Suspending Baits Before Your ‘Eyes

Hooks generally are tied about 12 to 16 inches above the dropper. Make sure the hook point is positioned up, in the normal position, to get the best hooksets. Most hook styles work, though walleye anglers prefer octopus-style livebait hooks (#2 to #6) for working livebait. For fishing close to weededges or around flooded wood, a small (#4 to #6) offset-shank light-wire hook is preferred. For minnow-style soft plastic baits, wide-gap models work well.

Weighting the system is simple and almost any weight design will suffice. Some anglers favor the simplest method—pinching on a heavy lead shot. If the weight pulls off in a snag, it quickly can be replaced while saving the lure and hook. A surgeon’s knot sometimes is tied at the tag end, creating a loop that holds the shot more securely. Along weededges or timber, heavier split shot, worm weights, or weights specifically designed for drop-shot rigs are a better option.

A medium-action 6- to 7-foot spinning rod will suffice for walleyes. Most anglers use light low-visibility monofilament lines (4- to 6-pound test) for finesse fishing in clear water and for triggering finicky fish. Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon, for instance, works well for finesse rigging deep in clear water. Heavier lines like Trilene XL or Iron Silk are more suitable for drop-shotting around weeds, wood, or other snaggy conditions.

Minnows and leeches seem to produce best on drop-shot rigs, but nightcrawlers also work. Plastics tails with a minnow profile, like Berkley’s Drop-Shot Power Minnow, which features a light, thin tail that moves and wiggles easily, seem to be the top plastics for walleyes, but Power Nightcrawlers or soft plastic leeches work, too.

To learn what types of action you’re giving the bait, lower your drop-shot rig in clear shallow water or in an aquarium, and note what the bait does by twitching and shaking the line with your rod tip. Underwater cameras also are great tools for watching and learning how combinations of twitches, shakes, and pauses impart different actions to your bait.

Drop-spot rigs can either be worked vertically or pitched a short distance. The key remains keeping the rig fairly vertical to keep the bait off bottom. Pitch them along shoreline rocks and weedlines or work them vertically over deep rocks or steep breaks.

Suspending tactics are particularly effective when you’ve pinpointed walleye locations. Whatever method you choose to use, getting a walleye to rise up off bottom triggers it to make a decision—eat or don’t eat. More often than not, if you can get them to rise up, they’re going to eat.