Best/Favorite Walleye Lure – Color, Size, and Live Baits for the main big lakes

So, for the main big lakes, Red, Mille Lacs, Winnibigoshish, Lake of the Woods…… I haven’t really icefished since I got out of the Corps until last year, now I hope to be fishing a lot more and need to buy a few baits. I have already purchased some Clam Leech Flutter Spoons in multiple sizes/colors and Clam Ribbon Leech Flutter spoon in multi colors. I also have picked up some Clam Jointed Pinhead Mino’s in Rainbow Glow and White/Chart Purple Glow in 1/16 and 1/4.

I was thinking about getting an Acme Pendu Jig as recommended on here also.

What is your favorite/best walleye lure?

Brand, model, size, and color.

Also, what is your favorite live bait, rainbow shiners, suckers, etc……

Red hook and creek chub,
Or venom spoon with fat heads head. Also started liking the tumbler spoon.

Colors change by the lake. And day. Anything from red, pink, green, gold.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Red hook and creek chub,
Or venom spoon with fat heads head. Also started liking the tumbler spoon.

Colors change by the lake. And day. Anything from red, pink, green, gold.

You don’t like glow colors?

Are they not good for walleyes?

I have some in wonderbread glow but maybe that is for panfish.

Frostbite Dinner Bell

Rapala UL Rippin Rap

Good ole hook n minnow

I never use glow. Except on my crappie jigs. I do like uv. But thats about how my tackle looks. I have 100s of spoons and I use the same handful always.
I also love some Tom’s tackle charmers in gold, orange or gold/pink

Bearcat89 wrote:

I never use glow. Except on my crappie jigs. I do like uv. But thats about how my tackle looks. I have 100s of spoons and I use the same handful always.
I also love some Tom’s tackle charmers in gold, orange or gold/pink

Interesting.

I wonder if anyone here has luck with glow for walleyes?

All sorts of stuff works and will work. I’m just not one to chase everything they are using on ido or any other fishing show. I like to use what I’m comfortable using and what I know works.
People like to over complicate when dumbing it down is usually the answer

Upper Red:

I just got back from a trip up there. We didn’t absolutely hammer fish, but caught our share. Tons of 17-19″ fish, with some in the 20-23″ range as well. Our best setup hands down was a red hook and split shot deadsticked with a fathead. Rainbows on a plain hook seemed to get less action but have more size on the hits they created. We also caught quite a few fish on a purple jigging rap, red buckshots, red rattlin’ flyers, Clam Flutter spoons, and a couple small gold spoons during high skies and bright sun.

LOTW:

I like going with a bright buckshot first and foremost like the orange hot perch color, glow red, or some type of chartreuse. On my other rod I have a glow demon under a bobber. Most of the fish I’ve marked over the years on LOTW have seemed somewhat less finnicky. I’ve always assumed it’s because of the murky waters and more depth. On Red, we ran into a lot of finnicky fish that didn’t want noise whatsoever.

Mille Lacs:

Last year it was all about deadsticks and rattle reels, and it was almost exclusively a night bite for us. We did go later in the season so my results may be skewed…but when we were there fishing during the day was about as unproductive as imaginable. At night, a glow hook with a fathead or small shiner seemed best. These fish we did mark at night did NOT want rattle spoons, raps of any type, etc.

Glow does work, sometimes it helps sometimes it doesn’t matter. I like the small spoons with rattle for Red, like the Jr Tackle custom spoons mostly pinkish colors. Mille lacs less rattle and way clearer lake so more natural colors, Macho minnows, forage spoons. Lake of the woods is more gold, red and gold, best weekend ever on LOW I used a red and gold rattle flyer medium size and killed it 3 to 1 compared to my buddies. The other best spoon on LOW was a frosty spoon red in color. Only fished winnie a couple times so not much help there. And of course always have a dead stick next to you with a plain red or chartruse hook.

