help with wally divers

Want to know what you guys think about these traditional walleye baits. I have a buddy who uses them quite a bit with some success. I think I have YET to catch a fish on them, to be quite honest. What am I missing?

What I’m looking for is your favorite trolling speeds you like to pull them at and what time of the year you use them most. I know it may be a bit of apples and oranges with me being down in NE fishing reservoirs instead of lakes, but I haven’t given up on them yet. Thanks in advance.

I love them, I mainly use them in REAL stained or dirty waters, they have a coulpe of chartruse and orange patterns I really like. Also in the skinnier water where I want the same general profile and lure action I go for the Shallow Wally divers. I like the big bills on the baits, when imitating bullheads by skimming the crank across the top of the mud, the hooks are riding high and clean. Awsome bait IMO Heres afew over 28 that thought the same thing

I have good luck with the coton cordell divers. I long line them at speeds from 1.5 to 2mph. Summer months when the water temps are up ae when they shine. These lures need to be tuned to run true to get the maximum depth.

I sort of feel your pain with this one. Why cant i get fish with em when others are?
I went through that phase with a couple of lures myself.
normal trolling speeds for that time of year, color selection for water color, casting, trolling, pitching.
did all these things and nothing seemed to work. I basically lost confidence.
Then I trolled faster and went with the colors that weren’t suppose to work with that water color. I caught tons of fish.
I guess in my mind, when traditional thinking falls apart, I go the other direction and i guess you could say “think outside the box!”.

good luck. keep your confidence and get some eyes!!!

Both fish pictured above were caught trolling 3 to 3.5mph in 4 to 7 fow with less than 70 ft of line out, definitly try dragging then “outside the box”

Love wally divers fish a lot in 10-12 foot of water at 1.5- 2.0 mph.

I would have to say that 70% of my cranks are wally divers

I fish them quite a bit. I used to cast them on the wing dams for years before I ever trolled one. We troll them on Pepin on leadcore and do quite well at 1-2.5mph. I guess I am not sure there is any trick to them, I can’t say I use them differently than other baits, but maybe more often and in certain places.

I will say that I used to long line them with fireline and my buddy would troll them on lead and he would often kick my in the same place and going the same speed…

Good luck,
Dave

Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. I guess with this, I’ll have to give em a few more tries. Maybe I’m going too fast, not sure. I have some other go-to cranks, and would really like to add these to the list of fish-catchers. Thanks again–

For what it’s worth…. I’ll only run them in the river. Can’t boat a fish with them on Mille Lacs.

I like the fact they always seen to run true out of the box. You can really bang up the speed on WDers and they don’t blow out.

-J.

I always drop them over the side of the boat to check the action before I let the line out. I run 1 to 1 1/2 mph smacking the bottom every so often. When you get hung up and you will, I just back up behind the snag, give a quick snap and it will normally come right out.

Sometime I think the main forage base on Winnebago is Wally Diver’s. They work very well here wether it is trolling suspended fish in the mud, casting them on reef tops, contour trolling reefs or trolling in the rivers. They take a beating and always run true. My favorite is brown top, yellow side and red veins running down the side. Not sure what that color is called but has made me quite a bit of money over the years.

I’m getting closer every day to asking some of you guys if you wanna buy mine!

They’re getting a few more chances. If they do nothing for me, the $ may be invested in some more proven cranks that I use.