What could be more classic than a Lindy-Little Joe Fuzz-E-Grub or a Mister Twister? Those two plastic bodies, the candy lozenge with marabou tail and the Twister Tail, are the prototypical walleye producers of all time. One works well with bait, the other does fine on its own. Both heads are characterized by compromise hook lengths best matched with small to moderate minnows or with exposed hooks and plastics alone.

A slight variation of this style is the Northland Lip-Stick Jig, another classic. The Lip-Stick, with its stand-up head, presents minnows in a different posture. Tentacles on the tube-style plastic body sway and splash color around the profile of a lively minnow. Worked on bottom, the Lip-Stick presents minnows tail-up, spelling vulnerable to a bottom-oriented walleye.

When failure to buy enough minnows runs headlong into a hot bite, walleye fishermen predominantly reach for one of two plastic bodies—a shad or a curly tail. Shad bodies work exceptionally well for walleyes in clear water at night, in rivers during the day, and in a host of other situations. These minnow imitators are best fished on long-shank jigheads. Wedge head standup-style jigs are a good choice. The Perfection Stand-Up, with its premium 2/0 hook, protrudes through a thick shad body with plenty of gap left for setting the hook.

Head Designs

The most basic jig design is the classic round head with a medium-shank or medium-long-shank hook. The Lindy Fuzz-E-Grub and Jack’s Jigs come to mind. Al Lindner prefers versions of the round head most of the time. “About 75 percent of my jigging is with round heads,” Al says. “The other 25 percent involves head shapes that provide an advantage in some kind of cover. The aspirin head, for example, is a worthwhile addition to the arsenal for pitching into jumbles of rock.”

Flattened on the sides, jigs shaped like an aspirin pull out of almost any crevice they fall into—a classic example of a design well suited to a particular niche. In fact, no other design fishes so well in broken rock. Currently, the few commercially available aspirin heads include those marketed by Bass ‘N Bait and Cabela’s. The Fle-Fly that also has a narrow profile, though the sides are slightly rounded, fishes well in rocks.

Current provides unique problems. Round heads, a good compromise in any situation, expose more surface area to current than do bullet heads. Getting down quicker means more bottom coverage, and bullet-head designs like the Blue Fox Foxee dig into current a little better. For deep water and heavy current, narrow, deep-bodied jigs that turn a thin face into the current work best. Examples include the Lindy Jowl Jig and Jack’s River Jig.

In weeds, look for eyes that won’t grab and hooks that hide, unless you want to rip weeds, which at times provides a great trigger (in which case, a plain ball head typically works best). The hook on the Bait Rigs Odd’ball can be fished exposed or hidden in a plastic body (including shad bodies) after cutting a slit in the belly for the hook. The unique eye on the Odd’ball is less likely to grab weeds than most other eye designs.

The Odd’ball stays upright on the bottom, like a standup jig. For presenting minnows with a dragging retrieve, the Odd’ball creates a unique tipping, rocking action. Other designs that work well with dragging retrieves include the Jig-A-Whopper Competition Jig and the Blue Fox Foxee.

Circling jigs, such as the Northland Air-Plane and Systems Tackle Flyer, are designed to swim on the drop. Typically used as an attractor jig for ice-fishing, several horizontal presentations with these jigs work for walleyes, too.