Walleyes and a tough bite

Fishing walleyes on a local lake tonight. Marked 9 fish, good marks. They’d come up and check it out, in some cases follow, but never close, and in other cases just check it out and then disappear. If I jigged too much, they ditched pretty quickly.

I pretty much had this exact same behavior on Mille Lacs last Saturday.

Is there something I’m doing wrong, or not doing, I guess? I tried full minnows, minnow heads. They were all attached to green UV Tingler Spoon. Should I have changed jigs? Down size?

Any insight would be great.

In my experience, if walleye come in and take a look and leave or come in then bolt, adding the head or a full minnow will seal the deal but it sounds like you’ve already tried that. In your case, I would definitely try a different lure or different color. Sometimes they just prefer one over another. Also, with finicky fish I’ll just about stop jigging when I see a fish come up to my lure on the flasher.

TipUpFishOn wrote:

In my experience, if walleye come in and take a look and leave or come in then bolt, adding the head or a full minnow will seal the deal but it sounds like you’ve already tried that. In your case, I would definitely try a different lure or different color. Sometimes they just prefer one over another. Also, with finicky fish I’ll also just about stop jigging when I see a fish come up to my lure on the flasher.

I started with a full fathead minnow on a Tingler spoon. Then switched to just minnow head on Tingler spoon. I know Shiners are more preferred, but does it matter when it’s just the head?

I was dead sticking them too. They would at least give it a closer look when dead sticking, but never committed.

Anyone have a jig/lure that they like to use when walleyes are super finicky?

Haven’t caught too many walleyes in the metro this year, but those I have were all on raps of some sort with no livebait. Always have a deadstick or tipup out, some reason I’ve got nothing on any livebait, well, lots of lil perch, which gives a guy good spots for evening bites, but that’s it.

Finicky for me equals fat and happy, which means perfect presentation of whatever it is for that day, or a reaction bait of some sort. Think ticking them off, but with cold water a more slow mo ticked off.

How did you know they where walleyes for sure? Where you using a camera?
On your dead stick where you using a bare hook or tingler on that also? Did you have shiners or just fat heads?

On my main lake I have had it that some times the big girls will only take a large shiner using a small treble and by pass fat heads. i’ve raised a 27 1/2″ 5 times on a tingler tipped with a fat head head and it would never strike dropped in a Rip-N-Rap and it charged off the bottom and slammed it. During tough bite situations like cold fronts I find it best to go slow and natural as possible.

IceAsylum wrote:

How did you know they where walleyes for sure? Where you using a camera?
On your dead stick where you using a bare hook or tingler on that also? Did you have shiners or just fat heads?

On my main lake I have had it that some times the big girls will only take a large shiner using a small treble and by pass fat heads. i’ve raised a 27 1/2″ 5 times on a tingler tipped with a fat head head and it would never strike dropped in a Rip-N-Rap and it charged off the bottom and slammed it. During tough bite situations like cold fronts I find it best to go slow and natural as possible.

I can’t 100% say for sure they were walleyes. I’m going off of past experience from behavior I’ve seen on the flasher. But knowing this lake, the only other likely fish would be crappie, in my opinion.

I was using Tingler on dead stick and natural perch Lindy Chubby Darter on my jigging rod.

These fish would all come in from the bottom or foot off the bottom.

Like ice stated without identifying each and every fish with a camera total guess, I typically start my jigging presentation no closer than 2-3′ off the bottom to (guage) aggressiveness of the fish after being shunned a couple few times with normal jigging taking away presentations then I’ll down size to small spoons as well as down size the minnow head itself. You can’t catch them all everyday and some days you don’t catch any. But it’s still fun trying!

Kent thompson wrote:

Like ice stated without identifying each and every fish with a camera total guess, I typically start my jigging presentation no closer than 2-3′ off the bottom to (guage) aggressiveness of the fish after being shunned a couple few times with normal jigging taking away presentations then I’ll down size to small spoons as well as down size the minnow head itself. You can’t catch them all everyday and some days you don’t catch any. But it’s still fun trying!

Agreed Kent! Sure is fun trying.

Those of you that are using something like a Rip n’ Rap do you feel it’s a must to use a glow color with the rattle as the sun is going down in order for the fish to see you from a distance, or is it more about the rattle and they’ll use their lateral sense to find that noise, regardless it it’s glowing or not?

One thought is to switch out your deadstick to super simple, plain hook and a split shot.

Some days they’ll hit your jigging presentation. Others they come in to check out the fancy jig, turn their nose up, and a couple seconds later your bobber goes down.

