> Walleye prefer a larger minnow in the fall when the water temps are on the drop. It’s the 4-7″ redtails and creek chubs that seem to work best most days, but sometimes even bigger.
> Why creek chubs and redtails? Because they’re hardy minnows that will often swim right along with the boat. There’s times you’ll actually feel them ‘getting excited’ down there the moment before a walleye smacks them.
> You can catch the occasional fish on a sucker minnow, but they’re usually too lethargic for this technique and will end up being drug behind the boat [versus lively darting from side to side.]
> I run a 1/2- to 1-oz egg sinker depending on minnow size, wind and depth. The 3/4-oz seems to be good all around, but I bump up to a 1-oz anytime I’m fishing 30′ or deeper. The bigger sinker also helps to anchor that minnow and keep it in the strike zone.
> Egg sinkers because they’re super dense for their size and work perfect for this application. I’m not dragging them on bottom, I’m trying to fish the sinker like a jig – keeping it 6-18″ off bottom and as vertical as possible. Occasionally drop it down to tap bottom and raise it back up.
> Trolling between 0.3-0.8 mph covers most scenarios for pulling big minnows in the fall. When it’s calmer I’ll start off on the slow end of that to stay right over the tops of fish. If the wind is blowing there will be a current that seems to get everything moving down there [on the bottom] – that’s when I’ll pick up the speed.
There’s a lot more to riggin’ big minnows than we could possibly fit in this email…so we put together a complete guide on TargetWalleye.com loaded with everything you want to know about rigging BIG chubs for fall walleye:
