Plastics in Spring

I’ve always been a walleye fisherman on lakes in northern WI. My experience has been that the 1st 2 weeks of may opener i usually do better on a jig and minnow. After the water warms to 60 degrees or so I do well on twister tail (aka curleytail…) grubs.

I’ve read so much about many guys preferring plastic early on and then switching to live bait in warm water after plastic doesn’t work as well. Basically the opposite of my experience.

I’d much rather make plastics work early on rather than needing to mess with minnows. Are there presentation tricks that are key with cold water plastics? More aggressive, swimming, hopping, dragging, etc?

I often swim jigs in warmer water, not often maintaining consistent bottom contact.

Part of this question is I’m planning to take a spring river walleye trip this year which I’ve never done. I’m planning to bring plenty of plastic and would be tickled if I could do well on plastics (or Rippin raps or cranks) rather than having to buy a bunch of minnows each day.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

Tucker

Great question! I’ll be following this thread to see what everyone has to say. I will be trying out the storm 360 swimbait opener on some rock piles

I use them the same as a minnow presentation…lift pause and let it sink…just depends on the mood of the fish they will tell u want they want

Length, profile and color can play a big part in plastics in cold water which means having to have a good selection to work thru, but I’d much prefer plastic over live bait in any water under 60 degrees for walleye. For crappie a lot of people think the opposite…that the warmer the water the better the plastics perform. On crappies I am fishing 1 1/2″ to 2 1/2″ plastics as soon as I can find open water to cast into and often that means fishing right next to a sheet of ice. I generally get the largest crappies of the season doing this. Crappies hit plastics well all year long really, walleyes really like plastics in cold/cooler water but they too will pick off a plastic in the warmer waters of summer and early fall.

I’ve been on many hot bites in central/ northern MN on LAKES in the spring on jig/minnow and tried a good amount of plastics in those bite windows and they for me simply do not put out like livebait. Not even close.

RIVERS are a completely different animal. Plastics can be phenomenal cold water, but there also are times livebait will outperform. Plastics tend to catch bigger fish, but if your in a system that doesn’t hold many big fish one could argue how effective that really is.

You usually won’t find me without both plastics or livebait bc you never really know what they want.

Very interesting nhamm. I too have been smacking them around on lakes with a jig and minnow, only to try plastic or cranks and just about blank. Back to jig and minnow and fish start biting again.

I have certainly experienced that. I suppose the question is – under those conditions are there things that can be done with plastic to make them more effective?

I almost exclusively use plastic through the ice for crappies with good luck. The main difference I’ve noticed is compared to waxies or spikes it’s important to keep plastic moving or it rarely gets bit.

That alone makes me wonder if i need to fish plastic more agressively and try to trigger reaction strikes? Seems Al Lindner has mentioned this in past years. Slow down with live bait and speed up with artificials.

Another thing I wondered before it was mentioned. Maybe cold water plastics are more of a river thing. If thats the case, any theories why?

Tucker

2 words, rippin rap.

curleytail wrote:

I have certainly experienced that. I suppose the question is – under those conditions are there things that can be done with plastic to make them more effective?

I’ve gave up on force feeding fish what I want em to eat. If they are smacking a presentation stick with it until they aren’t. Been that guy plenty to find something that works, only to change it bc there has to be that better choice, then a better choice after that, soon enough you realize haven’t caught crap and switch back to original offering and start catching again.

Water clarity is a big thing IMO for plastics. Murkier the better. Helps eyes hear the baits and seek them out. Less subtle than a crank, but more than livebait. And if one think of depths for plastics, it’s all relatively shallow, so most those fish contacting the bait are up shallow for a reason, to feed. Not that you can’t find eyes in those shallow spots come summer time but there travel patterns have changed quite a bit since early spring.

I’ll use both without preconceived ideas. A lot of time’s it seems like there’s a reason behind what they want. Then there’s time’s to just feed them what they want and forget thinking to much.

95% of my experience with walleye/sauger and plastic has been in moving water so there may be a chance that there is a difference to some extent between lakes and rivers or lakes with inlets and outlets.