IMO you’re using too big of a bait. This is a very common mistake. Especially when you see the IDO boys unload on the walleye using big aggressive baits. Keep in mind these guys are chasing the hot bites on premier walleye waters… Red Lake, MilleLacs, LOTW, Winnipeg and Bay De Noc.

When fish are hungry big baits are great or even when fish are negative a large spoon can make all the difference in getting a reaction bite. But in my experience on your average MN lake walleye are rarely on the rampage in the winter. In fact I’ve found that walleye are negative most of the time other than right before a storm or for a short time period at dusk and dawn. To have a Tingler spoon on your setline seems like you’re lowering your chances greatly.

With a few exceptions I only guide open water, so that leaves me a bunch of time for my 3yr old son and I to chase winter walleye. Here is the setup we run.

On our jigging lines we each run a 3/16oz Tingler or Frostee spoon with a small full minnow or a minnow head. On the set lines we use a small #4 jig with a fat head and a plain #4 hook with a small shiner set 6” off bottom. This setup has caught me walleye on every single lake I’ve fished this year.

One other thing to note is the barometer. If the barometer is falling jig spoons will almost always do better than when the pressure is high or rising. Two weeks ago on a prefront condition my boy jigged in his own limit on a Tingler Spoon/small fat head combo. The following week he hammered a dozen walleye on set lines and plain hooks. The reason for the change was 100% weather related.

I’m not saying these are the best set ups, but I do know there where fish houses in the three areas I fish and as of this weekend they’re nearly all gone because “nothing is biting”…

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Joe Scegura wrote:

IMO you’re using too big of a bait. This is a very common mistake. Especially when you see the IDO boys unload on the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye using big aggressive baits. Keep in mind these guys are chasing the hot bites on premier <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye waters… Red Lake, MilleLacs, LOTW, Winnipeg and Bay De Noc.

When fish are hungry big baits are great or even when fish are negative a large spoon can make all the difference in getting a reaction bite. But in my experience on your average MN lake walleye are rarely on the rampage in the winter. In fact I’ve found that walleye are negative most of the time other than right before a storm or for a short time period at dusk and dawn. To have a Tingler spoon on your setline seems like you’re lowering your chances greatly.

With a few exceptions I only guide open water, so that leaves me a bunch of time for my 3yr old son and I to chase winter walleye. Here is the setup we run.

On our jigging lines we each run a 3/16oz Tingler or Frostee spoon with a small full minnow or a minnow head. On the set lines we use a small #4 jig with a fat head and a plain #4 hook with a small shiner set 6” off bottom. This setup has caught me walleye on every single lake I’ve fished this year.

One other thing to note is the barometer. If the barometer is falling jig spoons will almost always do better than when the pressure is high or rising. Two weeks ago on a prefront condition my boy jigged in his own limit on a Tingler Spoon/small fat head combo. The following week he hammered a dozen walleye on set lines and plain hooks. The reason for the change was 100% weather related.

I’m not saying these are the best set ups, but I do know there where fish houses in the three areas I fish and as of this weekend they’re nearly all gone because “nothing is biting”…

Great explanation and break down of what has worked for you. Valid point about the IDO guys.

I think my plan next time is go smaller on my set line. That setup I said I was using was working on Mille Lacs, like you mentioned. This recent lake is MUCH smaller.

Another thing to note is that I was about 200-250 yds from the closest “village of houses.” No one else around.

Joe, do you use much for rattle baits on the non-premiere lakes? Like the Rip n’ Rap or Lindy Chubby Darter as calling baits?

Try using a dropper chain with a single hook.
I’ve found that the larger presentation above it attracts them but they don’t want the whole steak, just a piece of the prime.

#2 jigging raps struck on Mille lacs today, not just the lil teener fish either. Crappie minnows on plain hook took a few as well. Very finicky.

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Spent 3 days in a sleeper shack last week at Arnesons on LOTW and jigging just was not productive. We had other rod and reel combos set up as a dead stick on a Finicky Fooler tip-up. The tip ups kept popping. Eventually we gave up on jigging and set up more foolers. On the second day we literally caught 50 fish by dead sticking with these tip-ups and were able to reel our fish in. Sometimes you just have to dead stick em.

Kyle Wills wrote:

Joe, do you use much for rattle baits on the non-premiere lakes? Like the Rip n’ Rap or Lindy Chubby Darter as calling baits?

I have used these loud aggressive rattle baits on all types of water: big, small, clear and dirty.

My best luck by far has been on stained shallow water. MilleLacs seems to be the exception to this rule though. That lake is just hot, those fish would hit a set of keys tied to the end of your line.