James Lindner explains the effectiveness of jig trolling walleyes and how to fish this presentation.

Jig Trolling Walleyes

During the summer months walleyes have a tendency to spread out across bigger pieces of structure in search of baitfish.  Because the walleyes are spread out faster moving presentations will often outperform slowing presentations like lindy rigging or vertically jigging.

Jig trolling walleyes is a great presentation when the fish are semi-scattered across a large piece of structure. You are able to cover a good amount water relatively quickly and it keeps your bait in the strike zone for an extended period of time. It also tends to produce bigger fish than standard livebait jigging.

Jig trolling walleyes is an easy presentation to do.

Cast your bait out and let enough line out so that your jig is almost at the bottom. Then use your trolling motor and run the boat between 0.5-mph and 1.2-mph. Work along the piece of structure at this pace making sure your bait is within a few feet of the bottom.

The set-up for jig trolling is simple. Typically we are using a 1/2-ounce VMC Moon Eye jig paired with a Big Bite Baits Suicide Shad in the 3.5-inch size.

When rigged the presentation is about four inches long and is the perfect size to imitate the forage walleyes are feeding on this time of year.

Depending on the body of water you fish that could be shiners, perch, ciscos, shad, and other various minnow species.

The real key to this set-up is the weight of your jig head. You’ll want to use a heavy jig to keep your bait in the strike zone. You can get away with a 3/8-ounce jig if you plan on fishing in less than fifteen feet of water, but once you get past that depth it really pays to use a 1/2-ounce weighted jig.

Jig trolling for walleyes is simple and easy to do and if you try it out you won’t be disappointed!