Rigging Guide For Walleye (With Pictures)

Walleye rigs are one of the most effective fishing gear available and can be used for trolling, casting, or stationary fishing and are vital for delivering your bait at the correct depth.

Walleye Rigging Guide

They’re also ideal for finesse fishing since they can be used with live bait and fluorocarbon leads that are virtually undetectable in the water, which is crucial for capturing fussy walleye.

Which rig, though, should you use? In this article, we’ll offer you a list of the 7 best walleye rigs so you can pick the best one for your needs.

Best Walleye Rigs in 2024

If you’re new to walleye fishing, all of the numerous rigs available may be a little overwhelming. However, bear in mind that you only need one of them to get started, and as you acquire more expertise, you’ll probably only need two or three of them, depending on your location and the various strategies you’ll use.

We’ve picked 7 best walleye rigs of 2024 for fishing:

  • Bottom bouncer rig
  • Lindy rig
  • Drop shot rig
  • Crawler harness
  • Slip bobber rig
  • Ned rig
  • 3-way rig

Bottom Bounce Rig For Walleye

Bottom Bounce Rig For Walleye

This is one of the most popular walleye rigs, and it’s very handy for trolling. It’s an L-shaped wire with a bullet weight in the middle of one of its long arms.

How To Setup:

  • Step 1: Using a Palomar or double uni knot, connect your mainline to the notch at the corner of the “L” of the bottom bouncer.
  • Step 2: Then, using the snap swivel that’s attached to it, hook your leader to the opposite arm of the bottom bouncer.
  • Step 3: If you’re using a worm harness, tie a 3 to 6-foot-long leader with a loop at the end to the snap swivel.
  • Step 4: If you’re using crankbaits or other lures, tie a 3 to 6-foot-long leader with a loop at the end to the snap swivel.

When To Use:

When you know the walleye are near the bottom, a bottom bouncer might be employed. Summer is the most popular time to use it, although it may also be utilized in the spring and fall, as well as at any other time during the open water season.

Bottom bouncers are only a bad idea if you know the walleye are suspended higher in the water column and won’t notice your bait presentation underneath them.

How To Use:

To guarantee consistent bottom contact, the most efficient method to utilize a bottom bouncer is to troll it gently. That way, you may cover a lot of territory in pursuit of hungry walleye.

The best part is that you can employ this technique with either live bait or artificial lures. A bottom bouncer rig can also be cast from shore and gently retrieved to guarantee regular bottom contact.

Lindy Rig For Walleye

Lindy Rig For Walleye

A Lindy rig is a simplified version of the bottom bouncer rig in many respects. It comprises a sliding weight or sinker and a leader linked to the mainline by a swivel instead of the L-shaped bottom bouncer wire.

How To Setup:

Step 1: Thread your mainline through the sliding sinker and the plastic bead, then tie a Palomar or double uni knot to a barrel swivel.

Step 2: Then attach a 2 to 5-foot leader to your hook, worm harness, or lure, and knot the other end to the swivel’s second eye.

When To Use:

If you know the walleye are staying close to the bottom, you should utilize a Lindy rig. Because a Lindy rig lacks a wire like a bottom bouncer, unless you employ a floating lure, your bait will be presented extremely near to the bottom.

The main drawback is that the weight might easily become hooked on the bottom construction.

How To Use:

A Lindy rig is typically used for trolling, although it may also be cast from the shore.

Drop Shot Rig For Walleye

Drop Shot Rig For Walleye

The drop-shot rig is most commonly associated with bass fishing, but it also works well for walleye.

It’s a basic technique that involves tying a drop shot weight to your mainline and tying a single hook 1 to 3 feet above the weight. After that, the hook is baited with a variety of soft plastic lures.

How To Setup:

  • Step 1: Make a Palomar knot using your mainline and a single octopus hook.
  • Step 2: Make sure the tag end is long enough to allow 2 to 3 feet of line to pass between the hook and the weight.
  • Step 3: Thread the tag end through the eye of the hook a second time after tying the Palomar knot to make it stand out perpendicular to the line.
  • Step 4: Then secure the line’s tag end to the drop shot weight.

When To Use:

To target walleye that are holding near to the bottom, which may happen at any time throughout the open water season, a drop shot rig is optimal.

If your fish finder indicates that the walleye are suspended, however, you should use a jig to catch them.

How To Use:

Vertical fishing from a boat is the most successful way to employ a drop shot rig. Find walleye structures using your fish finder, then drop your weight until it contacts the bottom.

Then, without really raising the weight from the bottom, jiggle the soft plastic lure with tiny motions of your rod tip.

Crawler Harness For Walleye

Crawler Harness For Walleye

The crawler harness is a two-hook arrangement that allows you to connect a nightcrawler on both ends. This lengthens it underwater, making it more appealing to walleye.

It also has a bright spinner blade attached at the front, which creates underwater vibrations and color flashes that attract walleye to explore. It’s common for them to bite once they come near enough to see the worm.

How To Setup:

While you can certainly knot your crawler harnesses, we recommend purchasing them already made because it will save you a lot of time.

When To Use:

Crawlers are one of the finest live baits for walleye, but they only work in the summer since this is the only time of year when they are available as a natural food supply for walleye.

