You’ve undoubtedly heard of the Lindy rig if you’ve ever talked to another fisherman about walleye fishing and the best baits or fishing gear to utilize. This rig, which was first introduced in the 1960s, is incredibly popular and highly desired for landing your next prize walleye.
We’ll go over the basics of how to tie a Lindy rig, as well as when and how to use it, in this post. We’ll also show you some of the most successful versions of this rig, which can help you catch a lot more fish.
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What is Lindy Rig?
While the Lindy rig is most commonly associated with walleye fishing, it may also be used to catch bottom-feeding or low-column species like sucker-mouth catfish, bass, and trout. The rig is designed for fishing in shallow water and has a snelled hook on a leader that is also attached to a sliding sinker.
There are a variety of methods to customize the Lindy rig to your particular tastes or needs, such as adding a sliding float to modify the presentation of your bait, whether it’s live minnows, crawlers, or leeches. Once you’ve learned how to tie a basic Lindy rig, you might be able to tweak it to your liking.
Lindy Rig Setup
Lindy fishing rigs are simple to construct and may be tweaked in a variety of ways to achieve the greatest results.
The most challenging aspect of angling is making knots, yet spending the time to learn your fundamental knot methods may help you improve your angling skills significantly.
You’ll need a few things to construct a Lindy rig:
- Mainline: 10 to 15 lb test braid or monofilament
- Leader: 4 to 6 lb test fluorocarbon
- Weight: 1/8 to 1 oz sliding sinker
- Swivel: size 4 to 6 snap swivel
- Hook: size 2 to 6 octopus hook
Setup:
- Step 1: Tie your mainline to the snap swivel after threading it through the sliding sinker.
- Step 2: After that, snell a size 4–6 hook onto the leader line, measure out 2–5 feet of leader length, and knot a loop at the end.
- Step 3: Finally, just clip the leader’s loop onto the snap swivel, and you’re ready to go.
Best used with: A Lindy rig with a 6 to a 7-foot long spinning rod with quick action and a light to medium light rod weight is recommended. The ideal size of spinning reel to use is between 2000 and 3000.
Lindy Rig Weight
When it comes to getting the most out of your Lindy rig, choosing the appropriate weights is critical. The Lindy walking sinker is a flat, elongated, and curving piece of lead with a big eye at the top that allows the line to slide through easily in the original form.
The Lindy no-snag sinker, a banana-shaped sliding sinker with a wire extension at the bottom that makes it far less likely to be caught on the bottom structure, is a more sophisticated form of the sinker.
Lindy no-snag sinkers are highly recommended for avoiding getting your weight snagged. That being stated, you may certainly take advantage of any.
Lindy Rig Variant
There are several versions of the Lindy rig but we’d like to focus on three of the most significant, which have greatly enhanced the rig’s performance and made it more successful for capturing fish in particular scenarios.
Floating Lindy Rig:
The floating rig is designed to maintain your hook and lure a few inches above the muck on the lake’s bottom, and the distance will be determined by the length of your rod and the leader you pick.
To keep the bait from floating, use a prone line or add a tiny float or bobber to the leader. Crawlers, minnows, and other natural lures will aid in the natural movement of walleyes.
Both walleye and trout will eat bait right at the midline, but they appear to prefer live and active food up to 12 inches above the midline.
Furthermore, this rig is particularly beneficial in locations where grass, trash, or any other structure near the lake’s very bottom is frequent, as it prevents your hook from becoming caught.
Lindy Rig With Floating Jig Head:
A floating jig head, in addition to the methods outlined above, is a highly efficient technique to make your bait suspend over the bottom and more enticing to fish in the lower water column.
This type of rigging is typically used with live bait or minnows to ensure that the bait moves naturally while being suspended by the floating jig head at the correct height.
This can assist in attracting dispersed walleyes, allowing them to rapidly take your hooks and provide a satisfying tug on your reel.
Lindy Rig With Crawler Harness:
Most experienced walleye fishermen swear by the success that utilizing nightcrawlers as live bait brings with walleyes during the summer. You should utilize the crawler harness to guarantee your worm stays attached to do so successfully.
Simply tie the loop to the swivel on your Lindy rig after your harness is ready to go, and you’re ready to drop it in the water and fish.
If you’re fishing with large nightcrawlers, consider using a tiny float or bobber to keep them elevated over the muddy bottom; otherwise, they’ll drop like a rock.
How To Fish A Lindy Rig
Lindy fishing is a very adaptable sport that can be done in a variety of ways. You may cast it out with a baited hook and wait for a bite, cast and recover it, drift it, or troll it.
Lindy Rig Trolling
When trolling with a Lindy rig, it’s critical to keep constant contact with the bottom, which necessitates the use of the proper weight and trolling speed. Keep your line at a 45-degree angle and check for regular bottom contact with your sliding sinker as a rule of thumb.
The ideal trolling speed for a Lindy rig is 1 to 1.5 mph, and you’ll need to upsize your sinker to 1 or 1 1/2 oz to get it down to the bottom efficiently.
You don’t want to troll too rapidly with a nightcrawler Lindy rig, especially if you don’t want to pull the worm off the harness. You may also use it for trolling with a slow-death setup, which works well with nightcrawlers.
Lindy Rig Drift Fishing
A Lindy rig is often used to catch walleye when drift fishing. It’s made for this type of fishing and can maintain your live or artificial bait in the optimum strike zone with ease.
Maintain complete contact between your sinker and the bottom of the lake, as with the trolling approach previously stated.
The Lindy rigging will assist you to avoid snags from your hooks on water grasses, twigs, and stones, even if there is debris or another underwater structure to watch out for.
FAQS
How To Make A Lindy Rig?
You can buy the pre-made Lindy Rig Kits which are the simplest method to put up a Lindy Rig. Also, you can make your own from scratch which is another alternative and is more cost-effective for the hard-core fisherman or lady.
Setup:
- Step1: Choose your fishing line and spool it onto your reel.
- Step 2: Slide your sinker onto the end of the line (either this type of Lindy Walking Sinker or the newer design No Snag Sinker).
- Step 3: To keep the sinker in place while enabling it to glide up and down the line, tie the barrel swivel to the line.
- Step 4: Attach a 12-36-inch length of line to the barrel swivel’s opposite end. You can choose the length, however longer is more usual.
- Step 5: Use a snell knot to secure your size 2, 3, or 4 hooks to the end of this line.
How To Use A Lindy Rig?
When using a Lindy rig to fish, the goal is to troll it gently through the water at the bottom of the lake or river. The live bait should descend fast and maintain some natural movement slightly above the muddy bottom, while the sinker should keep the line drawn down in a U shape.
In this scenario, the natural movement of a minnow or nightcrawler will help keep walleyes engaged.
Try Lindy Fishing!
The Lindy rig is the greatest technique to obtain surefire strikes from that huge trophy fish. Walleye are a fantastic species for both beginners and expert fishermen to target.