'Eye Jigs

Been a little obsessed with evening and late night walleye shoreline fishing. The majority of my baits that have caught fish have been big 5" Kalins grubs on 1/16 heads with oversized hooks or big (6" to 8") stick crankbaits like Rapala Husky Jerks and the like. Trying to come up with some big profile tied jigs with the sound/flash of the big stuff i have been throwing to get a few here and there. Here is my result........

1/4 HeVee Head (correct me if i am wrong Keith)
12lb mono leader back to a Mustad 3366 #2 hook with up bent eye and snell
Glass bead with #1 prop spinners
Various tied material including... Zonkers, Crosscuts, PolyYarn, Flash, Hackle & Marabou.

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One is a little more subtle colored but more bulky of a tie at the same time. Who knows what the walleye will think. These are time costly (around 30 mins/each) so will sure hurt if they get stuck in the rocks. The HeVee head shape should help, but always a gamble. Hope to get out later this week (should have went tonight) and throw them to get some feed back from the fishes.

Those look like a lot of work. They may very well work, but where I do my night fishing I know it would be a fish or a snag and even with 20# braid would most likely become part of the lake bottom.

Those are sweet!! I can see where a lot of time would be put into tying them. Very nice work

very nice...

I'm adapting from ruff ocean to inland impoundment species and conditions using a KISS down policy. Single material ties on lightest possible smallest hook jigs and gear. Altho the HeV is useful in adverse windy conditions, this calm morning I threw a 1/8 #2 32833 ball head #2 prop Boolie on 5# Power Pro with 4# Yozuri Hybrid leader. Skinny white rabbit + gold Flashabou undertie total jig length around 2". I like the heads unpainted for this app to resemble the shad & alewife forage.

Yah, I know, seems way undersize for Wallys, but after observing Montero Mike catching one after another keepers DAYTIME with 3/16 and 1/8 white marabou doll fly jigs when all around him, baiters & lure chuckers(including me) got zero, I decided to try his ultra finesse approach. Suffice to say it is now my go to for night jigging, which I've actually just started maybe 2 weeks ago.

After a depressing double skunk dawn & dusk yesterday, had my best session yet this morning, prime time 4 - 5 AM. Got 3, one pushing, one around, and one definitively over, 10#. All on the same described jig.

Those are awesome AF...

Be sure and let us know how they work. I'm tying up a two inch hot skirt jig with a boot tail jig on the back for rip jigging. Haven't caught anything on it yet, but I'm fishing late morning. To lazy to get up early.

Kdog - I am casting from rip-rap shoreline, so i fully expect to either catch fish or leave them on the bottom. Kind of like the saying that you have to spend money to make money. With these heavier heads and the shape, i should be able to cast out past the rip-rap to the main reservoir basin and hop them on the bottom till i contact the rocks then work it a little faster to stay up over the rocks. In theory......

Hawnjigs - THREE ~10lb FISH IN ONE TRIP?!?! Holy crap, that would rival Erie fishing any day! I'm not much of a morning person so almost always fish the dusk/evening bite. I do want the xtra weight for casting, top of these upground reservoirs get windy and a lot of the time it is straight in my face. I tied the xtra length because of the size of other baits i've been using. Added the stinger hook because i had a couple of the grubs come back missing a tail after bites. The fish i HAVE caught though, really smashed the grubs so those short strikers might have just been less aggressive or smaller fish. Funny that you mention white too..... had all my luck recently on darker colors. The main forage base in this reservoir is perch and bluegill. Feeling as though i am on the opposite side of the Earth from you.

Muskygary - Will do. Wouldn't mind seeing your jig also. I did well in the fall on a boot tail swim bait, but have not caught a single walleye on the swim bait this spring. I also caught a few on a tied sculpin jig in the fall.... but that has not paid out in the spring yet either.

Those are very nice ties and paint.
Your mono is tied to the jig hook?

Barefoot - Yep. The back 3366 hook was first snelled and left the tag end long. Then tied the materials on the 3366 hook, finished it and took it out of the vise. Slid the bead and prop on the mono. Loaded the jig in the vise and laid down a base layer of thread hook shank. Then just wrapped over the mono to the length i wanted. I actually folded back the mono and wrapped over it twice with a quick coat of nail polish to make sure it would not slip out. After that, finished tying the rest of the materials on the jig.

AF, indeed your ties are well thought out to match local conditions & forage, and your usual technical proficiency is beyond reproach. And I hope you hammer your honey hole(s) with em.

Getting big walleyes in the Mac apparently doesn't necessarily reflect on angler skill or gear choices, being rated in the top 10 Midwest walleye spots by In Fisherman. From shore tho, it appears absolutely necessary to fish at night, and I chose the pre-dawn time slot to somewhat avoid the post sunset crowds.

I'm thinking, maybe too hard, that forage match or not, white may be effective cuz of its relatively high viz at night. Also, the minimal jig isn't a forage size match, but functions to better avoid snagging the boulder rap bottom. The sink countdown to retrieve really helps getting down to the near bottom strike zone without hanging. Sometimes.

