Of the many ways to catch walleyes, livebait rigging is perhaps the simplest to understand in principle but the most underappreciated in precise execution. Why? Because the common misconception is that you need only hook livebait on and drag it across the bottom. Sure, you’ll catch walleyes that way, but with refinements and skill, you’ll catch more.

To achieve this additional level of efficiency and effectiveness, veteran anglers carry an assortment of components and match them according to prevailing conditions, further enhancing the natural attractiveness of livebait like minnows, leeches, and nightcrawlers.

Sinkers—The walking slipsinker is livebait rigging’s claim to fame. Your main line passes through a hole in the sinker, then is commonly tied to a barrel swivel. From the barrel swivel, a snell of indeterminate length extends to a hooked livebait. The basic concept is to slowly troll or drift along with your bail open, index finger on the line, lifting the sinker on and off bottom, feeling and probing until a fish bites. Then release the line, letting the fish pull line through the sinker without feeling any resistance until it ingests the bait sufficiently for you to tighten up slack and set the hook.

Walking sinkers were developed to be fished in and around rocks, minimizing snags. Actually, egg sinkers also do a pretty good job in most conditions. When you get near weeds and wood, however, these sinker types tend to foul. Better choices are bullet sinkers (commonly used while Texas rigging plastic worms for bass), or a recent form of snagless or weedless sinker, like the Lindy-Little Joe No-Snagg.

In recent years, a wealth of fluorescent and phosphorescent sinkers have appeared, adding visibility and, theoretically, attractiveness to livebait rigging in dark or dingy water. The rest of the time, plain old lead sinkers are great.

Hooks—Depending on individual manufacturer’s descriptions, livebait, Octopus, or salmon egg hooks are the dominant choices for livebait rigging. They’re small, strong, sharp, lightweight, geared to deliver livebait without stifling its natural attraction. Other traditional choices include lightwire round bend (popular with fixed split shot rigs), and widebend or kahle hooks (often employed with slipbobbers).

Rules of thumb: #8 for leeches hooked through or near the suction cup, #6 for nose-hooked nightcrawlers, and anywhere from #4 up to 1/0 for minnows hooked up through both lips (or just the top lip for big 7- or 8-inch minnows), depending on their bulk. You need sufficient hook gap to hook walleyes without overweighting the livebait and stifling its natural action.

Newest on the scene are circle and modified circle hooks, touted to liphook fish rather than leading to a deeper penetration. Don’t set the hook with a circle; a simple tightening of the line as a fish turns and swims away or as a boat drifts along with a rod in a holder, should theoretically do the trick. For walleyes, however, the jury is still out on circles. They appear to work wonders on certain species like tarpon, catfish, and other fish that hold a bait and turn away under pressure, hooking themselves. But fussy walleyes often tend to drop a bait when they feel initial resistance.

Regardless of design, you’ll notice a new wave of premium hooks on the market from all major hook companies, all claiming extreme sharpness. You pay more for them, but they’re ready to stick and hold, right out of the box, no sharpening required. Also, Lindy-Little Joe’s splayed wire weedguard No-Snagg Hook bears special mention due to its weedless-snagless performance without sacrificing fish missed on the hookset. For subtle livebait rigging, it’s far superior to any form of traditional wire weedguard hook.

Swivels—Barrel swivels in #10 or #12 create snell connections while minimizing line twist during livebait rigging. Lindy offers a clip-on half-barrel swivel clip for quick and easy looped snell connections. Some folks prefer simply clamping a small BB shot on the line or tying in a small O-ring, but that adds weight and fails to negate twist. Substituting a bead and string bobber stop has become popular in recent years for creating an adjustable length snell; simply grasp the stop between forefinger and thumb and slide it up or down the line to immediately change snell length. Add a tiny barrel swivel between the stop and the hook if you wish.

Snells—Interestingly, most manufacturers have opted to go the component supply route, rather than pretie snells. Reason: Besides being less labor intensive, there’s a growing willingness among walleye anglers to tie snells on the spot to match conditions, rather than carrying pretied snells. Six-or eight-pound monofilament covers most walleye conditions (other than spinner rigs), with snells ranging from a foot or so for snaggy conditions, to 3 to 4 feet for average situations, to 9- or 10-foot-plus lengths when fishing pressure, cold fronts, or clear water makes fish spooky. In the process, they also match hook size and type to the type of bait.

Attractors—Beads, blades, floating jigheads, and more. Tiny colored beads add attraction when placed on the line just ahead of a hook, while larger rattle beads add both color and sound. Cork or foam floating jigheads not only add color, bulk, and an up-down wobbling motion to trolled livebait, but actually will slowly lift a small bait well off bottom if you pause your troll long enough to let the flotation kick in. On-line cork or foam floats do the same in tandem with your usual hook choices, allowing you to position the float near to (even adjoining) or farther from the bait (retaining its natural action). Tiny spinner blades and folded clevises add a hint of flash and vibration as you lift and drop the sinker, although if the fish are responding well to spinner presentations, larger blades and faster trolling speeds usually are better choices.

Mix and match. Personal preferences. Recipes for success, spiced to taste by the chefs of organic angling.

Lazy Is Crazy, Matchin’ Is Catchin’

Gary Roach, a legend among walleye anglers, is a finesse livebait rigger of amazing proficiency. Many livebait systems in use today were pioneered by Roach, who remains ever a tinkerer and fine-tuner, always looking to gain an edge over both fish and fellow fishermen.

