How do you fish plastics, hair for walleyes?

So I did something I have never done walleye fishing on pool 4 the other day. I went out with not a single ounce of live bait. Needless to say I struggled using blades, jigs and plastics, and rippin raps.

Something I started to realize as I was fishing, particularity with the jig and moxie was that I did not know if I was presenting it right. I did do some dragging and that’s where I caught my fish. I am somewhat confident in this method. Where I am questioning myself however is pitching the jig/moxie. I’m not sure what exactly I should do. I was pretty much pitching at the shore lines or at the wing dams and letting the jig hit bottom and jigging it up while doing a slow retrieve. pretty much how I pitch jigs and crawlers on the lakes that I fish. Is this the proper way? Is there a better method that takes advantage of the action you get from a plastic worm?

I thought about tossing hair but I have zero experience doing that. I have seen some people suggest fishing them just like a plastic (which I don’t think I know how to do) I have read some people suggesting to toss the hair into the current and let it get swept back and jig it off the bottom once you feel contact.

I’m not asking for people to give away their best secrets and I know the best way to get it figured out is to go on the water and figure it out. I also know however there is almost nothing worse than sitting on the water and feeling like you have zero confidence and no clue on how to do something.

Best way to gain confidence in new techniques is to find active fish with techniques you’re confident, in your case it sounds like live bait, then once you know you’re on some fish throw out that plastic and experiment with jig strokes, drags, lift/plause, etc. Thats just in general.

For example, two years ago when rippin rap craze started I got caught by the lure and bought some but didn’t ever have much success with them. I watched videos, read forums and reports about the lure but I couldn’t get it to work. Then this summer one day when I was one a good leech/crawler bite I threw out a rippin rap and low and behold, SUCCESS! It was such a good feeling. So yea, maybe I’m a little slow on the learning curve but it took me two years to gain that confidence. Since, I bought a rod specifically for rippin raps and always have it ready to go, often my first or second technique I’ll try.

In regards to plastic, the best advice I ever heard about fishing plastics is to keep the bait moving because its the action that seals the deal. But the hard part is that with a plastic in the river, most of the time the current will keep it the bait moving. My best days of fishing plastics in the river is when I find the right combo of weight/current to let that jig hover so the moxie tail is just wiggling while the bait stays in place so the fish can close on it. A lot like just barely bucking a jig when panfishing through the ice while you watch the red mark close in on your bait. Now, that being said, I’m so far from being an expert its laughable sometimes, but I hope that helps and gives you something to think about.

Great questions and thanks for asking because I’m in the same boat!

Try to picture your bait as you fish it. Is it at the bottom or at least near the bottom? Is it swimming like it were alive? Or is it laying on its side on the bottom dragging mud?

Try and swim it slow. Use the lightest jig you can and still tell where you are in the water column. With practice youll find you can fish a very light jig and know exactly where you are and picture what your jig is doing. Experiment with colors and different plastics/hairs etc.

This is a personal prefrence but i would suggest using about a 6 pound mono. This allows using that light jig. Also use a hi vis line. Watching your line will give you lots of clues on whats going on down under even if you cant feel it. Like contact with the bottom or a strike on the drop.

A slow drop is key to catching more fish expecially in cold water months.

Hope some of this rambling might help ya good luck

TheguN wrote:

Try to picture your bait as you fish it. Is it at the bottom or at least near the bottom? Is it swimming like it were alive? Or is it laying on its side on the bottom dragging mud?

Try and swim it slow. Use the lightest jig you can and still tell where you are in the water column. With practice youll find you can fish a very light jig and know exactly where you are and picture what your jig is doing. Experiment with colors and different plastics/hairs etc.

This is a personal prefrence but i would suggest using about a 6 pound mono. This allows using that light jig. Also use a hi vis line. Watching your line will give you lots of clues on whats going on down under even if you cant feel it. Like contact with the bottom or a strike on the drop.

A slow drop is key to catching more fish expecially in cold water months.

Hope some of this rambling might help ya good luck

I made the switch this year to braid on just about everything. Why does mono allow the use of a lighter jig?

I live vertical jigging for walleyes which requires you have to keep the boat moving at the same rate as the current and/or wind is moving. I like mono 6 pound until I get in deeper water, say over 20 feet or I get into heavier jigs, those over 3/8. After that depth/jig weight I use braid in 6 pound simply because I can feel more with it. Mono has stretch in it that can hide hits when a lot of line is between your rod tip and the jig.

I tend to switch colors frequently within a size that is allowing me to stay vertical. I’ll also switch from hair to plastics and then back again if the fish are making me search. When I get in the plastic I tend to change profiles and lengths/actions as well as color often until I get a couple fish. Then I work whatever it is I have on the line. One the bite goes flat I start the change game again.

The best way to learn is doing exactly what you are doing by not taking any bait.

I use braid 100% of the time while pitching jig/plastics or hair jigs.

Why ? because I can and I do alot of night fishing and you cant watch your line at night, I have alot better feel for the fish hitting soft with braid and I use as small as 3/32 jig with my plastic and as a small as 1/8 with hair.

