While tiller-powered boats are the traditional choice for backtrolling into big waves, backtrolling with a console steering boat is possible if the boat’s rigged with splashguards to deflect water that would otherwise flow over the transom. Again, engage the engine in reverse and watch your electronics to keep the boat positioned over key depths. Turn the steering wheel left or right and increase or decrease thrust to compensate for wind and waves in order to stay on the edge of structure.

MinnKota’s 36-volt 101-pound-thrust Vantage tiller electric has enough power to backtroll 18- to 20-foot boats into modest waves, or to fine-tune the speed for backtrolling on calmer days.

Controlled Drift Rigging—Position the boat on the upwind side of the area you want to drift. Keep your electric bowmount or tiller motor running with enough power to slow the boat as the waves push you downwind. Use the foot pedal to make forward, left, or right depth adjustments. You may also have to increase or decease motor speed to compensate for wind gusts.

Envision Your Rigging

Good livebait riggers envision the position of their rig and what the bait is doing to entice strikes. Start by using your electronics to pinpoint key depths and to look for any signs of baitfish and walleyes. In clear shallow water (5 to 15 feet), walleyes more likely spook to the side of a boat passing overhead. Typically, walleyes in shallower water also are cruising, searching for food, which makes spotting them harder via a flasher or graph.

Walleyes holding motionless at the edge of a drop-off are easier to graph. The bases of drop-offs into deep water, where the hard bottom of the drop-off forms a transition to the softer bottom of the adjacent basin, can be ideal spots to graph walleyes that are prime candidates for rigging tactics. Drop the rig to bottom, leave the bail open, and grasp the line with your index finger. Fish semivertically, minimizing line length to the bottom to reduce water resistance against the line while maximizing feel and control. Lift the rig off bottom a few inches, glide it along, set it down, and pause. Hover in place, allowing the minnow ample time to begin struggling and swimming, alerting and tempting any surrounding walleyes.

If you see fish on your electronics that don’t bite on the first pass, circle back, hover over them, and let the minnow dance and swim to entice fish to strike. Sometimes, walleyes holding tight to the bottom can be tempted into biting if you spend several (5 to 10) minutes hovering over them with your bait. Sometimes not.

How much time you spend at a spot or working a fish you’ve marked with electronics varies depending on overall walleye activity. The fish you spotted on electronics may not even be walleyes; then again, they may be. When action seems slow, going slow and spending more time in a particular area may be the best option. If walleyes seem fairly active, however, or if you spot other walleyes being caught, you may be wasting time trying to catch neutral to negative fish.

Timing the hookset is the final step. When to set depends on what you felt when the fish bit. On a firm bite, simply let a little line slip through your fingers, then close the bail, point your rod tip down, take up slack, and when the line tightens, set the hook. Strikes vary from firm grasps that indicate that a walleye really wants that minnow, to subtle pickups that don’t even feel like a fish.

A solid strike when the fish sits still suggests that the fish likely engulfed the minnow. Tighten up the slack with your rod tip and set the hook. A minor run followed by a stop? The fish probably needs some more time. Feed a little line during the run; engage the reel and begin taking up slack as you slowly follow the fish. Once the slack is out, set. A light tap or subtle weight? The fish may have the bait by the tail. Strip off a few feet of line, regrasp with your index finger, and wait. If nothing happens, slowly lift the rod tip to put a little pressure on the fish. Try to trigger a reaction, causing the fish to regrasp or engulf the bait. Then set the hook.