Proven Walleye Tips for Intercepting Fish on the Move

Learn when to use spinners and related rigs to counter walleye movement and catch more fish.

Walleyes are famous for their nomadic roaming tendencies. Walleye movement is depicted with phrases like, “Here Today—Gone Tomorrow,” or, my favorite, “They don’t have a mailbox.”

Whether you chase walleyes in the Great Lakes, in smaller natural lakes, or in reservoirs, decades of old angling wisdom addresses the roaming ways of walleyes with presentations designed specifically for covering water. One of the time-honored traditions for intercepting walleyes on the move is to cover water with live bait harnesses, using spinners and action floaters.

In the late 1940s the Little Joe tackle company started marketing a spinner harness called the Red Devil, which proved fantastic for covering water and picking up walleyes along the way. Some 75 years later, companies like Little Joe and Lindy Legendary Fishing Tackle offer a wide range of spinner rigs for covering water. Lindy also has a vibrating floater rig called the Lil’ Guy that’s one of the best change-ups in my arsenal.

Before digging into walleye fishing tips, we should examine the idea of coverage vs. pinpoint presentations. When the walleye movement is the norm – as it often is – the game is to cover stretches of water, rather than hitting spots. And that’s when baited spinner rigs and vibrating floater rigs shine!

These approaches are versatile for covering stretches of water. Baited harnesses fish along the bottom behind bottom-bouncer sinkers. They fish behind snap-weights in the open water. And frankly, I can’t think of a depth control system that hasn’t been used effectively with spinners/floaters: lead-core, three-way rigs, slip sinkers, split shot... I’ve even used spinner rigs weightless in the shallows in places like Wisconsin’s Lake Winnebago and Missouri River reservoirs in Montana and the Dakotas.

I once took second place in a large tournament by covering water in a featureless flooded hayfield. My sinkers were 20-inch pieces of 1/8-inch pencil lead to keep the spinner/crawler combo up and out of the grass. Rigs are versatile!

Another plus for using baited harnesses is they work at a wide range of speeds, from as slow as .5 mph to as fast as 3 or 4 mph. That’s smokin’ fast in the walleye world, but if you’ve got lots of water to cover, sometimes what seems like Marlin trolling speed is the way to go. And best of all, walleyes love to eat aggressive rigs at all speeds!

This wide range of speeds is more important than you might think. Other approaches for covering lots of water are more speed dependent. For example, most crankbaits have a “sweet spot” for trolling speed while rigs are more variable. They are so variable that you can run spinners and floaters mixed in with a spread of crankbaits.

One quick tip related to speed: fast trolling speeds will likely require fairly heavy snells to resist line twist. Lindy’s top-shelf spinner rigs are tied on 14-pound fluorocarbon, which handles high speeds while remaining virtually invisible, and fluoro is highly zebra mussel resistant.

Boat Control

As discussed above, baited spinners and action-floats are versatile enough to work with most weight systems and at most speeds the walleye prefer. These baited rigs also fit most boat control approaches for covering water.

Power Trolling pulls spinners and baited floater rigs behind the boat while under power. You might use a small kicker motor or the main engine to troll at a good clip and with complete control of trolling direction. Power trolling encourages you to troll a pattern, follow a depth contour or cover a grid to really cover water scientifically.

When power trolling, be aware that during turns the lines on one side of the boat speed up and the other side stalls a bit. And your boat speed varies depending on whether you are traveling with the wind or against it. Pay particular attention to walleye bites and try to duplicate the scenario for as many lines as possible.

Draggin’ with the Electric Motor has gained popularity as electric motors have gained capabilities. Heading-lock and cruise-control are features of most modern electric motors. Both features are custom fit to covering water with baited harnesses. If the breeze is tough, fishing with the electric may limit you to fishing with the wind or cross-wind. Most of us don’t try to pull rigs into a stiff breeze with the electric.

Backtrolling with the main engine in reverse gear is a time-tested method for trolling under power but with a bit of boat control finesse. I personally run a mid-west style tiller boat with Wave Wacker slash guards that allow me to backtroll into some pretty stiff winds. This gives me the capability to run the electric on the bow to drag rigs downwind and then return, backtrolling into the wind.

Drift Socks offer a method to use the wind as your propulsion. Lindy Wave Tamer, Fisherman’s Series and Magnum Series Drift Socks give anglers the ability to control boat drift and speed while letting the wind propel the boat.

