Art imitates life, and so does soft plastic. In recent years, innovative manufacturers have molded a wealth of body configurations in an ever-expanding rainbow of colors and patterns. Some closely imitate natural livebait, such as a minnow, worm, crayfish, salamander, centipede, baitfish, or other tasty delight. Others just plain look fishy while resembling something natural and edible, like traditional and popular curlytail grubs or marabou-tail jig bodies—perhaps the two most popular walleye plastics. And then consider those wild-eyed wigglers and squigglers that defy imagination and classification; who knows what they’re supposed to be, but boy, they sure look good enough to eat. To the fish, anyway.

With the wide array of soft plastic baits available today, and more looming on the horizon, it’s not only impossible to list them all, but virtually impossible to classify them into categories of where and when to use what. Instead, we’ll discuss basic principles of plastics, and let you draw your own conclusions as to their best use. Let’s start with basic actions, reactions, motions, and commotions.

The More Wiggles and Jiggles—Larger, bulkier, or wilder bodies with enhanced action are geared to active fish, speedier and erratic retrieves, and strike triggers.

The More Slide and Glide—Smaller or more subtle bodies with less inherent action are designed for reluctant to neutral fish, slower retrieves, longer pauses between jigging motions, and for tempting bites.

Shapes and Sizes

The classic, plastic walleye tail is a short 3-inch curlytail or marabou-tail grub body, dressed on a jighead. This perhaps stems from an attempt to appeal to anglers more than to walleyes. Jigs dressed with bodies of such size are easily tipped with livebait—minnows, leeches, pieces of crawlers. The resulting combo package is of an approximate size that “looks right.” And catches fish, instilling confidence in the user.

Tubes, popular with bass anglers, also are incredibly productive for walleyes; their subtle slow-falling or gliding characteristics appeal to fussy fish. Some anglers even confidently interchange them with more traditional body shapes, although typically still tipping them with livebait. Others may rely on 3-inch tubes alone, although truth be told, more walleyes likely are caught on tubes by accident while fishing for other species than caught on purpose.

It’s only when you explore the untipped, unbaited dimension of plastic that expanded sizes really come into play. Unfettered by the addition of livebait, a plastic tail now requires added heft to once again “look right.” Four-inch grubs fit the bill, but may not appear as walleye-appropriate as their smaller cousins, unless you switch from a standard round-bodied grub to a taller, thinner shad body. Something about it just “looks right”—a common theme, rooted in confidence.

A relatively new and productive addition to potential walleye plastics are jerk shads, which have a bulky shad-type body but taper to a thin tail. Some have a small fin at the back. While they can obviously be jigged or glided in traditional fashion, their strength appears to be in snapjigging-type presentations, either across shallow flats in lakes or trolled upstream in rivers. The swift, erratic dart resembles a minnow dashing upstream or panicking across the shallows.

Beyond the 4-inch mental barrier lie a further array of plastic attractors, such as lizards and craws. Craws do not have a following among walleye anglers, although lizards have a mini cult status among those seeking to catch larger walleyes. This dates back to the productivity of live waterdogs—a truly outstanding bait—for big walleyes. The theory is that walleyes recognize the lizard shape as an egg-stealer and pounce on it with abandon. River anglers have applied 4- to 5- or even 6-inch lizard bodies, tipped with minnows, for big fish in muddy water where bulk helps fish locate the bait, or amidst hordes of smaller bait-stealing ‘eyes that avoid chasing the lizard, allowing bigger fish to reach the lure.

Crawler imitations, by their proven and familiar shape, are accorded good potential by walleye anglers. Most who have tried them have applied a standard straighttail 6-inch crawler body in tandem with a spinner-crawler harness—often with success. Berkley’s Power Worms have been at the forefront of this approach, although others, like the Mister Twister Exude, are hot on their . . . tails.

Stand-alone thin worm shapes, however, still aren’t popular for walleyes; anglers who fish plastic-only tend to grub it, even though lots of walleyes are caught on worm bodies by bass anglers. Something about it, apparently, just doesn’t “look right.” Yet pockets of popularity exist. Some river anglers, for example, cast and tumble 3/16-ounce jigs with ribbed-bodied worms in current, dispersing air bubbles from the body cavities as the lure proceeds downstream.

In nearly all size and shape categories, bodies are available with additional arms, legs, feelers, extensions. Some folks swear by ‘em. Others don’t bother with ‘em. It all depends on personal preference and confidence. A twintail grub, for example, has a slow fall and is popular among Missouri River anglers casting to steep points. The separation of the tails enables tipping the hook with a piece of crawler or minnow without disturbing the action, unlike on a single curlytail, where tipping might interfere with tail action.

Certainly, extra appendages create more action, slow the lure’s fall, and perhaps suggest an added illusion of life. Experimenting with such concoctions, however, also requires carrying more packages of plastic and spending more time experimenting with different combos. Great if you believe in their productivity; harder to do if you’re still sitting on the fence.

Colorful Creations

It’s arguably bad enough that you need to carry a variety of different sizes and shapes of plastic to cover the bases. Now, multiply your selection many times over if you also wish to experiment with different colors, shades, hues, combinations, forage patterns and the like.

Personal preference and confidence are major factors in choosing colors and patterns, and everyone has go-to favorites, which can be drastically different from other folks’ choices. Therefore I’ll state some traditional wisdom, and you can make your own decisions.

Certain colors are popular as a result of their productivity, and it’s hard to argue with things that work. Among walleye anglers, plastics with at least a hint of orange, chartreuse, and yellow are traditional favorites, attributed to the walleyes’ eye structure and ability to best see those colors, making them logical choices in dark or dingy water. In clearer water, however, such colors may be too visible, tipping the fish off to something phony. Subtler whites, smokes, blacks, and browns may be better choices. Like Goldilocks and the pirated porridge, it’s not too hot, not too cold, just right. In this case, put plastic in the water, and if it doesn’t “look right,” switch it to something that does look right. If it “looks right,” confidence skyrockets, and increased confidence makes you fish better and ultimately catch more fish.

Single-color tails have been around a long time, probably accounting for the bulk of all plastics purchased. Years ago, bass anglers adopted firetails; the little wiggly portion of the tail was a different, usually highly visible color designed to attract strikes. Trouble is, most of those strikes likely come from pesky panfish like bluegills and perch. Walleye anglers tend to prefer patterns that cause fish to strike at the head and hook end of the package.

Alternative color jigheads, or plastic bodies with an eye or spot of color at the head more often are choices for walleyes. If you subscribe to the school of thought that multiple colors offer multiple triggers to a potential biter, then two-colored or three-colored grubs will appeal to your sensibilities. Once again, it’s a confidence thing. The nice thing is that you can easily mix and match different plastics with different colored jigheads to achieve a wealth of combos.

Plastics with a dark back and light belly offer an increased resemblance to natural minnow forage. Many shad tails fall into this category. For increased visibility in dark water, glitter bodies have bits of reflective glitter molded directly into the plastic, helping fish locate the bait in the gloom or murk of muddy water.

An increasing array of realistic forage-pattern plastics are entering the market. If you believe that the most accurate baitfish imitations will catch the most fish, these will boost your confidence big time. Cabela’s Livin’ Eye Minnows are rigged onto a minnow-head jighead. Storm WildEyes are molded onto an internal head. Both are uncanny representations of something good to eat.

In the end, there are no magic colors or combos, only shades that usually work, hues that generally don’t, and others that fall so-so in between. Sometimes color makes a difference. Often it doesn’t, with other factors like size, shape, sound, vibration being more important. Since you never know exactly what conditions will dictate every time out, carry a selection and be prepared to experiment for the best results.

Scented, Salted, Salacious

Fish scent products were originally designed as much as de-scents to hide offensive human orders exuded from the skin or to mask unnatural scents like gas or oil or peanut butter and jelly transferred to the bait as they were as scents to attract, fool, and trigger fish into biting or striking. Oils, sprays, pastes, and other concoctions hit the market in force; many have since fizzled and failed.

What has caught on with the angling public, however, is the incorporation of scent and taste directly into plastic bodies. This is easy to do during the injection-molding process; just squirt the premixed plastisol and scent into the mold, and then pop the product in a resealable plastic bag. Open the bag and phew! the stink pours out in abundance. Great! If it’s stinky, it must be good. But are all equally good?

Hard to say. One man’s stink is another man’s perfume. Take garlic, for example. Bass are supposed to love it, it’s great in Italian cuisine, and is probably OK for walleyes.

Salt is another popular scent and taste trigger incorporated into plastics and is well accepted by anglers. Blood tastes salty, so salt should be a natural stimulant. Hard to argue with that.

Various other impregnations have been touted by plastics manufacturers. Among those targeting the walleye crowd, a family of Berkley’s Power Worm products has been formulated specifically for walleyes and incorporated into shapes specifically designed for walleye presentations, such as crawlers, marabou-tail grubs, and others. And they’ve been well accepted by walleye fishermen.

Does this mean Power Worms are superior to Mister Twister’s Exude—another strong scent formulation—or Mann’s FS-454 or Riverside Yum? Once again, it’s a matter of personal choice and confidence. If we were to stick our necks out, we’d likely state that when the fish are bitin’ well, scent and taste formulations probably don’t make much difference. But when fish are fussy due to cold fronts, fishing pressure, and the like, scent- and taste-impregnated plastics may cause walleyes to respond better, strike more aggressively, and hold on longer. That can provide a legitimate advantage. Scented products usually cost a bit more than unscent plastics, but at times, they may be worth the extra investment.

The Bait or No-Bait Debate

In the course of your walleye fishing with plastic, you will begin to gravitate toward particular brands, shapes, sizes, colors, and scents of plastic bodies that are productive in the waters you fish, and in the manner you fish them. In short, there’s no substitute for confidence. The biggest initial barrier to the successful use of plastic for walleyes is a lack of confidence, inspired by tradition.

Walleye fishing is historically a sport of livebait, with recent inroads made by the crankbait brigade. But those who remain devout livebait riggers and jiggers still tend to have problems with plastic if there’s not also a minnow, leech, or piece of crawler dressed on the hook in addition to the soft plastic body. If that’s your current state of mind, fine. Team plastic jig bodies with a livebait dressing to enhance the package. But at the very least, on days when walleyes are really slamming your lures, and chances are you’ve already accidentally caught a few on untipped plastic after the livebait fell off, consider experimenting with plastic-only, if only for a little while. It might help you get over the hump, so to speak. Once you break through the confidence barrier, it’s smooth sailing ahead.

All across the length and breadth of walleyedom, an increasing number of anglers are playing with plastic in lieu of livebait. Jiggers on the Detroit River often catch more and bigger walleyes on plastic shad bodies than by adding a minnow. From Lake Erie to western impoundments, anglers tired of feeding bits of their nightcrawlers to furious perch have, out of desperation, switched to dressing crawler harnesses with scented plastics like Power Worms. And lo and behold, it’s produced lots and big. And certainly, anglers flying into Canadian waters in search of savagely biting wilderness walleyes have found that a jig dressed with a plastic grub often is all that’s necessary to catch all the walleyes you want.

But there’s more. Plastic stands up better than livebait to the abuse of jigging in weedbeds. It’s always handy and available without the hassle of wrangling, hauling, and keeping livebait lively in varied weather conditions. And it doesn’t die on you at the most inopportune moments. And it catches fish.

No one is going to suggest that soft plastic always is better than livebait, in all situations, all of the time. But it’s an alternative, and a legitimate one. And sometimes, a soft touch is just what the ‘eye doctor ordered.