I’ve always had the most success with plastics for eye’s on rivers. Not sure if the current helps with the action, or what causes them to be more successful there. I also find in rivers it varies by the day or sometimes even by the hour. One day/hour plastics will do the job, the next day/hour only get em on meat.

curleytail wrote:

Maybe cold water plastics are more of a river thing. If thats the case, any theories why?

I think in the rivers it is the current helping the plastic. Or I just might not have figure out how to fish plastic in lakes.

Plastics are my go-to until about mid April. After that point I run cranks for most of my fish. 3 ways and casting windblown points until Memorial Day, and Leadcore after that. On occassion we will pitch crawlers or leeches around, but only when absolutely necessary.

I think plastics are more of a river thing due to current. Holding steady in current gives them a natural action you won’t get on a lake.

I’ve caught walleyes on lakes with plastics but not consistently. I also have more success on the river with live bait but every once in awhile plastics are the absolute ticket on the river, especially larger fish. However, once the water warms past about 50 the plastic bite is gone.

BigWerm wrote:

I’ve always had the most success with plastics for eye’s on rivers. Not sure if the current helps with the action, or what causes them to be more successful there. I also find in rivers it varies by the day or sometimes even by the hour. One day/hour plastics will do the job, the next day/hour only get em on meat.

I agree 100%

In fact, when we fish Canada, on a river system, I’ve had plastics out fish live bait- 10-1 (verified with my partner LOL). It’s not always that great but over the last 10 yrs or so, plastics have had the advantage.

I asked on Ido about plastics on lakes. A number of folk said to find a drop off and swim, pause, swim, pause, all the way down any good drop off.

I went to Winni the next week with a few jigs and plastics. I had a particular drop off in mind in one of the bays.

First cast was a smallish pike, the next three cast produced eater size eyes.

Here in SD we do a ton of wader fishing for walleyes in the spring, starting just after ice out. in the 2 weeks leading up to the spawn, the shallow walleye bite gets really good. Last spring I fished 11 nights out of a 14 day stretch, never once buying live bait. Puls-R or Moxi on a 1/8 or 1/4 oz jig. cast and retrieve. Caught walleyes every night. the first 5 nights I didn’t even have to change out the plastic on the jig until I got shredded by a pike. This spring the only live bait I plan on buying will be for running a crappie rig or slip bobber on my 2nd line. Between jig/plastic, swimbaits, crankbaits, and blade baits, I know more than a few guys here in SD that never use live bait for walleyes year round.

Here is article I wrote in 2013 based on one of the seminars I do. Some of what your asking is in there, but it also covers locations in the spring/post spawn.

A few assumptions from your post.
Your fishing daytime
Your fishing too fast
Your over working your plastics.

I pound the snot out of walleye all over northern wi with ring worms. Key is slow down and very slow hop/drag during the day. The long body gives enough movement without moving it much

https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/articles_1258565/

Skinny Water Eyes

Plastics 90% of the time for me, ND ,SD ,Mississippi River , Devils lake , ect , with that said you can’t buy a walleye at my cabin in the early spring with out shiners?

A question on BFishn / Authentx plastics. I know how popular the Moxie, Pulse-R, and Ringworms are with folks around here and I have several colors of each in my bag. I was wondering if anybody has had success with their Ribb-Finn plastics? I haven’t heard much of anything about these on IDO and BFishn’s website suggests they’re great for cold water.

pool2fool wrote:

I was wondering if anybody has had success with their Ribb-Finn plastics? I haven’t heard much of anything about these on IDO and BFishn’s website suggests they’re great for cold water.

Caught a handful of Sauger with them on P4 last year. Good little bait, but I tend to like Prescott Flukes if I’m looking for that type of tail. Obviously others make fluke style baits, I just really like the BK pro Pink, baby bluegill and Gold member colors he offers.

My go too spring bait is a fluke on as light a head as i can get by with. Simply put, they catch fish. I have noticed, too, fishing lakes I do better with live bait. But honestly, on the Mississippi, fishing pools 9-11, I rarely bring bait. Can’t remember the last time I had bait in the boat, usually don’t get bait until flathead season rolls around. Don’t overlook light hair jigs, too. I used to think the brighter, bigger, more funky looking plastics produced the best, ie., Moxis, Pulse-R, etc, but lately have found that the more subtle, and natural you can get, the better I’ve done. Back to ringworms, flukes, and hair jigs for me.

