Lindy rig…

Do any of you walleye fisherman ever use/ have luck with a lindy rig and a leech? If so, in what conditions do you find it produces fish and what structures? Thx

Heck yes it is a good setup.
I typically use it more in later spring and summer. Kinda same time everyone is using worms. I fish lindy rigs a lot and anywhere there is fish. Don’t rule out changing stuff up and good luck!

Used with spinners
Used without spinners
With regular Lindy weight
Used with inline weights
used with bottom bouncers
Used as short as 3′
used as long as 8’+

Many way you can rig a leech, the good old lindy rig is certainly one of them.

Great Walleye method at the right times.
I ussualy transition from Minnows to Leechs and crawlers once the water starts to get above 55 degrees or so.

I use them to probe deeper break lines with a stop and go retrieve or drift to allow the leech plenty of time to swim and pulsate deadly tactic. I sometimes use different colored hooks or a colored bead. I also vary the leader length from 18 inches to as much as 8 ft depending on ha far you want the leech to float up off the bottom or if you think the sinker is spooking fish or attracting them. Leader material go as light as you can get away with for the conditions so leech can swim as naturally as possible. Remember if you use flouro leader it sinks and a long leader will just drag on the bottom. If using spinners I use crawler or minnow.
Lindy is still a very effective tool and still has a place in every tackle box
Mwal

Absolutely! one of the best summertime tactics for walleye!

Best structure IMO is sand bars/points and mud flats. They don’t work so well on rocky bottom, you’ll spend all day pulling snags, for that I go to a 3 way with a short dropper.

For rigging. On clear water and bright days I use a #4 octopus hook (NOT octopus circle!) either red or black chrome, and a blood red 4mm bead. When its overcast or the water is dingy, I use a 4mm glow bead ahead of my hook.

Large and jumbo leeches only, mediums get too many panfish pecks that will kill it. You want as lively of a leech as possible. One way to get this is to pick up a leech bag, frabill makes them. Put your leeches in it and hang it over the side of the boat on a short rope, or toss it in the livewell. The point is to get them acclimated to the water temp so they don’t curl up in a ball when they hit the water.

I typically reserve lindy rigs for clear water, cool water (under 55*), or cold front fishing for negative fish. Can be used anywhere on any lake.

I’ll second that. Was about our only option last July when the wind was ripping and the temps were in the 40s. We backtrolled lindy rigs with big leeches along the outside weededges in 18-22FOW and caught lots of BIG smallies and walleyes.

Down side with lindy rigs is that they are typically a slow presentation. If you are on a spot with fish though, great way to get them to bite. Search with larger faster presentations and then dial them in as necessary.

The lindy rig is my go to from opener into summer. The lakes I fish are very clear. I start the season out with shiners or redtails, use a good quality #2 hook and leader length of 4′- 5′.

I switch to leeches in June, minnows still work fine,but as the water warms are hard to keep alive. I like to use a #6 or #8 hook with leeches. The heavier hooks tend to sink them and impede some of the action. I like running a chartreuse hook and a chartruse bead in front of the hook. The bead helps keep the leech out of the moss and reduces bottom contact. Ran nickel hooks for years but tend to catch more with the chartreuse.

The standard lead Lindy sinker works fine early in the season, but by early June the moss starts to grow on the bottom and the sinker will load up with it.

Start using the Lindy No Snag when moss becomes a problem. They are fine for year round use, just more expensive if you lose them.

I typically use lindys to fish break lines, points, small flats and weededges. A very good presentation, especially for neutral or negative fish. Keep your bail open and your index finger on the line. It takes a little practice to understand the tick of a fish or sometimes just the slowly increasing weight. I always start new people out with if in doubt, feed it line and slam the hook home.

I absolutely love a calm evening, pulling a lindy with the transom trolling motor, with eyes on the locator. True relaxation/heaven in my book!

This rig requires a responsibility on part of the fisherman. Its a finesse presentation when done correctly, and uses live bait, which is going to make your chances of gut hooking one of the highest of any other. It drives me NUTS when I read over and over from pros that will feed line to the fish at times 2 minutes! Absolutely ridiculous and irresponsible IMO. Especially with lakes having slot limits, its vitally important to be respectful to the fish and the resource and do something similar to this….
1st bite drop that rod tip back without feeding line, when line tightens cross its freaking eyes. More often than not that’s all that’s needed.
Bite more finicky, feed it for 5 Mississippi, set the hook.
Don’t get it again jump to 10, and so on. If it needs more than 15 seconds I get a lil uncomfortable and switch to a float with a circle hook and dangle it in their face.
Have I missed out on some fish? You betcha. Do I keep that many during the warm months to care? Nope. And I can think of one fish over the last 3years that had been gut hooked, which was last year fall when I knew I was going to keep whatever and gave it 30seconds.
Beyond the expected mortality of the fish, what about the eagle or hawk or turtles or any other creature that is going to eat a floating dead fish, that hooks still there and just as likely to get it too.

Didn’t mean to be a fun Nazi on what is such an effective and fun presentation, but it should be brought to light, good luck

Sometimes you have to let them take it for 30 seconds plus just so they take the bait in their mouth. Sometimes they will grab on and swim away with it, then stop and suck it in.

I can count the number of gut hooked walleyes I’ve had on lindy rigs on one hand. I’ve had many more gut hooks on bobber/leech. When I’m lindy rigging it means the fish are inactive. The likely hood of them swallowing a bait completely are slim. Bass and catfish will suck those things down to their small intestine before you can even set the hook. Not much you can do there, other than switch presentations. If you go to a circle you will miss a lot of walleyes but not gut hook any bass. Its a double edged sword!

There is no reason at all to let them take it that long every time though, most of the time they will suck it right in and 5-10 seconds will be plenty. But not always! Especially when pulling shiners or small suckers for walleye. That will require a lot longer than 5-15 seconds, that might be where you saw the 2 minute line feed.

I saw a FLW walleye tourney on TV where the pros were lindy rigging 8-10″ sucker minnows. They would feed line until the fish stopped, then give them a while to eat it. It had to be 2-5 minutes. But every one I saw boated was hooked on the roof of the mouth (I’m sure they wouldn’t show a gut hook unless it was huge though).

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(I’m sure they wouldn’t show a gut hook unless it was huge though).

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Exactly. When these guys are competing for thousands of dollars and boats and trucks you think they give hoot how long it takes to hook em. Not to he callus but follow the $$.

I’m just giving my opinion of what should be given to a newbie. Start short and go from there.
I am a go big or go home type person. A 26″ walleye is going to suck in a 7″ sucker no prob, you want to feed line to a dink to give it a chance to eat your chub go for it, but I’m moving on to something worthwhile, but again just my thing. As I said before I’m sure I’ve missed many fish, but I just don’t feel comfortable waiting too long. All my big fish have nailed the baits I’ve given to them, and I’ll stick with that.

Lindy and a leech. Mille lacs main stay. Works everywhere. Anytime of year as long as the leech doesn’t ball up.