# Trolling for walleyes



## Zkovach1175 (Mar 29, 2017)

Hi I have an early spring trip and we will mostly be trolling. The weeds shouldn’t be up yet and I’m looking for walleye lures. I have ran plenty of nightcrawler harnesses but we actually did better on cranks. What do you guys suggest for walleye? Depths in areas are 5’ 10’ and 15’ mostly. 

I mostly have rapalas and yozuri pin minnows. We did OK on walleyes with the pin minnows in 5’ of water


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## ready2fish (Apr 2, 2009)

Not really sure what body of water your fishing,from what your describing it sound like inland lakes?

I would think a bigger bait would be your best choice, could try for early spring Bandits or DDHJ for starters


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## Zkovach1175 (Mar 29, 2017)

ready2fish said:


> Not really sure what body of water your fishing,from what your describing it sound like inland lakes?
> 
> I would think a bigger bait would be your best choice, could try for early spring Bandits or DDHJ for starters


sorry south manistique in Curtis mi. A large inland lake. Hitting this up late may we are usually there late June. Kinda curious what depth they will be at too. I see the reef runners and bandits run pretty deep


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## Jimbos (Nov 21, 2000)

Smaller HJ's and xraps run close behind boards if you're fishing under 10.


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

Bomber long A’s and Rapala shad raps will catch everything in the lake, walleyes included. Trolling crawler harnesses slowly at night through the meager weed growth in less than ten feet of water will probably put the most walleyes in the boat. But using cranks can work as well, but you’ll be picking weeds off a lot more. Whatever cranks you decide, pick 2-3 lure styles that can cover the depth range you are looking to hit, and then make sure to get different colors of each - something natural, something bright, and something shiny. This will give you the best versatility for the lowest $$$. Also bring a couple one ounce rubber core sinkers so you can turn you shallow runners into deep runners.


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## anagranite (Oct 23, 2010)

Lots of choices, shad raps, flicker minnows, P10s, husky jerks and your rapalas. Run a mix of colors and speeds to see what works best. 

Low and slow seems to work best and at those shallow depths I would try low light conditions especially if the water is clear. 

Precision Tolling has an app that tells you the depth a lure runs depending on distance of line let out. It's very helpful for getting to specific depths where you are marking fish or where you think the weeds start.


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## ebijack (Apr 20, 2009)

Typically I ran crankbaits in the spring and fall. Harnesses and spoons the rest of the year. Also the colder the water, the slower you troll. On average. I'm talking .6/.8 mph up to 1.5 mph in cold water. Get your lures and boat set at 1 mph. Do very slow "S" turns. The inside baits slow, sometimes stop while the outside baits travel faster. Helping you to figure out if the fish want faster or slower speeds. Much easier than covering water straight trolling and trying different speeds. If that makes sense. 
You can use bottom bouncers or weights on drop leads like a wolf river rig/3 way set. To get any shallow diving bait down the what ever depth you want. 
Try to cover the water column no matter the depths your fishing. 
If you don't have line counters. A simple system. Stand near the middle of your boat. Put bait in water (while trolling ). With the bait in the water, loose/open bail swing your rod from pointing at the rear corner of the boat. To the front of the boat. That typically will be close to 20 feet. Allow the bait pull the line back. Rod pointing at the rear corner. Repeat. Now you have 40 ft of line out. Rod tip only half way is 10 ft. Real easy to get repeatable results. 
I can't remember the fellows name. Back in the PWT days, this was the only way he did it. Never a line counter. Any kind of reel, baitcaster or spinning. Only relying on your memory of where every thing was set.


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## william thompson (Aug 8, 2016)

Give Berkley flicker shads or Berkeley flicker minnows a try. That shallow size 5 or 7.

If trolling any where from 1.5-2.0 mph.

Bill

I mostly have rapalas and yozuri pin minnows. We did OK on walleyes with the pin minnows in 5’ of water[/QUOTE]


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## Jimbo 09 (Jan 28, 2013)

#7 Flicker shads


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## Zkovach1175 (Mar 29, 2017)

well Santa brought me a 75.00 gift card so here is the start.


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## ebijack (Apr 20, 2009)

Make sure your crankbaits are tuned. Makes a big difference in catch rates.
While at trolling speed. Let out around 8 to 10 ft of line with bait attached. Pull forward on the rod to make the bait dive. 
If the bait does not pull straight forward and down. The bait needs tuning. Takes a very little tweak of the eyelet. Don't over do it. Tweak eyelet the opposite of the way the bait pulled. 
Take a few minutes to get all the baits checked for tuning. But worth it. 
Some baits rarely need tuning. Some, like reef runners can be alot of time. As even a good size walleye can tweak the bait out of tune. After fighting and bringing in fish. 
Once your used to it. Doesn't take much effort at all and you'll catch more fish. Have less line tangles etc. 
Learn to make your own harness. Cheaper, real easy. When your trolling and looking for active fish you can tye up alot of harnesses out on the water. And tye up ones that are working the best for that day.


