The walleye jig rig

What it's for

Walleye and sauger, from a boat, with the jig for fish you can find and the bottom-bouncer for water you have to search. The jig is the close-in tool: drop it down or cast it, work it along the bottom over a known mark, and tip it with a soft plastic or a lively minnow. The bottom-bouncer is the searching tool: its L-shaped wire keeps a spinner-and-worm harness ticking along just off the bottom while you troll or drift, so you cover a long flat or a weed edge until the fish show. Both put the bait right on the bottom, which is where walleye and sauger feed, and both take zander, the same fish under a different name in Europe. Walleye fish hard in the cooler months and at low light, the bottom-bouncer earns its keep in summer over the flats, and the jig comes into its own in spring and autumn and through the ice.

The rig at a glance

Two setups, read each top to bottom. The jig rig: the main line (braid, around 10 lb) comes down to a small swivel, then a short fluorocarbon leader (around 8 to 12 lb), and at the bottom a jighead (3.5 to 14 g, 1/8 to 1/2 oz, with a 1/0 to 2/0 hook) dressed with a soft-plastic paddletail or a hooked minnow. The bottom-bouncer rig: the main line ties to the long arm of an L-shaped wire bottom-bouncer (14 to 85 g, 1/2 to 3 oz, with the lead moulded on the short leg), and off the back arm runs a long leader (about 90 to 150 cm, 3 to 5 ft) carrying a spinner harness, a coloured blade on a clevis ahead of two small hooks spaced for a worm. The defining detail of the bottom-bouncer is that the wire foot tip-toes along the bottom and stands the harness up behind it, just clear of the snags.

How to build it

1. The jig rig: join the leader to the swivel. Tie the braid main line to one end of the small swivel with a Palomar knot, then tie the short fluorocarbon leader to the other end with a Palomar too. The swivel separates the braid from the fluorocarbon and stops line twist.
2. The jig rig: tie on the jighead. Tie the jighead to the end of the leader with a Palomar knot for a strong, square seat, or with an improved clinch knot if you prefer to tie straight to the eye on fluorocarbon. For the liveliest action on a vertical lift-and-drop, tie a non-slip loop knot instead, which leaves a small fixed loop so the head can swing.
3. The jig rig: dress the hook. Rig a 3 to 4 inch soft-plastic paddletail straight and centred so it tracks true, or hook a lively minnow through the lips or just behind the head. Chartreuse, white or a natural tone all work; let the water clarity decide. You are ready to fish.
4. The bottom-bouncer: tie on the bottom-bouncer. Tie the braid main line to the eye at the bend of the L-shaped wire bottom-bouncer with a Palomar knot. The long arm runs up to the rod, the short leaded leg points down and walks the bottom.
5. The bottom-bouncer: add the harness. Clip or tie the spinner harness to the back eye of the bottom-bouncer, through a small barrel swivel tied on with a Palomar knot so the blade can spin without twisting the line. The harness is a long leader, 90 to 150 cm (3 to 5 ft), with a coloured blade on a clevis ahead of two hooks. A longer leader for fussy fish, a shorter one when they are feeding hard.
6. The bottom-bouncer: bait the harness. Thread a whole nightcrawler on so the front hook holds the head and the back hook holds the body, the worm stretched out straight rather than balled up. A soft-plastic crawler works in place of a real worm. The blade flashes ahead, the worm trails behind it just off the bottom.

How to fish it

Fish the jig when you have found the fish and the bottom-bouncer when you have not. With the jig, cast it out or drop it under the boat, let it settle on the bottom, then lift the rod tip a short way and let it fall back under control, dragging and hopping it slowly over the mark. Keep in touch on the fall, because that is when most walleye take, often as a soft tap or a heaviness on the line. Lift into anything that feels different. A lively minnow on the head does a lot of the work for you. With the bottom-bouncer, let the leaded wire down on a near-vertical line until you feel it touch, then troll or drift slowly, about 1.5 to 3 km/h (1 to 2 mph), so the foot tip-toes along the bottom and the blade keeps turning behind it. You want the wire ticking the bottom now and then, not dragging or hanging straight down; if you cannot feel it touch, go heavier, and if it snags constantly, lift a little or go lighter. Run the harness on a long leader for clear water and wary fish, shorter when they are feeding hard. Walleye and sauger feed best low in the light and through the cooler months, and the same rig takes zander on the European lakes.

Where this rig works

This rig is the staple wherever walleye and sauger live. Across the atlas it is fished on Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, where the bottom-bouncer searches the shallow flats for the big "greenback" walleye and the jig works them up close; on the Bay of Quinte in Ontario, for the autumn trophy run; on Lake of the Woods, on the reef edges and current breaks; and the same two setups take zander on the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands, where vertical jigging is the Dutch staple. As the atlas grows, every new walleye, sauger or zander water that uses these setups will link to this same page.

Walleye jig rig questions