Steven Krapfl wrote:

I used to think the brighter, bigger, more funky looking plastics produced the best, ie., Moxis, Pulse-R, etc, but lately have found that the more subtle, and natural you can get, the better I’ve done.

Absolutely agreed. Started this last fall and into this spring. Been working awesome. Once the water starts getting dirty colors change a bit.

my go-to used to be minnows all the time. the last two years I have been using pulse-r, and moxis. I don’t think I bought 5 scoops of minnows in the last year and a half. these two baits have made a believer out of me. I did pick up some of the rib-finn baits also. looking forward to trying them out as well.

Interesting replies by everyone. Randy, it’s hard to say but I may be fishing them too fast on lakes in the spring. Then again I’ve heard the theory that you need to trigger a reaction strike with plastic and if you fish them slow like minnows the plastic is less effective. Then again that may be coming from Al Lindner that’s probably fishing lakes loaded with walleyes and of course it’s Al…

I have some ideas. I’ll still bring minnows but maybe give plastic a better shot this year. Also interesting is the general thought that plastics do seem better on rivers in cold weather. Still interesting is I do just fine on plastic in lakes in warmer water. Usually fishing slower to medium pace overall. Have caught some really snapping them when conditions were good though.

Keep the responses coming!

I fish plastics like a jig and minnow. Just bounce it back to you. Plan on having every style and at least 6 different colors of each.

I have never fished plastic except when I was younger using Mr.Twisters to cast and retrieve. This year I loaded up on BFishN plastics for my spring trip up to the Rainy. Needless to say, I am fricken excited to be giving them a try.
The good thing is that there are countless videos on using plastics up there. I know everyone has there own favorite jig color/style and what not, but anyone use BFishN H20’s or the Northland Whistlers with much success? I also loaded up on those while suffering from some snow fever (thank you for the gift cards family!!).
My guess is that the normal presentation is a 2/3-3/4 cast with a “lift and drop” retrieval? Does that sound about right? Or are most people snapping them up and letting them fall?
Also, do most guys switch over to their “rigging” rod for this or stick to their vertical jigging rod?

Fish plastics a lot in the spring. In rivers the plastic is moving at or close to the speed of the current, usually pretty fast. That generates reaction bites and triggers fish laying in ambush around cover like a wing dam or rock pile.

In lakes the fish may want it either fast or slow. I’m partial to flukes in lakes that have spring spawning runs of bigger bait. With a light jig they can be popped off the bottom or a drop and allowed to fall back slowly, very much like a dying smelt or young cisco. Put a heavier jig on and you can rip them through emerging weeds around points and down drops. Ripping a fluke is a more subtle version of fishing a blade or lipless crank.

For really slowing down or lakes that have heavy perch and shiner numbers I love the pulse-r and moxies. They move a ton of water and can be fished at a crawl on flats, down slow breaks or over the top of emerging weeds. I’ll usually start fast to pick out aggressive fish and cover water then slow down if needed.

jonesry09 wrote:

anyone use BFishN H20’s or the Northland Whistlers with much success?

Also, do most guys switch over to their “rigging” rod for this or stick to their vertical jigging rod?

I’ve been exclusively using the H2O style jigs for years in all presentations, including live bait. I usually use Hutch’s jigs, but I also have a bunch of the H2O jigs. The Black top, violet bottom Hutch jig is my main color when using plastics. I’ll switch to one with more color when using live bait usually.

I do not snap my rod. When in current, I’ll do a gentle lift, pause, drop the tip and reel in slack, repeat. It allows the bait to swing in the current. Go up or down on jig weight until you are happy with your swing and your jig makes good contact with bottom. All my jig rods are St. Croix MLXF. It allows me to see subtle bites more easily, as does hi-viz line. However, plastics are usually thumped pretty good when hit.

I do best on plastics in rivers however especially in spring. when the water warms to mid summer temps rip jigging plastics has produced much better then live bait. I use 3/8-3/4 oz darter jigs and fluke style the most. looking for aggressive fish. they will inhale the whole thing. usually 5″ plastics not a small meal.