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## Joe Gimpert (Apr 30, 2006)

If your in the Lake Saint Clair area Join the Lake Saint Clair Walleye Association monthly meetings and seminars. Mark Romanack is a guest speaker this month. Club tournaments in the open water months etc.


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## Zkovach1175 (Mar 29, 2017)

What do u guys hook your cranks with? Clasps or straight tie on?


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## ebijack (Apr 20, 2009)

Snap swivel. Or snap with a small barrel swivel 12" above the snap.


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## anagranite (Oct 23, 2010)

Zkovach1175 said:


> What do u guys hook your cranks with? Clasps or straight tie on?


I run 17lb suffix hi vis line tied to a 30lb barrel swivel then 10 or 12lb fluorocarbon leader and a VMC dual lock snap to the crankbait. 

The hi vis line let's you see the line when running multiple boards, the barrel swivel works as a swivel and stops weeds from sliding down the line, and the dual lock snap doesn't seem to effect the lure action but allows quick changes.


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## Jimbo 09 (Jan 28, 2013)

Duo locks snaps. No need for a swivel with crankbaits


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## Zkovach1175 (Mar 29, 2017)

Thanks guys for the responses, another question however... 

I’ve never ran a barrel swivel on cranks. For what purpose? (Besides weeds sliding down the line) I do feel we will hit some spots where the cranks will be hitting the bottom. I’m guessing they could roll over?


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## Jimbo 09 (Jan 28, 2013)

I don’t see a reason to run one unless you are using a different type of line for leader material and you do t want to tie a double uni knot. If you are picking up weeds a small split shot 5’ up the line will stop most of it.

Interested to hear others reasoning


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## piketroller (Oct 24, 2016)

If you only run well tuned cranks, you don’t need a swivel. If you get a badly out of tune crank and you run it oblivious to the issue, your line will be trashed. Plus if you have a swivel, you’ll feel free to play with things like inline spinners or spoons every now and then when the crank bite ain’t happening.

For the snap, chose one without the ends of the wiring terminating in protrusions that will hook weeds. There’s enough hooks on the lures already, so you don’t need to make them worse. You’ll probably be more productive up there contour trolling break lines and weed edges, or over weed beds opposed to the big lake open water program.


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## Zkovach1175 (Mar 29, 2017)

I did buy a crank bait tuner for last year but all my crank seemed to run true. I only tested them at the side of the boats. A poster above suggested running it 8-10’ back. Makes sense.

We will also be up there in May so I don’t think the weeds will be up at that point


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## ebijack (Apr 20, 2009)

Zkovach1175 said:


> Thanks guys for the responses, another question however...
> 
> I’ve never ran a barrel swivel on cranks. For what purpose? (Besides weeds sliding down the line) I do feel we will hit some spots where the cranks will be hitting the bottom. I’m guessing they could roll over?


There are a couple reasons to run a barrel swivel. There are quire a few crankbaits that are speed limited. As soon as you get them over speed, even just doing S turns. The baits will spin out. The smaller reef runners are very sensitive to speed. Some baits have just an eyelet, some a snap ring. Some require a "loop" knot not tightened down. They are not all the same.
Also, if you have a full set of crankbaits out. You really should have another bait option. Like a spoon. Or a harness. 
And if you are using jets or weights/bottom bouncers to get some of your baits down. You will want to have a barrel on your main line. Much faster to swap from presentation to presentation. 
Do what you like. I fished tourney's for yrs. 
For trolling, never found a barrel to be a bad thing. Also if you are fishing with newbs. A bead above the barrel stops folks from cranking the barrel thru your eyelets. And is a good visual indicator of how close the fish is to be netted.


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## Zkovach1175 (Mar 29, 2017)

ebijack said:


> There are a couple reasons to run a barrel swivel. There are quire a few crankbaits that are speed limited. As soon as you get them over speed, even just doing S turns. The baits will spin out. The smaller reef runners are very sensitive to speed. Some baits have just an eyelet, some a snap ring. Some require a "loop" knot not tightened down. They are not all the same.
> Also, if you have a full set of crankbaits out. You really should have another bait option. Like a spoon. Or a harness.
> And if you are using jets or weights/bottom bouncers to get some of your baits down. You will want to have a barrel on your main line. Much faster to swap from presentation to presentation.
> Do what you like. I fished tourney's for yrs.
> For trolling, never found a barrel to be a bad thing. Also if you are fishing with newbs. A bead above the barrel stops folks from cranking the barrel thru your eyelets. And is a good visual indicator of how close the fish is to be netted.


