We’ll just state the obvious. Fishing for walleye is just plain fun. Thrilling and fast-paced, catching walleye means an angler has to be quick-thinking when it comes to fishing this predator. That’s why we asked walleye expert, Dale Gilbert, to share his extensive walleye knowledge with us. A walleye master, Dale, has fished walleye from Arkansas to Canada and Michigan to Montana, and he doesn’t disappoint.

Feeling that bump and setting the hook and catching that fish, jigging for walleye means your in for fun times. Walleye expert and sensei, Dale Gilbert, explains the easy steps you need to take to set up your rod for jigging walleye. Watch and learn!

Video Transcription

Setting up a Rod and Jigging for Walleyes

Hey folks, we're going to talk a little bit about setting up a rod and jigging for walleyes with well, it's probably one of my absolute favorite ways to catch fish. There's just something special about that jigging, and pitching a jig, or trolling a jig, and getting that little tick and feeling that bump and setting the hook and catching those fish. It's probably, again, absolutely my number one favorite way of fishing for walleye.

The One Lure I'd Pick for Fishing

Someone asked me a long time ago that if I only had to pick one lure that I could use and take a fishing trip, it would be a jig, and it would probably be an eighth or a quarter ounce jig because this case here, this is an eighth ounce Nuckle Ball jig. I can take that jig and I can fish one eighth in a foot of water. I can fish in 30 foot of water and everywhere in between, there's no other bait that I know of that you can do that.

It's super, super effective and extremely versatile because the other advantage with jigs, is you can tip it with a variety of different things. At times, one's going to work way better than another, which is just phenomenal to watch and see, but you could take a half an [inaudible 00:01:16] put on here. You can put a minnow on there, you could put a leach on there.

Jig Fishing with Plastics

I've gotten to the point where I do a whole lot of jig fishing using what I would call plastics even though they're not necessarily all plastics, but there's quite a variety of other things that you could tip this with that sometimes actually have done better for me than actual fishing with live bait. In fact, some places you can't even use live bait. Some places it's illegal to use minnows, so there's a lot of variety and it pays to experiment because as I play with this stuff, I've just gotten some really good times and had a great experience catching a lot of nice fish with quite a variety of base.

It is Fish Food in a Sense

What I started with a few years ago was actually what's called Berkley Gulp! This right here is a three-inch Gulp minnow smell color, and that was one of the first kind of plastics that I used versus all the old days Mr. Twisters. The advantage of the Gulp, it's actually not plastic. It's actually fish food in a sense. It's biodegradable. It actually dissolves in the water. It gives off a scent trail and also has a taste to it. I have literally sat with one of these things on one rod and a live minnow on the other and couldn't get a bite on the minnow, they wouldn't touch it, but they would sit and they chomp, chomp, chomp and eat that Gulp to the point I actually didn't believe it. I've gotten to the point where I use some kind of plastic, almost 95% of the time.

Getting Fish to Zero in on their Targets

I'll use this Gulp. I'll use these Berkley ripple shads. They're not a Gulp product, but they've also got scent to them and they've got a paddle tail, which gives a vibration. If you think about how fish eat, they eat based on what they can see, what they could smell, what they taste, what they feel, what they hear. This has taste and it also has the vibration, so it appeals to multiple senses, especially if you have dirty water or if the fish are aggressive. This little ripple shad tail, I'll show you how to rig one up here. This is I think a two and a half inch ripple shad right here and we can kind of see that tail and how that wiggles. With that fire line and this rod and reel set up, if I give this a pretty good pull, I can actually feel that tail just zooming down there and it's like awesome. That's what helps those fish zero in on their targets.

I also do a fair amount of fishing with this Keitech. The Keitech is actually this Fat Impact or Swing Impact Fat Keitech. This is a 3.8 inch tail. Here's one here that I've actually been using and I've done really well. It's not as aggressive, but it's super, super soft. It's like that tail moves with practically no movement whatsoever. Sometimes the fish, especially the pre-spawn bite, when the fish are more lethargic and a little cold, the fish move a little bit slower with a bigger tail like this can be really, really effective.

What I Learned Last Fall that I'll use this Spring

Last fall I was fishing on near the river and I tried, this was actually something new to me last year, but this is a Bio Bait DNA, and I was incredibly impressed because the day we fished I fished this and you'll see this looks just like a little minnow here and it's got that same paddle tail deal.

I fished this bait and my partner in the boat fished with the Gulp and fished with the ripple shads and a variety of other things, and I caught three out of every four fish we caught on this bait right here. This thing is, it's actually scented as well so it's got a taste, and I don't know exactly why, but I'm sure going to be trying it a whole lot more this summer because I can tell you last fall, it was absolutely awesome.

The other one I like to use a lot is this AuthentX BFishN. This is actually their Pulse-R, they call it P-U-L-S-E-R, and that's also a paddle tail, but it's also got the ribs. This also is an absolutely super bait. Right now, I've got quite an assortment of all of these things in my boat because it's like I never know which one's going to be the best till I try it, right?

Setting up to Fish with Plastics

I would tell you, if you haven't been fishing with plastics, you really ought to think about it really seriously because I found that it's like I almost don't like to buy minnows at all anymore, even if I can. They're kind of a pain to deal with. I will also tell you that I'm pretty particular about things. If you can kind of see this here, this is again that FinTech Nuckle Ball jig. You'll see that jig is actually a standup head design. You see how that sets up there? Well, on this thing, you actually have a 100% exposed hook thing here. The whole weight of that lure is down below the shank of that hook and the barb is way up here. I mean, my chances of getting this hook into a piece of meat on that fish and getting a good hook set to me is a whole lot better.

It's got a great line tie here. I don't have to bust the paint out of the eyes, it's towards the forward into the jig, so when the jig pulls through things, it pulls through cleaner, doesn't get debris hanging up on it as well. It's got a great bait keeper system here, which actually there's a little sharp point along with that little notch in the hook shank there that actually helps bait.

The thing about these FinTech Nuckle Ball jigs is you rig these a little bit different than you would the typical jig. It doesn't matter what kind of tail you use. In this case, I'll use this little ripple shad that I got. You actually start about an eighth of an inch back from the head and push it in and come out in the back about what I would consider a hook gap right here. Then slide it up the shank of that hook.

When you get to the bait keeper system there, you'll see you won't go. What you do is you turn it sideways and pinch it, push it up a little further, till it gets up into the cavity of that jig, and then you pinch it and turn it back. What you end up with is something that looks a lot like this and it works really, really well because then that right there almost looks like a nice little natural minnow. With that bait keeper system, just makes for a great presentation.

The Finishing Touches to the Jig

Now typically, also what I'll do when I'm jig fishing with something like this, a lot of times I'll take just a one-inch piece of Nightcrawler and I'll piggyback that on top of this. Just hook it kind of through the nose and let about an inch or inch and a half hang back and that extra little scent and taste, whatever, I can guarantee is going to get you more bites. This mix right here, in fact, you won't get in my boat without seeing something like this rigged up.

If you've got any questions or need any further information, just stop by any of the North 40 Outfitters stores or check the website at north40.com. Thanks for watching and hope to see you again. Thanks.