Don’t talk about it. Don’t even think about it. Ignore it and it might just go away.

Fat chance. Whether you like it or not, walleyes use cover.

That’s right. Weeds. Wood. Walleyes. Don’t try to fight it. Get used to it. Learn to deal with it. Take advantage of it.

The Origin of Misconception

Back in the ‘50s when structure fishing theory was originally applied to walleyes, it was based on their location and behavior in rocky, sandy lakes of the northern US and Canada. In these lakes, self-sustaining populations of walleyes provided much of the predator base, often sharing habitat with pike, and sometimes with bass or muskies. In these waters, walleyes chiefly related to points, humps, reefs, and other main-lake areas lacking significant weedgrowth or submerged woodcover, but often having rock, boulders, rubble, or sand. Where other species were present, these species tended to dominate the weeds.

This perception of classic walleye behavior, perpetuated by a half century of reinforcement by the outdoor media, has led anglers to believe that walleyes don’t relate to weedcover or woodcover, regardless of the type and location of the lake, river, or reservoir. Not so.

While walleyes at times can and do relate to weeds and woodcover in these classic lakes, you really begin to see how walleyes use cover in waters where they have been stocked into unfamiliar environments. A classic example is a shallow weedy natural lake best suited for panfish, bass, and pike, where the walleye population is maintained by stocking. Such waters often lack any significant amount of deep offshore structure and rocky shoreline spawning areas, but just a soft basin surrounded by a perimeter of weeds.

Walleyes in such lakes have no choice but to adapt to a weedy environment, often exhibiting behavior more like bass than like walleyes. Clumps, inside edges, and outside weedlines become focal points of walleye activity throughout much of the year. At other times, walleyes may suspend in open water or roam across the basin.

In shallow, fertile, dark-water lakes lying in the central prairies or farm country, soft, featureless basins are typically rimmed by a slowly tapering shoreline that fades into the basin. Structure is lacking, unless you count rocky shorelines that dip into 2 to 4 feet of water—or shallow weedgrowth like reeds or pondweed that seldom exceeds 4 feet in depth due to the lack of sunlight penetration in the dark water. In such lakes, walleyes suspend much of the time, making occasional feeding forays into waist-deep weeds, or to trap baitfish against boulder shoreline lips.

In North Country flowages, typically created by damming lowland or forest areas, offshore structure often is minimal, although submerged river and creek channels may be present if siltation isn’t excessive. These impoundments, however, often feature stands of remnant wood in the form of fallen trees and flooded brush along shorelines, shallow cut stumps, fallen timber scattered across shallow flats, and tangles of errant wood washed into pockets and channel bends during periods of unusual current flow.

Walleyes often relate to such woodcover, even though it may be less than 10 or 12 feet deep, and may not necessarily adjoin a river channel or have other immediate access to deep water. Shallow (3- to 5-foot) weedgrowth or submerged woodcover in bays may be sufficient to hold walleyes throughout much of the open-water season.

In southern highland impoundments, the sparse, rocky terrain greatly resembles the granite-rimmed waters of the Canadian Shield, and walleyes can and do relate to rocky points, submerged rock humps, and areas of open water. Yet they also may suspend in standing timber during the day, often moving out to the deeper edges to feed on suspended shad at night. Such waters also tend to have flooded brush in creek arms or in the main feeder river, which can attract walleyes at least during upriver spawning runs. So despite their barren appearance, woodcover in these waters can be a factor for walleyes.

Many of these habitats are not natural walleye waters, although walleyes expanded into some of them when rivers were impounded, causing the walleyes to spread out into the new lakelike environment. In some cases, walleye populations continued to be self-sustaining, while others are bolstered by or depend upon stocking. In essence, the walleyes in such waters inhabit what could hardly be considered natural habitat. And the more unnatural the habitat, the more likely walleyes seem to need to relate to cover.

