In my opinion, early season walleyes can be fooled most easily with a jig and a minnow. 

What is it about walleye fishing that we love so much? Is it how good they taste after being rolled in flour and tossed in a frying pan?

Maybe it is the way the big ones stay down and make your rod bend and work.

Is it the challenge? Walleyes can be finicky to the point of frustration.

Or is it so we can play with our electronics and trolling motor so much while we fish for them?

Either way, when the opener rolls around for us, the landings fill up with trucks and trailers and anglers are jigging, pitching, and trolling with various types of gear from sunup till sundown.

With a few days of the season now in the books, I’ve talked to guys that had success pulling cranks along dropoffs, pitching into the shallows, and dragging jigs at slow speeds. So, what is the right way?

All of them, if they’re working of course.

There are certain trends that seem to get the job done at different times of the year. Early in the year, as the water is still warming, the go-to tends to be a jig and a minnow. Our first day on the water this year, the smallest crappie minnows worked best for tight-lipped fish. I heard other reports that creek chubs were the ticket on a different lake the same day. The key is having different options and changing things up if you need to.

Dragging a minnow while trolling anywhere from .5 to 1.5 miles an hour is where I’d start. Make sure your hook is heavy enough to keep contact with the bottom. In darker waters you can get away with larger jigs. As the water clears up, you’ll want to go to a lindy rig-type presentation to offer a bit more stealth.

When you’re trolling, I’ll drag the jig right on the bottom. Occasionally, I’ll lift it and let it drop to bounce on the bottom. That can stir things up a bit and rile fish up. If you’re bouncing that jig along the bottom past marked fish without strikes, you can try turning the boat slightly every so often. Or you can also change up speeds or give your rod a twitch. Any of those actions that can cause abrupt movement could trigger a strike.

Fishing shallow, warmer lakes, I would troll in the 6- to 10-foot area in the mornings and evenings. You could even stay there during the day in stained water on colder days.

Depending on your lake, it might save time to cruise around searching for fish with your electronics first. If your water body doesn’t have noticeable structure, the walleyes might be spread out. In that case, trolling shorelines will be the ticket.

If you have structure, bottle necks, or even bowls, vertical jigging can be tough to beat. Using a spot-lock feature, or a good ol’ fashioned anchor can hold you on a spot so that your line can be as vertical as possible. I’ll pound the bottom to make some noise and get a little mud moving to try and attract any fish nearby. Then I’ll vary my presentation up from short twitches to even letting it sit on the bottom still. I like to jig off the back of my boat where my sonar is located to try and watch what’s going on down there. Look for a pattern when fish it and try to replicate it the next time you mark one.

In my opinion, early season walleyes can be fooled most easily with a jig and a minnow. Whether pitching, trolling or even vertical jigging. If you have spots with current, get along those seams and put your bait in the bottom. If the fish are hungry, you’ll find them.

As I’ve previously mentioned—and used successfully on walleyes this year—the Bait Butler by Flambeau Outdoors is an essential tool for fishing with live bait. This fisherman’s tool will help cycle water to keep your bait alive in the warm weather months—meaning your water will be cooler, fresher, and cleaner. The Bait Butler gives you efficient and easy access to the minnows and fits universally fits on five-gallon buckets. The online price is $44.99 at www.Flambeauoutdoors.com, and when you consider the price of bait and having to replace it, the Bait Butler can pay for itself quickly.