Montana Walleye Fishing Tips – Jigging Gear and Techniques
By Kelsey

Posted: July 16, 2012

We did some research and found some great Walleye fishing tips and a video to help you  improve their jigging for Walleye techniques.

What is Jigging?

Jigging is a fishing technique used to move bait up and down in the water with a quick jerky motion (to imitate real bait like minnows).

[youtube id=”PnYGqjxnhNw” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Key Points from Video

Gear Recommendation

  • minnow imitation grubs
  • ball-head jig 1/4 oz.
  • sensitive rod
  • smooth drag system

Rigging the Bait

  • best results when it looks like a real minnow (hook needs to be coming out of the back of the minnow)
  • thread the hook on through the front
  • push the minnow on 1/2-3/4 inch up to barb
  • pop the hook out of the back

 Key Techniques

  • stay near bottom (Walleye are bottom feeders)
  • give lots of slack in the line
  • once you are at the bottom tighten up the line
  • hop along the bottom (pause it. hop it.)
  • keep the rod tip up to help through heavy weeded areas
  • when it feels mushy with a slight tug moving along with it – SET THE HOOK!
  • “Let the jig do the work, not the rod”

Tips for Improving your Jigging 

  1. Always stay on the bottom, increase the weight of your jig the deeper you go down as well as when the wind and current are increasing.
  2. When fishing larger forage areas use jigs with bigger profiles.
  3. Are you using the right jig? Ball-style jigs are most common for successful Walleye fishing. Swimming Jigs are best for casting in weeds. Pancake Jigs are best used in rivers.
  4. Use colors based on water clarity and light conditions. Continually trial and error colors even when you start catching. Changing with the constantly changing conditions is how you need to think of it. Stay in the different hues of chartreuse, orange, pink, blue. Using brighter colors in murky water and dark colors in clean water.
  5. Vary bait with conditions and seasons. We recommend using Minnows in the Fall/Spring cold water, Leeches in warm water and Nightcrawlers are good throughout seasons and temperatures.
  6. Practice your boat control. Point bow upstream (into the wind). Line needs to be kept vertical below the boat. Short rushes from a trolling motor is best to match water flow.
These Walleye fishing tips and techniques should help to make you a jigging master angler. 

 

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