Articles - UPNORTH

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <META content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY><table bgcolor="#DADA2E" border="0" width="700" height="100%" cellpadding="15"> <tr> <td> PLASTICS FOR WALLEYES      by Tim Lesmeister</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top" colspan="2"> Walleye anglers like live bait. Let's face it; most of the walleye anglers out there wouldn't consider launching their boat without a couple dozen nightcrawlers, a pound of leeches and a bucketful of minnows. When artificial lures are considered it is the crankbait that is the go-to lure that gets used without live bait. Even then, many of the top walleye pros will thread a half a nightcrawler on the front treble hook of a deep-diving lure. If a walleye angler opts to use a lure without tipping it with live bait it is usually because the walleyes are biting so well you could catch them on a stick and a hook. Yet, there are some, and these anglers are still few in number, that have achieved a level of confidence in plastic trailers that it is all they use under many differing circumstances. Consider the slow-fall approach that Tom Brown has perfected with the Northland Slurpies Jerk Shad. When walleyes are herding baitfish onto the top of a rock pile or schooled next to a shallow pod of forage, Brown, a veteran tournament angler and a member of the Mr. Walleye Specialties team will pull out the Slurpies Jerk Shad and using the slightly weighted hook that is packaged with the plastic bodies. He rigs this lifelike lure with the hook exposed. "This phenomenon happens early and late season and you see it a lot in Canada, " said Brown. "Walleyes herd baitfish which then move to the surface. You'll see minnows clearing the water trying to get away. When this is happening just drop that Jerk Shad into the mix and when the line twitches and starts to tighten set the hook. " Brown says that the feeding binge might last a short while or go for hours. "One time on a lake in Canada we caught a walleye on every cast for a couple of hours, " he said. Another time Brown makes his move to a plastic lure instead of the real thing is when he is on a lake where the panfish are a pain. "These are lakes where the walleye population is usually high from stocking, " said Brown. "The population of bluegills and small perch is also high and trying to get a nightcrawler or a leech through these panfish is almost impossible. " As a remedy to this situation Brown takes a scented plastic worm, typically a seven-inch auger-tailed version and hooks it up to a Northland Baitfish-Image Spinner Harness. "The panfish still hit the tail of the worm, " explained Brown, "but they can't pull it off. You'll be trolling this rig just a foot off the bottom and you'll feel those bluegills pecking on the worm and then all of a sudden you feel a steady pull and a head shake. The walleye has pushed the panfish away and grabbed that plastic worm. " One of the most productive plastic trailers for walleyes is the grub tail tipped to a jighead and cast to structure. Stacy Barbour is a Minnesota angler who has fine-tuned this approach to the point where he hasn't tipped a jig with live bait for years. "Even when the walleyes aren't biting you can catch fish with this setup because you can cover water fast and find those half dozen fish that are willing to bite, " said Barbour. "I use a Roach Rig when the walleyes are real deep on structure, but whenever those fish are on a weedline, on top of a rock pile, or on a flat near a point or against the shoreline I use a jig tipped with a grub tail. " When the fish are in a negative mode Barbour uses a two-inch grub, when they are more aggressive the four-inch body, he says, is the better attractor. "There are times I hop the jig, " said Barbour, "but most of the time I just swim the lure to the boat and let the twisting tail do the work. If I'm fishing eight to 12 feet of water I use an eighth-ounce jighead and deeper than 12 feet and I go to a quarter-ounce. I seldom fish heavier than that because I seldom use this technique over 20 feet. " It is as easy as it sounds, according to Barbour. Just cast out the jig, let it sink to the bottom, and slowly swim the lure back to the boat. "Black and a crawfish brown are my two favorite colors, " said Barbour, "but on those bright, clear days I'll try white or chartreuse. You can't go wrong with black. " My favorite plastic pattern is one I use on the river. It used to consist of casting a Beetle Spin to the rip-rap shoreline regions during rising water, but now I use the Slurpie Swim Shad with the jig spinners. It's basically a spinnerbait for walleyes. What you do is drift with the current casting the Swim Shad right up to the shoreline. Drag it slowly back letting the current carry it downstream. Walleyes that are hugging the shore as the water rises will swim out when they see the flash of the spinner and hit the Swim Shad. This walleye spinnerbait also works extremely well on Canadian waters when the walleyes are on the shallow rock piles or in the vegetation where there is some current. In that clear Canadian water you can watch as groups of three or more fish will swim out of the cover when they see the flash of the blade. When these walleyes spot that tail wagging on that plastic body it's a race to see who gets to it first. It reminds you of smallmouth bass chasing a lure, only they're walleyes. A good bet would be that walleye anglers will be slow to make the transition to plastic lures. There is a lot of confidence in live bait. But another good bet is that more anglers will experiment with plastic lures for walleyes as they see others achieve success with these tactics. </td> </tr> </table> </BODY></HTML>

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