For me as far as movement goes “less is more “most of the time,I also use 3.25 paddle tails or flukes a majority of the time while pitching.

For braid I use either Fireline crystal 6lb or Power Pro 4-6 lb even during the winter, I dont care if I get a jig back if snagged, I just break it off ,reel in and grab another rod and get back at it !

When dragging jig/plastics I use mono all the time,It takes longer to set the hook and I think it gives the fish more time to take the bait.

Remember… no 2 people fish the same,time on the water will help you build your confidence in what ever method you chose to use !

JMHO Jeff

someone said find fish with what you are comfortable with and then use new techniques. I tend to agree with this but at times, the fish eating live bait aren’t going to eat anything else. but I do do that. moxies I slow retrieve most of the time. it takes very little to get that tail moving. similar to the old munchin grubs that I loved. I slowly drag it. I also will give it a hop or 2 occasionally as that can trigger strikes.

it took 2 years for me to get a strike on a moxie….moreso because I was quick to change if I wasn’t catching anything. but now I get hits on them all the time. its weird how confidence works.

for hair I fish nearly the same way. I certainly give it more hops.

we do a lot of shore fishing and I’ll usually have a rock with plastics layed out all over it and I just switch and switch and switch until I determine the fish there are negative, or maybe there aren’t fish there at all. or until something works. I worked 8 colors the other day to finally catch a few keeper fish.

When I was teaching my son how to pitch plastics, I would tell him to reel in the retrieve so slow that it hurts and the current will do the rest. It has worked well.

If your hitting bottom even on occasion, drop back to the next smallest size jig size such as 3/16 down to 1/8 or 1/8 down 3/32.

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Sounds like you are doing it right with pitching plastics. If you are contacting bottom every now and again to know you are close and not getting hung up all the time thats pretty good. From there just need to let the fish tell you if they want something slightly different. Seems to me many times less is more with plastics. Less jigging, more letting the current work the tail and drift the jig. In low current sometimes you need to include a slow retrieve.

Getting the boat set up right on spots can also be key for pitching plastics. Get set on that spot where the current is pulling away from the boat. This can allow you to very slowly work a lure over the key spot and have the current working the action of the plastic. Not set up quite right and the lures may sweep through an area pretty fast. It can be all about the angles sometimes. Conditions are right and you know the fish should be there. Now its time to get that lure in there just right.

Hair jigs can be the opposite. I like to give a little bounce to the hair jigs. Seems to me that bounce gets the hair working and can trigger bites.

For me when pitching plastics to shore and structure if I can feel the jig thump the bottom then I am using to heavy of a jig to have it flutter and sweep current properly. I am a line watcher and not a bottom feeler. Same with dragging jigs. Takes time to gain confidence but that is my personal preference anyways.

Building the confidence is definitely the key. And remember, there isn’t one plastic that’s perfect for every situation. My favorite plastic by far is the Prescott Bait Company mini fluke. I use a lot of different plastics, including BFishN products, but I probably use that mini fluke more than the others overall.

Dragging, a bait with a longer curled tail (moxi or Ringer worm)makes sense since the movement of the boat will make that bait appear to swim. When the water is cold, I go to the mini flukes or paddle tail baits for pitching more often than not. I’ve found that the colder it is, the less movement of those baits the better. Especially when there’s lots of bait fish around, I’ve found that holding a bait off the bottom past fish waiting for an easy meal is about the only way to get them to go.

As others have said, if you’re pitching plastic or hair, lift the rod tip and let that bait swing with the current just off the bottom. You want a light enough jig that a 6-12″ rod lift will keep your bait off the bottom for about 4-5 seconds. For pitching to shallow rocks or sand, I use mono, I also use mono for dragging. For anything deeper than 10′ or so I use braid.

Body control can be just as important as boat control when pitching, and where your line is in relation to the bait and yourself. Proper angles for setting hooks, and the typical lift and drop methods. If you lift the bait at 10oclock to 12, fish smacks it at 1230, you ain’t got much room left to set the hook unless you’re an extortionist.

Later when I get to a keyboard I’ll elaborate. Very vital to success.

You did the right thing. Just getting out there and doing it is what makes you learn how the fish react to how you move the bait. Keep doing it and eventually you’ll be a pro

Jesse Krook wrote:

You did the right thing. Just getting out there and doing it is what makes you learn how the fish react to how you move the bait. Keep doing it and eventually you’ll be a pro

Where did they hide the “Like” button ?

This thread should be a sticky.

Jesse Krook wrote:

You did the right thing. Just getting out there and doing it is what makes you learn how the fish react to how you move the bait. Keep doing it and eventually you’ll be a pro

Tom Likes This

Its right there Jeff.

I spent 4 hours last night showing Jon J how NOT to fish plastics for walleye.

DaveB wrote:

I spent 4 hours last night showing Jon J how NOT to fish plastics for walleye.

Threw me though a loop there as my name is Jon Jones haha.

Thanks for the replies everyone. You have given me a place to start

This has been a good thred. Lots of info and although most approaches are very much the same its pretty cool hearing the small differences in everyones approach.

I feel im a pretty darn good pitcher. But im always open to new techniques. I learn new thing from everyone i share the boat with.