Even in the massive plateau impoundments of the central and western prairies, where vast numbers of walleyes roam the length of the reservoirs, relating to classic points and humps, they relate to areas of standing timber or flooded terrestrial growth during periods of high water. And even in the Great Lakes, a portion of the walleye population using bay areas relates to weedbeds along the shoreline.

In essence, weedcover and woodcover is not an unnatural attraction to walleyes. When walleyes enter such areas, traditional open-hook presentations like livebait rigs and jigs often fail. The frustration of frequent fouling, snagging, and losing lures fosters an unwillingness to explore areas of cover, which have a reputation for not holding walleyes in the first place. Thus the ingrained avoidance and preconceived prejudice against weeds and wood.

Snag-Resistant Solutions to Weeds and Wood

Progressive walleye anglers have adapted traditional walleye presentations to fish the fringes of cover, sometimes penetrating it. Like bass presentations, weedless jigheads and hooks, modified sinker shapes, and other tactics have helped unlock the weed and wood domain. Unlike bass tackle, however, the hooks, lures, and riggings used for walleyes tend to be smaller, often designed to present livebait in a natural fashion and are fished on lighter tackle.

Ripping—Ripping tactics offer the least snag resistance, but often the best triggering capacity, when fish are in a neutral mood. Ripping is a good tactic for sparse weeds like cabbage, but is prone to snag in heavy weedgrowth (coontail) or timber.

The basic concept is to use an open-hook jighead, dressed with either a minnow, piece of crawler, or plastic tail. In general, plastic best withstands the abuse of ripping through thicker weeds. The line functions somewhat as a weedguard, but the hook point and the junction of the hookeye and jighead tend to hang up slightly on weeds, often requiring a substantial tug to free them.

Cast out, let the jig fall to rest atop the weeds, then tighten the line and use an upward wrist snap of the rod to rip the jig free of the cover, sending it scooting, until it loses momentum and falls to rest again. Pause before resuming. If weeds are sparse enough, let the jig fall down between stalks. When the jig reaches the outer edge of a weed clump or weedline, let it free fall down the edge, coming to rest on the bottom. Roundhead 1/16- to 1/4-ounce jigs are commonly used on spinning tackle with about 10-pound monofilament; lighter jigs with small livebaits; heavier jigs with plastics or plastic-livebait combos.

Jigging spoons allow a more aggressive ripping approach. Cast a 1/4- to 1/2-ounce spoon on 10- to 12-pound line, letting it flutter until it barely touches weed tops. Then rip the rod tip upward, sending it darting forward, lowering the rod tip as you take up slack. Repeat. Set up a quicker rhythm than you would use with a jig in order to prevent excessive settling and fouling. Spinning or casting tackle? Your choice.

Tickling—Floating-diving crankbaits are surprisingly effective over weeds and wood due to their downward diving angle. The diving bill encounters and climbs over potential snags first, and the body tends to protect the hook points from snagging as the bait climbs over obstructions. If you cast out and retrieve at a modest speed, backing off tension as the lure begins to encounter a snag, it’ll usually either float upward, allowing you to resume your retrieve in a few seconds or will crawl over and across the obstruction, occasionally snagging or fouling.

Deep-diving lures with large bills are perhaps best for scrambling across woodcover. Shallower-diving lures (smaller diving bills) tend to work well in weeds. If you hang up and a pause doesn’t allow the lure to rise and free itself, a simple rip or tug should bring it back—sometimes free of the growth, sometimes not. In wood, pausing may or may not free the lure; you may have to move the boat above or just past the obstruction, then try to rip it free or use a lure de-snagger. Choose either spinning or casting tackle, although lighter balsa lures tend to cast better on spinning gear with 8- to 12-pound mono.

Slithering—The basic premise of slithering through weeds is similar to using a jighead when ripping—but without the ripping. Instead of using an open-hook jighead, a pointy-nosed jighead with the eye at the nose, plus a weedguard, deflects nearly all snags and causes the jig to slip and slide between stalks. While it will sink to rest atop weeds, a more subtle lift of the rod tip generally frees the lure, causing it to glide. It lacks the triggering explosion of a jighead breaking free on a rip, but it’s more effective in heavy weeds like coontail; coontail, in fact, should grip even a weedless jig sufficiently to cause a bit of a rustle when the jig scoots free, alerting nearby fish to its presence.