Rippin raps
Slab raps
Jigging rap
Macho minnow
Buckshots
Lindy flyer spoon
Flutter spoons all sorts of different brands and styles.

I start aggressive and work my way to less aggressive and let the fish tell me what they prefer that day. Always have some kind of dead stick set up as well.

buckybadger wrote:

Upper Red:

I just got back from a trip up there. We didn’t absolutely hammer fish, but caught our share. Tons of 17-19″ fish, with some in the 20-23″ range as well. Our best setup hands down was a red hook and split shot deadsticked with a fathead. Rainbows on a plain hook seemed to get less action but have more size on the hits they created. We also caught quite a few fish on a purple jigging rap, red buckshots, red rattlin’ flyers, Clam Flutter spoons, and a couple small gold spoons during high skies and bright sun.

LOTW:

I like going with a bright buckshot first and foremost like the orange hot perch color, glow red, or some type of chartreuse. On my other rod I have a glow demon under a bobber. Most of the fish I’ve marked over the years on LOTW have seemed somewhat less finnicky. I’ve always assumed it’s because of the murky waters and more depth. On Red, we ran into a lot of finnicky fish that didn’t want noise whatsoever.

Mille Lacs:

Last year it was all about deadsticks and rattle reels, and it was almost exclusively a night bite for us. We did go later in the season so my results may be skewed…but when we were there fishing during the day was about as unproductive as imaginable. At night, a glow hook with a fathead or small shiner seemed best. These fish we did mark at night did NOT want rattle spoons, raps of any type, etc.

This is a great, insightful, and helpful post.

Thanks!

Short answer, get a variety of everything. What they want can change by the hour. Pick up a variety of spoons in various colors, some form of jiggin rap, plain hooks, and some bigger profile/aggressive baits.

I fish Mille Lacs almost exclusively, and on the exact opposite spectrum as Buckybadger, most of our fish came with really aggressive jigging last year. But I have seen it where deadsticks are outperforming jigging, and vice versa My rods are set up as follows….

One set up with plain hook on a drop shot rig.
One with a jigging rap/hyper rattle.
One with a clacknrap.
One with a buckshot.
One with some form of flutter spoon. I like gold on ML, usually a slender spoon.
I don’t dead stick much, usually have tip ups out with a medium sucker.

And like stated before, they will tell you what they want by what they do.

Those clam leech flutter spoons are all you really need, deadly bait. I usually fish one of those and then have a deadstick next to me.

Best walleye lure on Red last year for me was a 3” glow red / white spoon tipped with a minnow head. Between midnight and 3 am, 4 nights in a row it got me 22 fish between 25” to 28”. I was jigging in 20’ of water from 5’ to 12’ down. I was just trying to call some fish in to hit our rattle reels when the first one slammed it. Almost knocked the beer out of my hand. I never caught a fish on that lure before and have yet to catch another fish on it. You never know what they want. Get a hand full of different type of lures that flutter or dart or make noise or are silent or glow or … Just get a couple of each. Most lures are magical in the right conditions.

Tip Up/Deadstick, sure-set treble, 5-7″ sucker

If I have to jig i will you a glide style bait, or a #5/6 rippin rap. I have caught more walleyes upsizing then I ever have downsizing

Red Buckshot jig and a red hook and split shot on the set line is all I really need. Occasionally a gold or perch Tingler Spoon, particularly on Mille Lacs. Have way more options, but almost always find myself back where I started.

Same general response as everyone else. For jigging I like buckshot spoons, tingler spoons, and UL rippin raps.

For deadstick/rattle reels, plain hook and split shot always.

My go to jigging lures, if I had to pick 2: any version of the PK spoon (PK spoon/PK rattle spoon/PK predator spoon) and UL Rippin rap.

My go to deadstick if I had to pick 2 Pink Gamagatsu Octopus hook or VMC waxy jig under a venom float set as close to neutral buoyancy as possible. I use this 99 out of 100 times.

Color depends on the lake. If I had to pick 2, I’d go with some sort of UV/glow pink or gold. One of those two will work anywhere.

