What to do when walleyes are not committing to bait.

So I found a good spot on a lake that has good walleye runs before dark. Some days they will bite ice lures such as jigging raps and spoons. Other days they will come slowly to look at my lure and look then slowly swim away. How can I get them bite when they do this? I do have tip ups out there too and some days they bite and some days they don’t even want to touch the tip ups. So how could I get them the bite when they are acting like this?
Thanks

Man, we dealt with that last week. We went to bigger lures tipped some with minnow heads, and ripped them upwards two feet and slowly followed them back down. We caught 6 more fish, but they were smaller than our keeper preference. It was funny having a 9 inch walleye hit a 4 inch Live Target!

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Haha! I didn’t know up sizing would bring in the little guys. Thanks for the advice, I will try it today if I get a chance to get out.

If you can, have a few rods rigged up with different presentations ie: rippin rap/jiggin rap, buckshot spoon/rattln’ flyer + minnow head, forage minnow + minnow head.

That way you have something from really aggressive to less aggressive(can mess with sizes too). If they are interested but not biting, quickly throw another presentation down there to see if it triggers a bite.

Really tough to do this without having the rods pre-rigged though, it seems like the fish will move on if you reel up and re-tie.

Sometimes the fish don’t bite no matter what you do. That said, one trick that I use for super finicky eyes is to replace the treble hook on a spoon with a dropper (treble hook 1-2″ below the spoon) similar to a stinger hook on a jig. I use a whole, live fathead minnow and work the spoon very slowly and often hold it almost perfectly still when a fish is engaged, simply letting the minnow wiggle in his face.

Will

Try letting the bait free fall to the bottom and leave it there for a few seconds. see if the fish responds by dropping down and pinning the bait.

ThomasV wrote:

So I found a good spot on a lake that has good walleye runs before dark. Some days they will bite ice lures such as jigging raps and spoons. Other days they will come slowly to look at my lure and look then slowly swim away. How can I get them bite when they do this? I do have tip ups out there too and some days they bite and some days they don’t even want to touch the tip ups. So how could I get them the bite when they are acting like this?
Thanks

Welcome to Walleye World!

Eelpoutguy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>ThomasV wrote:</div>
So I found a good spot on a lake that has good walleye runs before dark. Some days they will bite ice lures such as jigging raps and spoons. Other days they will come slowly to look at my lure and look then slowly swim away. How can I get them bite when they do this? I do have tip ups out there too and some days they bite and some days they don’t even want to touch the tip ups. So how could I get them the bite when they are acting like this?
Thanks

Welcome to <em class=”ido-tag-em”>Walleye World!

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typically if they are finicky I slow down my presentation. Ill try switching out different lures and presentations too and maybe work a few different holes. Set up tip ups also. If none of that works drink more beer.

Get really aggressive with your jigging raps so when you hook em under the lip you claim they just pinned it to bottom….

^ HAHAHA YES!!