Baits for Structure Fishing Walleye in Summer
The big walleyes are pushing out deep and I want to show you some of the baits for structure fishing walleye.
Dan Lindner: When walleyes are on structure, particularly structure without a lot of cover on it – meaning wood, weeds or rocks – there are two baits that are primary reaction baits. One is the Rapala Rippin’ Rap, which is a very successful bait. One that Al is using is the Rapala Jigging Rap. These baits are mainstays for us when you’re fishing deep water, power fishing.
Al Lindner: The Jigging Rap and Rippin’ Rap are reaction baits and I’m tellin’ you, over the years as we played with the these baits for walleyes like this, more times than not, I can catch more fish on a Jigging Rap or a Rippin’ Rap than you can catch on livebait the biggest percentage of the time. It’s all in that reaction bite and these baits have been phenomenally successful. They’re getting productive all over the country. We get letters and emails all the time about people that say, “You know, I watched you guys talk about both of those baits off and on. I finally tried them on my water and we’ve had phenomenal results. We’ve been talking about this for five or six years. There is a difference between a reaction bite and a livebait rig bite.
I want to say something about rod, reel, and line, too. On the bigger baits (Rippin’ Raps), we use baitcasting rods: medium action 6’10” or 7′ on 12 pound fluorocarbon or monofilament line is preferred. When we’re fishing Jigging Raps like this, I’m using a St. Croix Eyecon rod, which they make specifically for walleyes. I’ve got the new Daiwa Ballistic on here, which has new material – super light, incredibly strong. I like monofilament when I’m fishing a Jigging Rap, because it’s a little more forgiving. What I’ve been doing lately is running monofilament backing which gives me some of the stretch, and I have 6-8 feet of fluorocarbon that I tied to that monofilament. Especially when I’m in real, real clear water like we’re in right now, it makes a difference.
Dan Lindner: When we’re fishing deeper than 15 feet of water, there’s some go-to sizes that we like for the Rapala Jigging Rap and Rippin’ Rap. The #7 and #9 are our go-to Jigging Rap sizes when you’re fishing deep water like this. The Rippin’ Rap size is the #7. We love these sizes for fishing deeper than 15 feet of water this time of year. They are very effective for finding and catching big walleye.
Hopefully these baits help you have more success structure fishing walleye this summer.
