Walleye live bait:Great Fishing For Walleye Tips!

Walleye live bait

This statistic has been documented on many fishing surveys. There have been many fishing surveys published that show fishing for walleye with live bait accounts for over 2/3thrds of all walleyes that are caught on a walleye rod and reel combo. Many of the die hard walleye anglers who claim they use artificial lures for walleyes 90% of the time, will still put live bait on their lures when the walleye fishing gets slow.

There are many walleye live baits that work well, but the best The best baits for walleye include minnows and other small fish, night crawlers and leeches. At different times of the in very unique walleye habitat situations there are some other live baits for walleye, such as water dogs and frogs that will produce walleye.

Many of the live baits used for walleye fishing are not available throughout the year. For example leeches cannot be caught if the temperature of the water is below 50degrees because they are not active yet and will not swim into the leech traps. It will be hard to find a bait shop in the summer that will carry shiner minnows because it is so hard to keep them alive in the summer months in the bait dealer’s tanks and in the anglers minnow bucket.


The first thing you need to do when you are making live bait selection for walleye is to determine what live baits work in the different seasons. Fishing with night crawlers for walleye is not very effective in the spring, but during the summer months night crawlers work very well. Spring and the fall are the best time of the year to use minnows for walleyes, but they do not work very well in the summer months.

There are times of the year when the type of minnow you use is very important. For example, during the spring time shiner minnows is a good live bait choice and will produce better the some other species of minnows such as redtail chubs. In the fall season shiners are a poor choice for a live bait selection to fish for walleye while a redtail chub would be an excellent choice. The bottom line is different live baits work better on different bodies of water and in different seasons. Also, it’s a good Idea to check with your local bait shop to find out what live bait will work best to catch walleye.

There has been discussion by many fisherman that ribbon leaches are the best live bait for walleye.Leaches are an excellent bait because because they swim, and squirm constantly after they are placed on the hook when the temperature is above 50deg. They are not a good choice in cold water because they are not active at temperatures below 50degs.

Make sure the live bait you use choose to fish for walleye, it is active and lively. When walleyes are really biting you can get by with a half dead minnow or chewed-up night crawler, but a struggling minnow or squirming crawler will normally catch more fish.