Cold water walleyes

For you guys who target the cold weather walleye, when picking plastics what plastics do you throw. Paddle tails, ring worms, or what

All of the above. When you say cold, I think of 33-38 degrees. Don’t need a lot of action. Slow and steady does best for me. More of just a slow retrieve. The 38-41 degrees is an up tick in action. I increase how many I get on a “hop”. I also use larger profiles. At 33 degrees a pinched down ringworm or 2-1/2” paddle tails. 38 degrees I move up over 3”. After 42 degrees I try not to jig at all. I just target prime bite windows and start throwing cranks

Ringworms all day long under 40. Just a confidence thing, may switch if it needs it. Or slow rolling raps, sssllllllooooowwww.

Over 40 especially after 45 anything goes. I’ve gotten nice ones rippin aggressive baits.

Ringworms, I always bite a half inch off. If the water is clear, natural colors work best for me. I also do well on flukes fished slow. Sometimes you may need to fish a size up for a jig if you using a fluke to get the right drop rate.

Depends on the current, especially if vertical/45 degree jigging.

I’m not much for actually throwing/casting plastics. I’m not disciplined enough to slow way down in cold water when I am casting something especially dealing with the variables of snags, current, etc.

I like to keep my offerings relatively vertical either as a single plastic or with a Dubuque rig and basically hold position or just crawl upstream at ~0.2mph letting the bait do the work. It’s rare where there’s a need to actively jig or even move the rod. I hold it steady and touch bottom once every 30 seconds or so. My offering is generally near the bottom just off the back corner of the boat. If I am losing fish from short bites with such a slow approach, it’s usually a sign of a tough day of fishing or a need to slow down even more. This MIGHT be when I try a minnow and jig if I know there are fish. Even then I’ll often just move on to find more active fish versus fishing small short bites.

To answer your question, if I am in decent current I go with a paddle tail first. If it’s nearly calm with just the slightest flow, I’ll grab a ringworm first. There’s no real reason – just how my pea brain works.

Once water temps hit 45 degrees I move to small shadraps or flickershads longlined or 3 way rigged stickbaits that let me cover a little more water. This is usually at whatever speed gets the bait to wobble, nothing more. I’ve had some strange looks from guys stuck vertically jigging a minnow catching 12″ saugers when I pull past with crankbaits on. I’m sure they think I’m an idiot…but when comparing results many would be surprised.

I’m sure other anglers have it substantially more dialed in than I do, but there are many ways to get fish topside from cool water.

I am a big fan of puls-r and swimmers from kietech,juice, or rage. I have a few packages of boottail plastics that I really like when fishing faster or deep water. They have a large profile height wise but they are narrow to cut the current.

I grab the first one that catches my eye, no wrong answer. When they bite really light, I will add a stinger or swap to a shorter plastic like a Kalins grub or the ol slurpie from Northland. I almost always use bright colors but it depends a lot on the clarity or in my case, however muddy the big muddy is.

Pulse’r paddle tails here. I’m confident with them, and they work well. Boats around us down in Red Wing this weekend were really trying to figure out what I was using! Only boat consistently boating fish!

Pulse-R 2.45″ and 3.25″ is my go to when we start wader/shore fishing here in SD. Chartreuse/orange core or chartreuse/green core for eastern lakes, white on Francis Case. Once the water is warming a little bit, the 5″ k-grub in night glow is an underrated option after dark. It’s quickly catching on as a must have here in SD though.

I wish I was targeting cold water walleye. Instead, i’m realizing I am at the stage in my life where I have almost no time to do what I want, and instead spend the majority of my time either working or hauling the kids around to their various activities. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and enjoy watching them do their things, but I’m not gonna lie, I like fishing more.

Edit: To clarify, I like fishing more than I like watching a 5 year old do gymnastics etc. etc. Not that I like fishing more than I love my kids. =) =)

matthewkolden wrote:

I wish I was targeting cold water walleye. Instead, i’m realizing I am at the stage in my life where I have almost no time to do what I want, and instead spend the majority of my time either working or hauling the kids around to their various activities. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and enjoy watching them do their things, but I’m not gonna lie, I like fishing more.

Edit: To clarify, I like fishing more than I like watching a 5 year old do gymnastics etc. etc. Not that I like fishing more than I love my kids. =) =)

There are a lot of us old timers that are either laughing or shaking our heads. You have about 10 years from birth to give them 75% of the base knowledge they will need in life. You have about 5 years left to either have an inseparably buddy, or a pain in the azz. Short investment into the one that someday will be changing your diapers and lifting you in and out of a boat to fish with them. Be careful of what you wish for

matthewkolden wrote:

I wish I was targeting cold water walleye. Instead, i’m realizing I am at the stage in my life where I have almost no time to do what I want, and instead spend the majority of my time either working or hauling the kids around to their various activities. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and enjoy watching them do their things, but I’m not gonna lie, I like fishing more.

Edit: To clarify, I like fishing more than I like watching a 5 year old do gymnastics etc. etc. Not that I like fishing more than I love my kids. =) =)

I’ve been lucky, I have brought my son on almost all my trips since he was 3 or 4. He has spent many days in the boat with me. He enjoys being out there. He doesn’t even fish half the time. But a couple weekends away here or there are good for your sanity.

Large plastics. Big walleyes have no problem tackling large plastics. 4 to 6″. Either just hold them or a slow drop.

Paddle tails on a swim bait jig head. Set the trolling motor at .8 mph. Cast out the paddle tail and let it hit the bottom. Then twitch it as you troll. Expect a very light tap and set the hook. Very similar to dragging Senkos for bass.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>matthewkolden wrote:</div>
I wish I was targeting cold water walleye. Instead, i’m realizing I am at the stage in my life where I have almost no time to do what I want, and instead spend the majority of my time either working or hauling the kids around to their various activities. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and enjoy watching them do their things, but I’m not gonna lie, I like fishing more.

Edit: To clarify, I like fishing more than I like watching a 5 year old do gymnastics etc. etc. Not that I like fishing more than I love my kids. =) =)

I’ve been lucky, I have brought my son on almost all my trips since he was 3 or 4. He has spent many days in the boat with me. He enjoys being out there. He doesn’t even fish half the time. But a couple weekends away here or there are good for your sanity.

Makes me nervous to have kids! I fish 4 days a week or more in the summer. My fiancé loves fishing too, not nearly as much as I do, but she always wants to go. When we have a kid, it’s going to have to be coming with!