Weedless jigs can be worked farther down into weed clumps and down between cabbage stalks with a reduced chance of snagging. It’s perfect for tough times when fish don’t want to come out of their hideaways. Same for timber and brush. Pitch a weedless jig right into pockets in a brushpile, let it fall, then lift the rod tip to raise the jig up and over limbs before letting it settle again. Same for deeper timber or fallen trees. Slowly lift until you feel the jig cross the limb, then let it fall. Small roundhead jigs with weedguards, dressed with grub bodies, work well in timber.

Fortunately for walleye anglers, several innovative tackle companies have addressed the snag problem with creative solutions. For small weedless jigheads to use with livebait, try Northland’s Weed Weasel, Bait Rigs’ Slo-Poke WeedMaster, or Lindy’s No-Snagg Timber Jig or Veggie Jig. Owner’s Bullet Head and Bait Rigs’ Slo-Poke, Odd’Ball, and GrubMaster are all excellent designs for working plastic in and around weeds and wood.

Once again, walleye jigs tend to be smaller than bass jigs, with hooks more like a #4 and #2 rather than a 2/0, unless you’re rigging plastic grubs Texas style. If so, larger bass-sized hooks are necessary to accommodate the bulk of the plastic dressing. In all cases, weedless jigs allow you to effectively fish in and around cover that would snag open-hook jigs in a heartbeat.

Wriggling—We’ll call it wriggling because it involves livebait rigs, but it could just as well be termed tickling or slithering. It incorporates slipping snag-resistant livebait rigs between weed stalks, alongside weed clumps or distinct weedlines, or along the edges of timber, but not digging down deep inside.

Weedless rigs feature a sinker resistant to snagging. Rather than a traditional walking sinker designed for rocks, switch to a bullet or egg sinker to reduce or eliminate weeds hanging on the sinker. Next, shorten the snell to minimize line wrapping around sticks or stalks. And finally, use a small weedless hook. When the hook point is protected, the assembly tends to slide through cover at slow speeds, even with pauses, lifts, and falls.

Lindy-Little Joe’s curved No-Snagg sinker twists and crawls over snags, partly due to its shape and partly because it has flotation in the top to resist lying down and tangling. Lindy’s No-Snagg wire weedguard livebait hook is about the best we’ve tried. For livebait rigging above a low-lying carpet of sandgrass or moss, try switching a traditional rigging to an egg sinker and floating jighead to suspend livebait above the weedtops—like a Carolina Rig used for bass, except with livebait.

Suspending—When you just can’t penetrate heavy weeds or wood, a slipbobber hangs livebait above the tough stuff, perhaps even allowing it to slip a bit between the upper fringes of cover if you use weedless rigging. It’s the perfect way to dangle a lively leech, crawler, or minnow around and above cover that would defeat traditional riggings.

Try a traditional splitshot and hook setup if you like, but around cover, a weedless hook might be better. Or switch the hook to a lightweight jighead—either an open-hook version for hanging above cover or a weedless one for tickling brush and brushing weedtops. Slipbobber or ice fishing jigs often work well in these applications, although a simple 1/32-ounce round jighead adds a spot of color to attract and focus the strike and anchor the presentation at the proper depth. Drifted across the tops of submerged weeds or cast and teased along the perimeter of submerged brush and timber, it’s hard for walleyes to avoid the temptation of livebait dangling in their faces to tempt ‘em out of their lair.

Discovering Cover

Armed with weedless riggings, those pesky walleyes using shallow cover have nowhere left to hide. The proper tackle, a patient approach, and confidence are equally essential to the equation. Put ‘em together to uncover hiding places, catch fish, and avoid snags and frustration.