Key Walleye Locations For Boot Anglers

Baitfish and young-of-the-year fish like crappies, perch, and bullheads use shoreline weeds or other cover, like flooded timber, to live in and hide from predators. But that doesn't stop walleyes from using and searching shoreline cover for food. A weedless jig, like Lindy's Veg-E-jig, is ideal for working livebait or a plastic tail through weeds and wood. The key is to hop and weave your bait through the cover slowly enough to give walleyes time to react to and ambush your bait.

Prime tackle choices for most shoreline locations include shallow-running cranks, such as a Rapala Floating Minnow, or neutrally-buoyant minnowbaits, such as Smithwick's Suspending Super Rogue. My top producers are long, thin minnow-imitators, particularly neutrally buoyant models. At rest, the lure hangs level, neither rising nor sinking--a proven trigger for a trailing walleye.

Jigs rigged with soft plastic, like a Berkley PowerBait curlytail grub, or soft-plastic shad bodies featuring a heavy bootlike tail, like the Mister Twister Sassy Shad, also are top producers. Large-profile soft-plastic shad bodies, like a Walleye Assassin 4-inch Turbo Shad, rigged on a jighead, are good baits at night. A Curlytail rigged on an 1/8-ounce jig's a good combo for most shallow situations. Use a slow to steady retrieve with an occasional lift and drop to trigger strikes.

The best time to fish walleyes along shorelines is during twilight and at night. During the spawning period, walleyes may be preoccupied with spawning--particularly at night and in the morning. But for the most part, anglers can catch walleyes during the Prespawn, Spawn, and Postspawn periods, by targeting key shallow spots.