We’ve looked at components—hooks, lines, sinkers—myriad trinkets in shapes and sizes for specialized conditions. Now let’s put ‘em all together into productive combinations—popular livebait rigs with a track record for catching fish. In many cases, major manufacturers of walleye tackle have taken the fuss and muss out of buying and assembling individual components; they offer pretied rigs with the correct balance of materials—the right size hook tied to the right length of not-too-heavy not-too-light line, complete with swivel, snap, sinker, spinner and maybe more. Pretty good choices, most of the time.

At other times, however, you may prefer to tie your own rigs to personal specifications, to more closely match prevailing conditions, or to save money. Most anglers do a little of each. The more serious you are about fine-tuning rigs to match fishing situations, the more likely you’ll opt for assembling premium components and blending the individual ingredients into a recipe for success.

Livebait Rigs

Livebait rigging is a slow, careful, teasing process. Imagine a leech, minnow, or crawler dancing in a walleye’s face. Anyone can do it, too, so long as they’re in the right spot. You don’t have to be a skilled rigger if fish are biting fairly well. But when the fish are fussy, nibbling, or just holding onto the bait so the line barely feels heavy, finesse and skill pay off.

The sliding sinker carries your bait to the bottom, drifted or trolled, and feeds line to a biting fish. Let the baited rig fall on an open bail, then grab the line with your forefinger to detect sensitive bites. Lift-drop the rig along, backtrolling or drifting, occasionally touching but not dragging bottom. When you feel or suspect a bite, release the line with your finger, allowing the fish to take the bait while feeling no unnatural resistance. No need to give ‘em lots of line, just a little slipping through your fingers on slight tension. Then close the spinning reel, take up the slack, and set. Simple, yet effective.

When walleyes are tight to the bottom, go with about a 4-foot snell, probably with a plain single hook tipped with livebait. If the water’s really clear or the fish appear on electronics to be a bit farther off bottom, switch to a 7- to 9-foot snell, not just to minimize spooking, but to allow the bait to work naturally and to let walleyes see it working. Northland’s Roach Rig features an adjustable stop for instantly adjusting snell length without retying. Or make your own.

Six- or eight-pound mono should be sufficient; most commercially made snells are 6-, 8-, or 10-pound test, probably between 30 and 40 inches long. Match hook size to bait size—# 6 for crawlers; #8 for leeches; and # 1 through #4 for minnows, depending on bulk. On premade snells, choose those with the right balance of components for the conditions. When fish are really fussy, however, downsize to 4-pound test and smaller hooks, generally with a longer homemade snell.

Any of the walking-style slipsinker rigs work, unless snags are horrendous. If so, switch to something more snag resistant, like a bottom bouncer rig. If wood or weeds present snagging problems, change to a shorter snell, weedless hook, and bullet-style sinker to slither between stalks and sticks. Sliding egg sinkers are good for both backtrolling and casting presentations, while fixed-sinker rigs tend to be better casting options, providing they’re in castable lengths less than three feet long.

When livebait rigging, most people troll way too fast. Just because you’re backtrolling doesn’t mean you’re moving slow enough. Barely creep along, giving the fish time to respond to your bait. If a leech, crawler, or minnow isn’t squirming or swimming naturally, you’re moving too fast. Shift into neutral, pause, and let the bait entice the fish. When you spot a fish on your electronics, lift the rod tip, then pause, hovering and letting the bait rise, then flutter and swim downward, squirming enticingly toward the bottom.

Feel is important for detecting light bites and interpreting bottom conditions. It’s possible to feel the difference between rock, sand, mud, gravel, and weeds if you pay attention. Walleyes often lie along edges, transitions in bottom type, so feel for edges—changes—as well as bites.

Watch your depthfinder. Subtleties in signal interpretation reveal changes in the bottom. Fish where you see fish to improve your confidence and your odds. Sit on fish for awhile, teasing them with a live meal.

Use a 6- or 61⁄2-foot medium-action graphite spinning rod, 6- or 8-pound-test monofilament, and a pre-packaged snell. Then fine-tune if necessary by adding components like floaters for color-action-flotation, tiny flikker spinners for flash-color-vibration, and beads for color. We go into more detail in the following article.

Three-way Rigs

Three-way rigs catch walleyes in lakes, rivers, and reservoirs; along structure; across open basins; and at different depths. Livebait, plastics, crankbaits, floating jigheads, spinners, flutterspoons, and combos thereof follow the three-way lead.

The strength of three-ways is their ability to hold livebait or lures just above bottom, regardless of depth, current, or speed. An infinite range of bell sinkers, from 1/4 ounce up to 5 or 6 ounces, covers all conditions. Simply select the proper sinker size for the job.