Just sharing an outside the box finesse option passed on from Montero Mike. It was a pleasant SURPRISE that a little jig gets bit by seemingly disproportionately sized predators.

Hawnjigs said:

....thinking, maybe too hard.....

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Right there is my biggest problem. I'd do great if my mind stayed out of it. I will have to try to tie a couple jigs in solid white and see how they do. Oh and do i ever know about the crowds at dusk. I fielded about 300 questions by a Jr. High age youngster this evening and even helped him with some of his tackle. Gave him a large walleye spoon and he insisted that he trade me something out of his box. Very nice young man that sure has a passion for fishing.... and talking. It grew very quiet after his mom came up to get him at dark.

As for the the jigs i tied yesterday, got to try them out tonight. Had to trim the black marabou on the top jig to get the prop to spin. Got :skunked: with the walleye but did manage a largemouth on one of them. I tried several other tactics as well and could only get LMB and rockbass. I gave up at 10:30 when some heat lightning blew through. Weather does not look promising for the next few days.

Take what I say with a grain of salt Russ. I rarely fish for walleye but I do catch them. Understand about needing the weight in windy conditions.

BUT at times walleye act a lot like their close cousin the yellow perch. In that they will readily strike a smaller bait wether live or fake. My wife's biggest walleye was caught on a worm harness tied especially for bull bluegills. It had two # 10 hooks and a size 0 colorado blade. It was baited with a three inch baby nightcrawler. One local lake Mosquito to be exact. The walleyes seem to have a distinct preference for smaller baits. Maybe because of heavy pressure by anglers ? At Milton have had a lot of luck on #5 floating rapalas firetiger or perch finish. Trolled at about 1.5 t0 2 mph behind a bottom bumping weight.

You know your lake and fish better than I for sure. All I know is I have caught lots of wallies by fishing for my pannies.

papaperch said:

.....Take what I say with a grain of salt Russ......

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Nope.... i take it all in and always give new thought a try. To be honest, the way i finally cracked the code on the walleye in one lake in particular (Willard Reservoir) was from casting small 1/32 jig heads with chunks of crawlers out to spawning bluegill. That first day i broke of 2 BIG fish and took home 3. I had to pick my jaw up off the dock that day because i was pretty amazed. Didn't even have a net that day which is why i lost the 2. Willard is a tough nut to crack during daylight, but it really comes alive at dusk.

I did not have any mid sized jigs (1/16 to 3/16) with me at all last night. Knew i would be there after dark so packed light. I headed there expecting to see some bluegill starting beds or at least staging out past their spawn area as the sun went down. Nope. Had a small Altoid tin of 1/64 & 1/32 jig and floats for the gills..... and then a separate Plano box with all my bigger jigs, grubs, swimbaits and cranks. Net, stringer, headlamp and bucket as well.

I saw a couple walleye swim through that looked like chunks. They were easily 24"+ fish. I will add in some smaller 'finesse' type things for the walleye and see what happens next time out. Thanks for the 'eye jiggin' advice Hawn & Papa.

Killer ties Russ. Talking about big eyes makes me want to get out and try for some. My biggest is just a bit over 5 but night fishing is a blast. Never know what size bait they are keying on so it doesn't hurt to bring a variety. Biggest I've seen caught around here was 7lbs. Guy caught it using a big minnow and bobber. Keep fishing at night or early morning and you'll get one of those monster eyes. Hawn, that was an incredible catch. I'd be happy with one that size.

Think maybe I pulled the once-in-a-lifetime luck card, next nite only a dink 21", and this early AM, none. Tried upsizing to 1/5 oz #2 32833 HeVBoo same KISS white rabbit tie for longer casts but wally wasn't home today in a less favored area of the dam due to preferred being already dibbed. Lucky to get one bite, which after a half hour battle on finesse gear turned out be a pushing 15# wiper. The 1/5 jig is a same size hook heavier version of the previous 1/8, bout the same length as your top primary jig without the tail AF. PapaP's experience seems to verify the efficacy of downsize jigs for larger predators.

What kind of line were you using that apparently FAILED? My 5# Power Pro main 4# Hybrid leader is pleasantly handling & haven't had a fight breakoff yet(knock). However, soons as I can make a Cabelas run I'll resupply 8# PP & up Hybrid to 6# to facilitate quicker "landings"(releases are in water) to avoid fatally overstressing wiper in warming water.

JJ1, no kidding, night jigging is exciting! And bigger isn't necessarily better since I've been advised by several the smaller ones are better eating.

Nice jigs Attica.

Like papa, I don't target 'eyes, but they are bonus fish. The river 'eyes I got have one thing in common; they like chartreuse - chart grub, chart shad jerkbait, you got the idea.

Tight lines.

Very nice ties AF.

Pike may blast those jigs too, I'm thinking...

Those pretty awesome, BUT..... Ummm neither one of em has any eyes.