As a result, a crawler harness should only be used from late spring to early fall.

How To Use:

Combining a crawler harness with a bottom bouncer and slow trolling to present the worm gear to the bottom is one of the most successful ways to cover a lot of territory with a crawler harness.

Slip Bobber Rig For Walleye

Slip Bobber Rig For Walleye

Another popular choice for walleye fishermen is the slip bobber rig. It comprises a swivel attached to a slip bobber on your mainline. The swivel is then connected to a leader, which has your hook at the end.

How To Setup:

  • Step 1: Thread your rubber stop, a bead, and your slip bobber onto your mainline.
  • Step 2: Then connect the line to a barrel swivel and thread on a sliding sinker that’s the correct size for the bobber (with a Palomar or double uni knot).
  • Step 3: Finally, connect your hook to the leader and knot a 2 to 3-foot leader to the opposite eye of the swivel.

When To Use:

It works best when you want to offer your bait above the walleye. When walleye are eating near shore in relatively shallow water in the spring or autumn, and you can cast it out to them, it’s a terrific choice.

How To Use:

It helps a lot if you can use a fish finder to detect walleye and identify the depth at which they are holding while you’re using it from a boat.

Then set your rubber stop to offer your bait 1 to 3 feet above that depth. If you don’t receive a bite after lowering your bait to the fish for one or two minutes, go on to the next place. In the summer, this is a fantastic technique to catch suspended walleye.

Ned Rig For Walleye

Ned Rig For Walleye

The Ned rig is another walleye setup that’s more commonly associated with bass fishing, but it may also work well for walleye.

A strong, buoyant plastic tail on the Ned rig is meant to tip upwards during retrieval. This provides it with a distinct underwater motion that can attract fish to bite when other lures have failed.

How To Setup:

  • Step 1: Simply connect your main line to a mushroom jig head
  • Step 2: Then thread a 2-inch soft plastic bait onto the hook.

When To Use:

The Ned rig is one of the finest alternatives for capturing shallow-water walleye from shore. You may also use it to fish around the borders of weed beds or on shallow mudflats.

How To Use:

Simply cast it out and let it sink to the bottom, then gently retrieve it with periodic jerks or short hops.

Because walleye eat higher in the water column, try experimenting with retrieve speed and depth.

3 Way Rig For Walleye

three Way Rig For Walleye

In many respects, the 3-way rig is a cross between the bottom bouncer and the lindy rig. It consists of a three-way swivel attached to two leaders: one with your hook on it and the other with a sinker.

This gives you the option of presenting your bait high above the water’s surface, which is ideal when walleye are active a few feet above the surface.

How To Setup:

  • Step 1: Connect the mainline to a three-way swivel.
  • Step 2: Then connect two leaders to the swivel’s other two eyes.
  • Step 3: The sinker should be attached to one of them, which should be 2 to 3 feet long.
  • Step 4: The second one is 3 to 7 feet long and is attached to your hook with a knot.
  • Step 5: Because you’ll only use the sinker if it gets snagged on the bottom, the leader attached to the weight should be of a lower lb test.

When To Use:

When trolling for walleye and noticing that they are hanging many feet over the bottom, the 3-way rig is a wonderful alternative. You may regulate the depth at which your bait is offered by adjusting the length of the line linked to the weight.

How To Use:

Trolling is one of the finest methods to use the three-way rig. This is fantastic since you can use it with either live bait or artificial lures, making it quite flexible for trolling.

You can create a bait presentation that is 4 feet over the bottom if you use it with floating lures, which may be quite successful in specific conditions.

Walleye Rigs For Shore Fishing

The slip bobber rig, lindy rig, ned rig, and 3-way rig are the finest rigs for walleye shore fishing. Each of them, except the ned rig, may be used for stationary fishing.

Simply use live bait to bait the hook, throw it out, and wait for the walleye to come to you. This allows you to put up a large number of rods, increasing your chances of catching fish.

Finally, if you wish to fish a nightcrawler on a crawler harness, you may utilize a bottom bouncer from the shore. With a bottom bouncer, you may cast it out from shore and gently retrieve it with regular bottom contact.

Walleye Rigs For River Fishing

The lindy rig, 3-way rig, and slip bobber rig are the finest rigs for walleye river fishing. When fishing for walleye in rivers, it’s critical to have your setup in touch with the bottom at all times. Unfortunately, this involves a lot of snagging your tackle on the bottom structure.

Fishing with a stationary pole is one method to avoid this. You may achieve this by baiting the hook with live bait and using a three-way rig or a lindy rig. Simply toss it in a favorable location and wait for walleyes to discover it.

A slip bobber setup with the depth adjusted to just above the bottom is another possibility. If there’s a river, you may toss it upstream and let it float downstream, covering the additional ground.

Choose Wisely

To pick the finest rigging for walleye that works best for you, you must first understand the basics of each one so that you can make an informed choice about which one is best for you. We’ve got you covered with the following information, which includes a comprehensive walleye rigging guide to help you comprehend it better.

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1 thought on “Rigging Guide For Walleye (With Pictures)”

  1. This is best explanation of Walley fishing that I have seen. I am a decent fly fisherman but headed to Manitoba for Walley fishing for next week. I like your website.

    Reply

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