Depending on which cleat you tie off to, the size of the drift sock and whether you use a second smaller drift sock at the same time as a larger sock, you can get a surprising level of control of both speed and direction. When fishing flats, drift socks have always been one of the top choices to cover the flat without having to concentrate on boat control. Once set, the drift sock method lets you focus on your lines, instead of the boat. Savvy anglers throw bursts of power from the electric motor for optimum control.

Water Coverage Situations

So, when is it best to fish stretches of water with a high coverage approach instead of fishing specific spots? There are several times when you can count on walleyes moving rather than settling in.

Post Spawn Dispersal happens every year. I have radio tagging data documenting reservoir walleyes moving an AVERAGE of 5 miles a day! That’s an extreme example, but the point is important. Post spawn walleyes in lakes and reservoirs are travelers and are susceptible to high coverage methods. This a time when you can count on almost every walleye in a system being on the move.

Water Level Changes push walleye movements. The old adage for reservoirs is, “drawdowns draw walleyes down lake.” This isn’t talking about extended drought periods as much as recent drawdowns making fish move right now! Similarly, that flooded hayfield mentioned above was an example of rising water pushing walleyes into shallow flood-zones. And on a flooded flat like that, there is nothing to cause a walleye to pull up and stay anywhere. So, neither should you! Cover water!

Forage Factors cause walleye to respond. If the lake smelt are moving uplake, so are the walleye. If the cisco move toward shore for their fall spawn, the walleyes move too. When the summer bug hatches go crazy in soft-bottomed basins, guess where the walleyes go? Great Lakes charter captains commonly use high coverage trolling methods to follow baitfish – and walleyes – over many miles of open basin. Guides on reservoirs may move 50 miles up or down lake to stay on the forage and thus the walleyes.

Seasonal Patterns and Temperature Preferences send walleyes on a journey to find the temp they (and their prey) prefer. And like most wild species of fish and game, walleyes have seasonal migrations and seasonal adjustments that can often be recorded for future years as well. So, your high coverage approach that works this year may work every year!

Fishing Pressure can send walleyes scooting away from the madness at the community hole or away from any spot they’ve settled in. My first couple seasons fishing team tournaments my partner and I were so young and green that we would panic when we didn’t have a great spot to fish. And we didn’t like joining the crowds on community holes, so out of frustration we would start covering water, pulling spinners along breaklines leading to and from popular spots. We finished in the money the first five tournaments we entered! High coverage approaches work!

Choice Spinner Rigs

Little Joe started selling Red Devil spinners 75 years ago and those rigs work so well they are still going strong! Red Devil original spinners are available in lots of colors and metallic finishes, and they come in several configurations:

• Indiana Blade with single hook
• Colorado Blade with 2-hook crawler harness
• Floating Worm Harness with Indiana blade
• Heart of Steel single hook rig tied on steel leader

Lindy offers a variety of advanced spinner rigs plus a vibrating floater rig also custom fitted to high coverage fishing methods:

• Old Guide’s Secret Drift Rig offers lots of modern colors with bigger than average spinner blades for aggressive trolling and wind-drifting. These big spinners are strung with oversized faceted beads for bulk.
  • #5 Indiana Blade rig with 2-hook harness
  • #4 Colorado Blade rig with 3-hook harness

• Indiana Blade Spinner Rig comes with a stunning holographic #3 Indiana blade, single Octopus hook, 72-inch leader of 14-pound fluorocarbon, Xchange clevis for quick blade changes, and a swivel on the end to reduce twist.
• Colorado Blade Spinner Rig gives the choice of size 3 or 4 Colorado blade in both wild and naturalistic holographic colors. This rig is tied into a harness with a pair of size 2 Octopus hooks, 72-inch 14-pound fluorocarbon leader, Xchange clevis and swivel.
• Lil’ Guy is a unique rig that uses a holographic vibrating float instead of a spinner blade. The float vibes somewhat like a small crankbait. The Lil’ Guy comes in killer holographic colors and two sizes—I tend to grab the smaller 1” size first. It’s tied on 14-pound fluorocarbon leader, has metallic beads, a 2-hook crawler harness and is finished with a swivel. Though this rig is best known as a crawler harness it’s dynamite with a jumbo leech. (Cut off the trailer hook.)