Walleyes love live bait, especially in the spring, and there's no more practical way to present live bait than behind a slip sinker slowly dragged along the bottom. Rigging, allows an angler to comb a lot of water quickly. It's a great way to search for walleye schools that are scattered along a drop-off.

The key to live-bait rigging is a slow, meticulous presentation. Many tournament anglers have been using a backtrolling method that has worked for years. I don't think that there is a day that I am on the water that I don't backtroll with my Skeeter boat. Backtrolling both slows down the boat, and as a result, the bait. This approach gives the fisherman the steering control necessary to follow a winding breakline, curl around points, and duck into the little indentations and notches in a drop-off, where fish often hold. My Skeeter boat is equipped with a 15-horsepower Yamaha kicker motor and it provides me with the ease of trolling along those tricky breaklines, but occasionally I like to move quietly into the shallows and use my MotorGuide trolling motor. Either method works well, because the boat drifts straight and can slide through the water on a particular course because of it's low profile ( won't catch the wind) I can choose which motor I would like to use.

Terminal tackle for a live bait rig usually includes a walking sinker threaded onto the line on top of a barrel swivel . Keep the sinker weight as light as possible, yet heavy enough to let you feel the weight along the bottom. Usually 1/4 to 1/2 ounce sinkers should be adequate for early-season fishing.

From the opposite end of the swivel run a 2 to 4 foot snell of 6 to 8 pound test monofilament. Adjust the distance of your live-bait rig from the bottom according to water clarity. In stained water the fish will be tight to the bottom so the rig should run closer to the bottom. Just the opposite frequently holds true in clear water.

I prefer to use the Roach Rig in this case because it allows me the versatility of getting the live bait right in the face of suspended walleyes. A plain hook, or the new colored hooks are great, usually number 6 or number 8 finishes off the rig except for the bait.

Let the fish show you which form of live bait to use. A general rule of thumb is to use smaller minnows in the spring and larger minnows in the fall, with leeches and nightcrawlers being most productive in the warmer months of summer. However, I've found that walleyes don't always adhere to the rules. I like to have a complete selection of bait in the boat with me whenever I go fishing. I've had plenty of experiences that saw mid-summer walleyes attacking minnows and early spring walleyes showing a preference to crawlers.

Walleyes often take minnows lightly, and will sometimes nibble at the tail of the night crawler like a small perch does. These slow biters have to be given time to get the bait into their mouths so that the hook can do its job.

That's the reason for the slip sinker, it allows you to feed line to the fish. Most anglers use open-face spinning reels for live bait rigging. They backtroll, with the bail open and the line caught under the index finger of their rod hand. When they feel a bite, they simultaneously point the rod tip back toward the fish and straighten their finger, allowing line to run freely off the spool. After anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds depending on how aggressive the fish are they reel up the slack line quickly until they feel the weight of the fish. They then snap the rod back with authority and hoist another walleye into the boat.

As much as I like to eat walleyes, I like to catch them even more. Walleyes are susceptible to a variety of lure presentations. They'll take jigs, crankbaits, in-line spinners, and plastic baits. But when the walleyes turn fussy, there's nothing I like better than a live-bait rig. Live-bait rigs will take walleyes when nothing else will at times, and they're easy to use.