“Walleye fishermen tend to get lazy and stuck in a rut, offering fish the same things every time out,” Roach offers. “I always bring a selection of livebaits and components to give walleyes the opportunity to tell me what they want.

“For instance, sometimes the fish want big baits, like big river chubs. I noticed that at the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail tournament at Leech Lake last year. Other times, a leech is better. But it’d better be a lively one; weak leeches don’t swim actively and catch fish as strong ones do. I keep my crawlers in Fat and Sassy Bedding to maintain them in top condition—big, fat, and squirming. I can’t stress enough the importance of prime, healthy livebaits. They make all the difference in their ability to fool walleyes and trigger bites, especially when you need to slow down or pause and let the bait squirm right in front of their noses.”

When to fish a livebait rig versus a jig? “Pay attention to the signals fish send you. If walleyes hit a jig and then drop it, that tells me they’re not real active and probably would prefer a livebait rig. Or, if I’m rigging, and fish are active enough to hit a colored sinker on the rig, that tells me they’ll likely hit a jig; if so, I’ll either shorten my snell to 12 to 14 inches to add some lift-drop action to the rig, or I simply switch to a jig.

“In average livebait rigging conditions, I start with about a 4-foot snell. If lots of boulders or rocks are present, I shorten down to 2 to 3 feet to minimize snags. If the water’s clear and fish are spooky, like on Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota, I may opt for 7- to 9-foot snells to add finesse. I just adjust.

“When I’m fishing crawlers, I like a sharp, lightwire Tru Turn hook. With leeches or minnows, stouter sharp Daiichis work better for me, matched to the size of the bait—small for leeches, bigger for minnows. In the Dakota reservoirs, I’ve had good luck with gold hooks. If I want to camouflage the hook when I’m fishing a leech, bronze is a better color choice. In darker water, like Lake of the Woods, a Bleeding Bait red hook often is better because the fish can see it. You must be willing to retie often and experiment to notice the difference. I keep my little component tackle box handy and I constantly vary combinations throughout the day, always looking for a better setup.

“I don’t use a floating jighead as much as I did in the old days, but I’m a big believer in adding a small colored bead ahead of the hook to draw attention and help focus the strike. A bead is like a weightless jighead, allowing a leech to swim easily and retain its natural action. If you want a bigger bead with more attraction, try a Northland Rattle Bead.

“Occasionally I add a small clevis and tiny flicker blade—like a size 0 or 00—ahead of the livebait, in order to add a little attraction. Silver is great for clear water, gold or orange for cloudy days. Actually, I prefer willow leaf blades over Colorados or Indianas, because if I’m going to use a blade, I want to move quicker, and willows work best at faster speeds. You don’t actually have to move fast enough to make it spin; a little side-to-side wobble is fine.

“When a fish strikes a livebait rig, the only way to know how much time to let it have the bait before setting the hook is to experiment. Sometimes you can set right away—as soon as you take up the slack. Other times, the fish force you to wait. In many cases, however, folks tend to wait too long, causing the fish to either drop the bait or be gut-hooked. Try to find a happy medium where hooksets are successful.

“In some instances, you don’t even need to use a slipsinker for livebait rigging; a bottom bouncer and 4-foot snell is sufficient and lets you cover water quickly, although not as fast as when trolling a spinner. On the strike, all you need to do is drop the rod tip back, and once the line tightens, sweepset forward. If you miss fish when using crawlers, substitute a two-hook harness (no spinner), and you’ll hook ‘em almost every time. Perfect when boulder snags are bad and you can’t afford to set a slipsinker down and pause without snagging. It’s just common sense.

“Some of the best advice I can offer is to believe what your electronics tell you. If they show fish in the area, seeing is believing they’re there, even if they don’t bite right away. Try different components or switch baits to trigger a bite. If they’re fussy, hold the rig dead still and let the bait’s natural attraction work for you. If walleyes are suspended off bottom, simply lower your rig to the right depth and hold it there, rather than dragging it across bottom beneath them. Do everything you can to tune into the walleyes’ location, depth, and mood. Conditions vary on a daily or hourly basis, and so does the right combination of components, livebaits, and speed. Find it, and you’ll catch fish.”

PWT pro Dan Stier is perhaps best known for his livebait rigging abilities with big chubs. “When the tournament’s on the line and fish are fussy, you just can’t be a large, lively creek chub wiggling in a walleye’s face to trigger a strike. There’s just something magical about it. As soon as the minnow draws near the fish, it begins to panic, wiggling and sending vibrations up the line that tell you big fish are around. Even if you don’t get bit right away, let the bait sit and soak in their faces. Pretty soon, all that wiggling and struggling becomes too much to resist, and a walleye will engulf the minnow. It’s the ultimate for triggering tough biters—especially big ones. And it’s the only way to effectively present a large lively minnow in deep water, unless you sit in one spot with a slipbobber.”

Livebait rigging is an art form. Sure, you’ll catch fish on standard rigs, mediocre livebaits, and at trolling speeds too quick or too slow for conditions. But when you experiment with the variables and fine-tune your approach, their effectiveness is scary. Even the largest walleyes can never become fully conditioned to livebait, because that’s what they eat. Present it in a subtle, natural fashion, and you’re rigged and ready for action.