When early-season walleye get lockjaw, try these 5 simple baits and tactics

Sure, chasing the latest and greatest new walleye techniques can be fun and exciting, but when the bite becomes overly cruel or challenging, never underestimate the power of keeping things simple instead. It’s all about understanding the habits and habitat of the fish, then giving them what they want, when and where they want it.

With the curtain soon rising on the walleye season across the country, we know we’re going to find most of the fish lingering close to where they recently spawned. That includes areas where rivers, streams, creeks and canals flow into main lakes, as well as constricted channels with natural or wind-induced current, and boulder-strewn shorelines facing into the prevailing breeze.

The downside to the walleye returning to the same locations season after season, of course, is that scores of other anglers will also know the best spots, making for heaps of fishing pressure. Compounding the potential for a tough bite, spring weather conditions can be topsy-turvy at best. This is the perfect state of affairs for shining the light on simplicity, and putting to work these five back-to-basics tips, tricks and tactics…

 

#1  SERVE UP LIVE BAIT

First, I have a confession to make: I am not a huge fan of using live bait for walleye. It’s not because it doesn’t help you catch fish, but because it does. The problem is, live bait is so addictively effective that you can miss out on the many other times when bigger, quicker, more aggressive presentations will produce more and bigger fish. Ripping jerkbaits along shallow, windswept shorelines, weaving glide baits over the tops of cabbage weeds and swimming paddletails on deeper structures are three good examples.

Live bait does have its place, though, and what could be more uncomplicated and undemanding than lightly hooking a lively minnow to a 1/8- to 3/8-ounce chartreuse-and-orange jig—the colours walleye respond to most—and dropping it over the side of the boat? Come to think of it, drop-shotting the same minnow or suspending it beneath a slip bobber so that it hangs in front of a walleye’s nose is just as spartan, and just as deadly.

Last year, for example, my grandson Liam and I had the pleasure of taking a newcomer to Canada out walleye fishing on Lake of the Woods. Ahmad had never been on a freshwater lake before—he wondered if it was salty—so I rigged him up a simple drop shot and minnow combination. In short order, he put 24 walleye in the boat, while Liam and I tossed, pitched and casted the latest hard and soft offerings, but to less effect. As Liam said afterwards, “We struggled to keep pace with a noob.”