nice rattle.

you are really missing out not using rapalas. husky jerks.....one of the best jerk baits ever made. great walleye lure

I did for about 2 years and had some good night with it but I'd use the XPS minnow crankbait over Rapala anyday. If you would try one then you wouldn't want to waste your time using a Rapala anymore.

Trolling is basically all we do for walleye and I can't get enough of it. We usually troll on Green Bay because it is a little tricky casting out there. Depending on the body of water it may be worth a try.:happy0001:

I fish at a 108 acre lake but the Walleye population is really really good there. The max depth is 32 feet and an average depth of 16 feet. I know where the Walleye are at right now but when is the best time to go trolling? Would it be to cold right now and what do you use when your trolling and what type of setup? Sorry I'm asking so many questions but I've never really trolled for fish around here.

Well thats a little small of a lake to troll but it could definitely be done. I don't know exactly where you are from but basically anytime is ok to troll. Up here we focus more on cranks and stickbaits in colder water and switch to crawler harness when it warms up, more around may and june up here. I think the easiest set-up and what I use is inline planer boards. We run three lines off each side and sometimes a flatline off the back of the boat. The key is to know how deep your baits are running and that is the key to success.

one of my buddies took me to one of his secret spots and on the 3rd cast BOOM a 22" walleye on a suspending husky jerk. i got the biggest of the night

I troll alot for walley also. Inline planer boards with reef runners at night and crawler harness with snap weights during the day. Still a greenhorn at it but seems like early in the spring i do best in shallow water 8-12 feet, where the water warms up first and the bait fish collect. As the summer gets goin and the water warms you have to gradually keep fishing deeper and deeper water. Then in the fall start moving in shallower again. When trollin for em its a fine balance of speed, water depth, and depth of the bait your runnin. It can get quite interesting when you got 6-8 lines in the water and ya start nailin fish! You find yourself workin yer butt off tryin to keep em all in the water! I love it!

Yeah speed is another thing I forgot to mention that is a big part. If your pulling harnesses you usually want to go slow, probably not much over 1.5 mph and focus around 1 mph usually. Depending on what cranks your pulling you may speed up to even 2.5 mph to get the action you need. Some days they like it fast and some days they like it slow to just like any other type of fishing.

If you get into it a little more your best inverstment will be definitely be the trollers bible from precision trolling. It gives you the dive curve for almost any lure imaginable as well as curves when using weights. Gives you more confidence in knowing where your baits are.