Spin diggin walleye

[Random guy]

With the muddy conditions that have plagued Upper Red Lake this season we find ourselves changing just how we do things to get results. The latest spin is just one more way to conjure up bigger walleyes during a small fish bite.

Just as the seasons change, the Walleye are making their normal calendar period moves. The larger fish are traveling out of the warm shallow water for cooler deep haunts, leaving behind the runts of the pack to pick up scraps.

Deeper Upper Red Lake with its stained water and wind churned sediment makes for poor visibility, even for old marble eye. The now deeper walleyes often feed only when conditions are optimum. This could be a very small window of opportunity when predatory fish actually make the effort to hunt. The remainder of the day is spent doing what walleyes do; hanging out by deeper structure just being walleye, waiting for those easy bonus snacks to come by.

The problem with these fish is they like spinners and crankbait rattles along with other things that go bump in the dark, but how to get shaker and mover lures in closes enough to neutral walleye hugging structure? Bottom bouncers snag up, crankbaits wedge under rocks like a door stop and Lindy rigs with wiggling live bait are no match for the cannon ball boulder fields of Upper Red Lake.

Now what about combining the attractiveness of a live bait profile, the flash and dash of a spinner all in a package you can pick around the rocks? How about the Lindy Watsit Spin?

This little lure I will admit did not get much praise from me when they arrived on the scene. “Big Deal, somebody stuck a spinner on a jig”, was the first thing out of my mouth. I tossed them in the back of the tackle box where they have ridden along silently waiting for their moment to shine. Today was that day.

Frustrated by marking fish after fish tight to the rocks I ran jig after jig by them with a few takers. I kept upping the boldness of the colors and size trying to get them noticed in the muddy water. Only after trying to come up with a way to run a spinner in front of them I tied on a Watsit Spin and started bouncing it off the rocks with a slow drift of .3-.5 mph. WhammO! WhammO! WhammO again and again! Every time I would impact a rock and let the jig slowly fall back down with its little spinner flashing away it would get slammed, BY BIGGER FISH! It became very apparent that the simple spinner attached to the jig head I mocked earlier was taking an average guide trip to in incredible one. After a few hours of barely hooked 10” walleyes we stepped up to hook engulfing 17, 18 and 20” walleye, all because of that little spinner. It was one of the cases where lure selection was key for both placement and presentation.

For bigger fish on Upper Red Lake grab a handful and jigs, make some of them Watsit Spins and head for the deeper rock piles. Fish are hiding behind every rock.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Excellent read jonny.... This looks like something i could use for my boundary waters trip at the end of august. Have u ever bothered to try these lures ice fishing??

[Random guy]

No, but I should have.

[Gordie]

Great read Jonny P and that sure sounds like fun and gotta love that type of bite I know its amoung my favorite.

[CANOPY SAM]

That's a good lookin' jig, and I could see those working well pitching into, and around rocks and current breaks in the river.

The old beetle-spin, safety pin style add on spinner blade to jigs and large plastics has been a great go to bait in our river system for years.

Do you think these would be more, or less snag free vs. the old school safety pin spinner blade? I've always liked the feature of the safety pin as it seems to slide around light weed cover very nicely without hanging up on the jig eye.

There's also another fixed spinner blade jig very similar to this one on the market. Been around for many years, but the name escapes me? Tiny spinner blade mounted to the bottom of the jig head. I have several in my arsenal.

Great little article again, Jon. Pretty much impossible to beat the "precision" of a jig on tight cover, and that little bit of flash and thump is no doubt the "schnitzel" that triggered these fish!

[magnum mike]

Blakemore Road Runner?

[CANOPY SAM]

I was kinda thinkin' it was something--something--Runner....but couldn't remember for certain.

I'm ashamed that I couldn't remember the name of a fishing lure! I live, sleep, and eat these things!

I really love the old stuff. Kinda funny, but haven't really seen much innovation beyond what was invented 40 yrs ago. Fish like minnows, leeches, and worms. Can't improve on that too much.

[shaky legs2]

I can't wait to try them in a couple of weeks in Canada. The Fuzzy Grub body in the root beer (orange/brown) color with a a flourescent red/orange/black jig head has always been dynamite in Canada the end of July. I think the fish are relating to the crawdad hatch that time of the year. The new wazit body in orange/brown with the little tentacles should be even better. I also picked up some pink/white bodies after our trip to the Rainy River this spring.