Swimbait Walleyes!

When it comes to angling, there truly is no such thing as a “magic” bait, lure, or presentation for any species - especially when it comes to walleye fishing! Depending on the time of year, weather and water conditions, and a variety of other environmental factors, what worked last week or even yesterday is no sure bet to produce walleyes on your next outing. That being said, there are a couple of techniques for catching summer walleyes that if added to your repertoire will greatly increase your chances for success –one of those is casting swim baits for marble eyes.

Swim baits are a category of lures encompassing a variety of paddle-tail style offerings designed to mimic baitfish with their shape and color scheme, and include such products as Berkley’s Hollow Belly Swim Bait and Mister Twister’s Sassy Shad. When fishing swim baits for walleyes there are a couple of rigging options. For starters, a variety of jig heads assorted by size and color in a Plano ProLatch StowAway Utility Box will get you in the swim bait game. Perhaps the easiest way to rig swim baits for walleye fishing is to rig the bait on a jig – my favorite being a 3/8 oz. Mister Twister jighead in black or rocket red. The added weight of the 3/8 oz. head allows me to fish deeper when necessary, make long casts to cover more water, and has a 3/0 hook size to maximize hooking potential when using bulkier plastic baits.

Another option, especially when fishing shallower, is to use a swim bait hook such as a Mister Twister Keeper Hook. The Mister Twister Keeper Hook is easy to rig and provides a large hook (3/0 on the 3/16 oz. size, 4/0 on the ¼ oz. size) to again provide enough gap to ensure quality hook ups, even when using over-sized plastic swim baits.

Although I keep a wide variety of swim bait style lures in my Plano Tackle Logic Worm Wraps, one of my all-time favorite soft plastic swim baits for walleye fishing is the Mister Twister Sassy Shad. The key to rigging the Sassy Shad for walleye success is to turn the lure flat on its side while threading it on to the hook. Rigging the Sassy Shad flat as opposed to the more traditional vertical method does a couple of things: first, the flat body allows for a gliding action on the retrieve and drop, and the increased surface area slows the lures descent on pauses allowing it to hang longer in a walleye’s strike zone; in addition, the flat-rigged body produces an increased silhouette for predatory fish such the walleye, hunting from below. In clear water, I prefer angel shad or bloodline shad colors while in stained water it’s tough to beat orange/brown back or firetiger colored Sassy Shads. Typically I use the 4” model from spring through early fall, even using the 6” size come late autumn.

Swim baits are effective when casted and retrieved over early season vegetation and shallow gravel bars, along midsummer deep weed lines and sharp breaks, and even over mid lake humps and rock piles. The key to provoking strikes when fishing swim baits is to use the reel to impart sporadic action to the lure. To do so vary your cadence throughout the retrieve, both speeding up and slowing down the bait, in addition to adding pauses which allow the flat-rigged Sassy Shad to flutter and glide downward just as a wounded and dying baitfish would. Pay attention, especially during pauses as strikes can be as subtle as when jig or live bait fishing – the bottom line, if it feels different set the hook!

While I stress the importance of proper catch and release with almost every musky article I publish, I feel we sometimes overlook the importance of being properly prepared when chasing trophy class walleyes as well. An array of pliers, hook-outs, and forceps are a must, as is a jaw spreader for retrieving deeply inhaled swim baits. Quality nets such as the Conservation Series from Frabill, featuring flat linear bottoms, tangle free coating, and a 100% knotless mesh are indispensible tools for successfully landing and subsequently releasing monster ‘eyes during the open water months.

While there is no one “magic” lure for catching summertime walleyes, adding swim baits to your arsenal is a surefire way to increase the odds you’ll get bit by more marble eyes the rest of this open water season, and that’s reason enough for me! I’ll see you on the water…

Tight lines,