Trolling Swimbaits for Big River Walleyes

Taking a page out of bass and muskie fisherman's playbook, walleye fisherman are slowly discovering the magic of the swimbait, but under a different and I'd argue improper name - Dragging.

Trolling swimbaits really is what dragging should be called, because that's what it is -- pulling a swimming soft plastic through the water by using the trolling motor while not letting it touch the bottom.

Dragging would imply that you are doing just that -- dragging the jig on the bottom, which is wrong if you want to catch fish using this poorly-named but incredibly effective method.  How effective?  multiple fish over 20", limits within an hour, giant fish near 30", etc can be expected once you figure it out.

The trickiest part of dragging is dialing-in the setup.  You need to get the right combination of boat speed, line weight, jig weight, and plastic size/style in order to keep that swimming morsel in front of fish.

The best combo we had going this early spring was 10lb Suffix 832 line, 1/8th oz jig head, and a small 4" paddle tail swimbait, all while moving at 2-4mph depending on depth.  This is a pretty good starting point.  Make a half cast off the side of the boat, put the trolling motor on low, and start trolling and zig-zagging up and down a contour.  The key seems to be pulling the lure fast enough to keep it off the bottom, but slow enough to make sure its not riding too high and out of the strike zone.

Feel the bottom?  Either speed up or reel in a little line.  Never feeling the bottom?  Let a little line out to see how far from the bottom you are.

This method really shines at night when you can get into the shallows and hook into a giant!  I haven't tried this on a lake yet, but I would imagine it would be a killer method on Mille Lacs or anywhere with a decent night bite!