Yeah I guess a swivel could never hurt. I am going with some guys that are more of hunters than fisherman so good call on the bead! I appreciate it. 
Not sure if I’m gonna run boards yet but wanna start with cranks off the sides and a bottom bouncer off the back. We are mostly gonna be between 8-15 FOW so was thinking 1.5 OZ on the bottom bouncer. Sound about right?


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## ebijack (Apr 20, 2009)

Tye a barrel 12 to 15 inches above your snap. I used colored beads. Yellow one side, red other side. Much easier to instruct other folks on board of what rods go on what side. Due to set ups.
Well, on bouncer weight. It depends on how far out back you want your baits. Some times you want them far back. Like when running boards.
Sometimes you would run heavier weights. Wanting them almost down straight. Like if your doing alot of S turns. And/or running cranks off the side. Closer to the transom takes most of the possible tangle problems away. 
Also when running multiple bouncers off/over the sides. 4,6 or 8oz weights depending on depth. Would be the most forward rods. At the consoles. Then middle rods use 2oz less weight 2,4 oz weights. Then next inline rods use 1 or 1.5 oz weights. Then .5 or 1.5oz weights off the rear if you have enough folks for 8 rods. No tangles.
If that makes sense.


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## fisherman 2 (May 23, 2009)

what's the water color of that lake? clear or stained brownish from cedar swamps?..most inland lakes the fish are used to smaller baits than the fish in big waters like erie...every lake is different and will have a "certain" bait that is preferred...that's what you have to figure out...for an example Houghton lake in the lower has a brownish tint to it...fishing in the depths you describe the best bait that worked for me was trolling a #5 or 7 rapala minnow rap...I ran the lures back 25-35 ft with no board just longlineing...with the dark water color the short leads the fish didn't get spooked by the motor noise...best depth was 7 ft...another thing that worked in spring was a 1/8-1/4 oz. black beetle spin...find shallow areas that are 3-7 ft. deep and that in the summer are so thick with weeds you can't get through...in the spring those areas will have a thick dead mat on the bottom before the weeds start to grow...cast the beetle spin down wind and let it hit bottom then hop it back to the boat...on Houghton I caught walleye pike and big crappie in there...best depth was 5 ft.


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## waldowillie (Feb 1, 2012)

Zkovach1175 said:


> Hi I have an early spring trip and we will mostly be trolling. The weeds shouldn’t be up yet and I’m looking for walleye lures. I have ran plenty of nightcrawler harnesses but we actually did better on cranks. What do you guys suggest for walleye? Depths in areas are 5’ 10’ and 15’ mostly.
> 
> I mostly have rapalas and yozuri pin minnows. We did OK on walleyes with the pin minnows in 5’ of water


I have 400 crankbait models that have not worked well; but below are the 40+ that I have caught walleye on and I take them on most trips. I predominately cast or long line troll depths of 6' to 18'. There are lots of other choices for water less than 6' or deeper than 18'; and others will have favorites that aren't listed. I started my collection in the 1960's and it's an addiction.

BAGLEY Rumble B 11, Bang-O-Lure

BERKLEY Flicker Shad, Frenzy Minnow, Flicker Minnow

BOMBER B24A 

BPS Lazer Eye Minnow, Wobble Jack

BUCHERTAIL Baby Shallow Raider

CORDELL Shallow Wally Diver, Wally Diver,

Wally Minnow, Deep Red Fin, Deep Minnow

L&S Mirro-Lure

LINDY River Rocker, Shadling, Baitfish, Rally Fish

LUHR JENSEN Shallow Power Minnow, Power Dive Minnow

NORMAN 3JD Minnow

PRADCO Lazy Ike 

RAPALA Scatter Minnow, J-13, Shallow Tail Dancer,

Scatter Husky Jerk, Shad Rap, Minnow Rap,

Deep Tail Dancer, Deep Husky Jerk,

REBEL Fastrac, Spoonbill

REEF RUNNER 500 Little Rip Stick, 600 Little Ripper

SALMO Hornet, Whitefish, Minnow

SLAMMER 6” Shallow Minnow

SMITHWICK Deep Rogue

SUICK Baby Cisco Kid 200

STORM Hot-N-Tot

YAKIMA Mag Lip 3.5


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