The heart of the three-way system is the junction formed by the swivel. Three loops provide attachment points for your main line, dropper line, and leader. Varying length of the dropper line positions a lure or bait closer or farther from the bottom. Changing snell length positions your lure or bait farther or closer to the hardware, and to some degree affects how far off bottom a presentation runs. In general, the longer the leader, the farther your offering will droop toward bottom unless a float is added to increase buoyancy. A good rule of thumb is that at normal speeds for most walleye presentations—1/2 to 21⁄2 mph—a spinner or other lure will sink 1/8 to 1/5 the length of the leader below horizontal. Thus, a 5-foot leader may run as much as a foot below the swivel, more or less.

The knock against three-ways is that they’re not forgiving like livebait rigs, that you can’t feed line to a fussy biter. Not so. When a fish strikes, just drop your rod tip back toward the fish. The whole rig collapses back toward the critter, providing momentary slack until the fish pulls the slack directly between the hook and sinker. By that time, you’ve had plenty of opportunity to set the hook.

Misconception #2 is that they’re snaggy. Some truth to that, especially on rock or wood bottoms, though they’re great for open basins. Best bet for snags is to use lighter line on the dropper than on the main line. When you snag, a strong pull breaks the dropper, losing only the sinker while retaining the lure. Also, keep leaders short to prevent dragging bottom or wrapping around wood or weed cover.

Bias #3 is that three-ways work only within 2 or 3 feet of bottom. Definitely wrong. Tie the dropper as long as you wish, anywhere from a typical 1 to 3 feet (keep it short—12 to 15 inches— for rivers), up to 10 feet or more to position baits way off bottom. How to net fish with such a long dropper? Just leave the sinker dangling in the water while you net the fish.

The ultimate in versatility comes from an adjustable three-way that doesn’t even require a three-way swivel. Instead, tie a standard barrel swivel between your main line and leader. Next, thread a long dropper line up through one of the loops of the swivel, and clamp a split shot somewhere on the dropper line opposite the sinker and swivel. The split shot functions as a bobber stop. It sets the distance your swivel rides above bottom, and thus the depth at which your lure or bait runs. To adjust the off-bottom depth, simply slide the split shot up or down the dropper—an easy variable for experimentation. And should you snag, a firm pull will slide the split shot off your dropper line, once again losing only the drop sinker.

Want the ability to feed even more line with a three-way? Tie a double barreled rig. First, tie a standard dropper line and weight to one loop of a barrel swivel. Next, thread your main line through the opposite loop of the swivel, then tie it to a second swivel connected to your leader. Bingo—a slipsinker three-way rig. Feed a fussy biter as much line as you wish. Substitute a bobber stop and bead for the second swivel, and you can easily adjust leader length as well.

And for the coup de grace, combine all aspects of adjustability to make an adjustable-snell-length variable-dropper-length rig. Rather than trying to explain, check the art labeled Super Rig.

Three-way rigs and bottom bouncers work best with about a 6- or 61⁄2-foot casting rod, a flippin’ reel, and 10-pound-test mono. Hit the thumb bar to release line, and drop the rig to the bottom. Then lift you thumb to automatically re-engage the reel. No need to take your other hand off the motor to turn the reel handle to reengage the reel.

Bottom Bouncer Rigs

Bottom bouncers combine the characteristics of slipsinker and three-way rigs with added snag resistance. Basically, they use the same snells, just on a wire-legged sinker that skips over rocks, climbs up and down slopes, and across basins, positioning the bait a few inches off bottom.

While most folks use bouncers with spinner snells, drifting or trolling at paces fast enough to rotate the blade, bouncer rigs also excel at slower speeds with plain baited hooks, floats, or floating jigheads, or tiny flutterspoons. Keep snells shorter than about 40 inches to minimize snags. While most bouncers don’t slip, simply pointing the rod tip back at a biting fish, then sweep setting forward, gives the fish a half-heartbeat of extra time before you set the hook. If fish are fussy, switch to a slip bouncer like the Gopher Stik or Quick Change Lite Bite.

Unlike prepackaged slipsinker rigs that come complete with snells, sinkers, and components, bouncers are sold separately from snells. For three-ways, buy prepackaged snells, but construct the rigging to go with it.

Open-Water Trolling Harnesses

When open-water trolling for suspended fish, using snap weights or leadcore to reach desired depths, walleye pros often switch the rear single hook of a crawler harness to a larger premium treble; sometimes the front hook, too, providing for extra hooking power. So long as you’re not near bottom and in no danger of snagging or picking up debris, why not? P/K Tackle’s Open Water Spinner and Bait Rig’s Big Water Rig offer the twin treble arrangement with an oversized spinner. Or make your own.

That’s why it’s called rigging.