I use other things occasionally (rattlin flyer, buckshot, tumbler/tingler glow shot), but I could fish walleyes anywhere, every day with one box of those 4 things and feel great about it.

The most underrated, underused walleye lure out there is the sebile vibrato. I’ve seen some people use it, but not many, and I’ve seen it absolutely slay on LOW.

SW Eyes wrote:

My go to jigging lures, if I had to pick 2: any version of the PK spoon (PK spoon/PK rattle spoon/PK predator spoon) and UL Rippin rap.

My go to deadstick if I had to pick 2 Pink Gamagatsu Octopus hook or VMC waxy jig under a venom float set as close to neutral buoyancy as possible. I use this 99 out of 100 times.

Color depends on the lake. If I had to pick 2, I’d go with some sort of UV/glow pink or gold. One of those two will work anywhere.

I use other things occasionally (rattlin flyer, buckshot, tumbler/tingler glow shot), but I could fish <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes anywhere, every day with one box of those 4 things and feel great about it.

The most underrated, underused <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye lure out there is the sebile vibrato. I’ve seen some people use it, but not many, and I’ve seen it absolutely slay on LOW.

Do you put a minnow head on each end of the Sebile Vibatro?

Night time Lowlight:
Northland Buckshot spoons 1/8th oz. all the way to 3/4 oz. ones. Red glow is my favorite but any of them will work tipped with minnow head.

Lindy Rattl’n Flyer spoons 1/16th oz. to the 1/4 oz. ones. Specifially for wally the 1/4 oz. is my preference tipped with minnow head. Perch pattern one is my pick.

Daytime Sunny skies:
Dardelve spoon. I think they’re called Midget and Spinnie sizes. I think 1/8th oz and 1/4 oz. in weight. Need that floppy flutter. Fished bare or tipped with minnow head. Hammered nickle pattern.

Northland Mimic Minnow jigs. Prefer paddle tail in 1/8th oz and 1/4 oz.

Jigging Raps. Size 3 to 7.

…and the list goes on…

slipperybob wrote:

Night time Lowlight:
Northland Buckshot spoons 1/8th oz. all the way to 3/4 oz. ones. Red glow is my favorite but any of them will work tipped with minnow head.

Lindy Rattl’n Flyer spoons 1/16th oz. to the 1/4 oz. ones. Specifially for wally the 1/4 oz. is my preference tipped with minnow head. <em class=”ido-tag-em”>Perch pattern one is my pick.

Daytime Sunny skies:
Dardelve spoon. I think they’re called Midget and Spinnie sizes. I think 1/8th oz and 1/4 oz. in weight. Need that floppy flutter. Fished bare or tipped with minnow head. Hammered nickle pattern.

Northland Mimic Minnow jigs. Prefer paddle tail in 1/8th oz and 1/4 oz.

Jigging Raps. Size 3 to 7.

…and the list goes on…

After this I made a few trips to Fleet Farm and Center Mart Minnoco in Hugo MN which has a small but really great selection. I found the Custom Jigs & Spins Demons and Snyder Death Rolls there which I couldn’t find anywhere else.

I got some Northland Coffin Spoons, Snyder Death Rools, Clam Leech Spoons & Ribbon Leech Flutter Spoons & Pinhead Mino & Jointed Pinhead Mino, VMC Tingler Spoons, Northland Eyeball Spoon, , Acme Pendu Jigs, VMC Wax Tails & Mustache Jig, and some Custom Jigs & Spins Demons (for Rattle Reels).

I think I should be set. We’ll see.

VMC Rattle Spoon 1/8″ size, gold with glow, swap treble for red treble.

After 5 trips to LOTW i noticed I kept coming back to this one and had to buy new ones twice after having most of the gold scraped off from use and hits. Usually that and whole shiner minnows hooked through the back.

Ripping rap vs buckshot rattle spoon.

Which one does better for everyone?