
Catching walleye is at all times good, nevertheless it’s even higher after they’re biting a presentation you actually take pleasure in utilizing. Admittedly, I’ve a tender spot for casting crankbaits when walleye are in shallow and mid-depth areas.
Fishing a crankbait has a manner of drawing you in, partially as a result of focus required to impart a correct retrieve. The jolt you’re feeling throughout a walleye strike is thrilling. Ditto when one bumps a crank and is triggered to chew by a fast retrieve adjustment, similar to stalling the lure or giving it a twitch.
Thrills apart, casting crankbaits is a dependable option to catch walleye in a variety of situations spanning spring to fall. Listed here are some suggestions for getting the higher hand when utilizing these potent onerous baits.
Cranking assortment
You don’t want a sort out tray overflowing with lures to start out catching walleye on crankbaits. A little bit of selection, although, presents extra choices for experimenting with baits in several situations.
Have a mixture of shad and minnow-shaped crankbaits. This allows you to mess around with totally different profiles and motion traits.
Relating to colors, pure patterns are efficient in clear water. Gold and silver baits, together with a pair vibrant paint patterns, like firetiger, are additionally worthwhile.
Wind-blown buildings
Tossing crankbaits to wave-hit factors, shorelines, reefs, and islands has caught walleye for me in a vary of situations spanning springtime fly-ins to Quebec’s Gouin Reservoir to fall adventures on Georgian Bay. A crankbait’s bulk and wobbling swim enchantment to walleye out to feed within the frothy turmoil of wind-swept waters. The added noise from a rattling crankbait probably gained’t damage in these situations.
It’s not unusual for walleye to be shallow alongside wind-swept buildings. After casting a crank into skinny water, maintain the rod tip excessive at first of the retrieve to maintain the crankbait shallow and stop it from digging into the underside. As soon as the lure is past the thin water, decrease the rod to extend its working depth, if wanted.
Prospecting round vegetation
Spring is a superb time for casting a crankbait round shallow vegetation. If you will discover areas the place baitfish reside within the greenery, there are probably walleye close by.
Early-season vegetation tends to be sparse and brief. This implies there’s extra open area round vegetation the place you possibly can swim a crankbait. There’s additionally much less cut-weed floating round to foul treble hooks than in summer season.
Final Might, a number of walleye eagerly ate a black- and-gold Berkley Dangerous Shad 5 I swam beside cabbage or excessive of grass. A dimension 6 Rapala Shad Rap additionally produced fish from the identical shallow flat. Every of those 1 ⁄4-ounce cranks solid effortlessly on a 7′ gentle spinning rod and 10-pound braid with a 12-pound fluorocarbon chief. A gradual retrieve with an occasional pause or rod twitch was all it took to get bites.
Casting crankbaits alongside the surface fringe of weed beds might be productive in summer season throughout overcast or windy situations and at twilight. When fall arrives, walleye often place across the final remnants of wholesome vegetation near deep water holding baitfish — these are must-try cranking spots.
Humps and hard-bottom transitions
Catching walleye on crankbaits final spring with Corey Gaffney, a Shimano Professional, reaffirmed how remoted rock piles are walleye magnets. His boat is loaded with the most recent tech, and Humminbird’s 360 along with Garmin’s LiveScope offered an in depth image of how carefully walleye associated to a number of rocky reefs and remoted rock piles, which topped out between eight and 16 toes. Utilizing 360 helped decide the most effective casting angle to make sure our cranks would swim throughout the rocky construction.
Gaffney was fishing Shimano’s World Crank, which has a strip of foil suspended on springs inside its physique for further flash. After cranking the lure all the way down to its working depth, of about 12 toes, he started a gentle retrieve combined with temporary tempo modifications by growing or slowing the tempo of a full or half rotation of the reel deal with.
The night time shift
Casting cranks is a productive option to catch walleye at night time. Fish the open water above weeds, shorelines, factors, sand bars, shallow reefs, islands, as effectively as lake inflows and outflows.
I hold issues easy when fishing at nighttime. This implies utilizing a spinning set-up and retrieving a crankbait slowly, making it straightforward for a walleye to stalk the lure and get a mouthful when it strikes.
This season, spend a while casting a crankbait. They’re a enjoyable and efficient option to put walleye within the internet from spring to autumn.
Initially revealed in Ontario OUT of DOORS’ 2023 Fishing Annual
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