I note the newest issue of In-Fisherman has an article about the evolution and use of paddletail swimbaits for walleye. Great read. I mention it because it seems that is a lure not mentioned often in this forum.

A friend of mine, one of the best fishermen I know, takes only two things in his tackle box for an annual trip into WCPP.....4 inch pearl Mr Twister sassy shad bodies, and bare [ball] jigheads in various weights and colors. That's it. He and his partner only target walleye. They have along nightcrawlers as well, use 1/3 of a crawler on a bare jig head. He rates the crawler as somewhat more effective than the swimbait, but has high confidence in the swimbaits as well. He thinks their numbers would be very high even if they somehow lost all their bait. By skillfully combining jig head weight and retrieve, he can fish in all kinds of conditions.

Their trips are typically 9 days, lowest total they had for a trip was over 1200 walleye, two guys in one canoe. They carry clickers and have a friendly competition, counts are accurate. The fishing conditions vary from year to year, they fishing from 9-22 feet depending on water temps. Disclaimer factor: WCPP gets FAR less pressure than BWCA or Quetico, and as opposed to Quetico, bait is still legal.

I might add that they've had at least one [accidental] over-40 inch northern every trip. They never use a leader, lots of bite offs, he says its easier to tie on another cheap jig head than hassle with a northern in a canoe!

Your experiences with swimbaits? Thoughts? Anyone else catch this article in In-Fisherman?

Yes I have the edition of in fisherman and have checked out the article. Swimbaits are excellent but I have noticed lots of variations and subtle differences concerning rigging which makes a big difference. One thing I have noted is that hooks tend to be fairly thick wire which needs fairly heavy line to get a good knot. I like to bridge that gap with a small cross lock snap and reduce the tie off diameter in order to get 100% knot strength and be able to drop down a bit in line class.

I am secretly thinking of trolling Shadzilla swimbaits at night for huge walleye. I had little winky walleye try and eat the thing.........of course the big girls will chew it. Big, fat, soft paddle tail easing along...........wham!

swim baits have been my go to for more then 20 years
blah! everyone never mind them,
;) stick to your cranks and spinners

BlackSwanAdventures: "swim baits have been my go to for more then 20 years
blah! everyone never mind them,
;) stick to your cranks and spinners"

A few questions, if you don't mind, you sound like the voice of experience.

1) Do you ever troll them and if 'yes', how deep can you realistically troll, what kind of weight to get to those depths? That's really a multiple questions, I'm thinking of how to best cover some large reef areas mid-summer, in the 17-25 foot range. I had great success vertical jigging such areas with bait, but the schools do move and I'm looking for additional search tools.

2) Related to the above, how deep an area do you cast to?

3) Anything you'd care to share about how you retrieve?

4) Doug Stange (In Fisherman) generally starts with 4 inch size. Thoughts on size? LIne? (I favor 8 lb fireline or mono)

5) Finally, how are swimbaits for smallmouth, especially in the deeper summer patterns?

Sounds maybe like you'd kind of prefer not to 'spill the beans', at least not all the beans, but any insights would be welcome.

My number one bait for walleyes and smallies last year!

barehook: "

BlackSwanAdventures: "swim baits have been my go to for more then 20 years
blah! everyone never mind them,
;) stick to your cranks and spinners"

A few questions, if you don't mind, you sound like the voice of experience.


1) Do you ever troll them and if 'yes', how deep can you realistically troll, what kind of weight to get to those depths? That's really a multiple questions, I'm thinking of how to best cover some large reef areas mid-summer, in the 17-25 foot range. I had great success vertical jigging such areas with bait, but the schools do move and I'm looking for additional search tools.

trolling seems to work, from limited applications.. inside turns, depth range dropping from 20-22 to 10-12 (very little trolling occurs)

2) Related to the above, how deep an area do you cast to?
if unweighted, 1-6 feet or so , if weighted, up to 22feet. structure oriented

3) Anything you'd care to share about how you retrieve?
I do about 4-5 different styles of return, from a big rip (like 3-5 feet) and letting it fall, and reeling in so there is no slack, to a fast reel with twitching, to a bottom crawl, to mimicing a dying minnow. play around with speed of retrieval, and variances in action

4) Doug Stange (In Fisherman) generally starts with 4 inch size. Thoughts on size? LIne? (I favor 8 lb fireline or mono) I love 4 inch. sometimes i downsize or upsize flukes 1'', 3'' is deadly for big panfish too.
I like to use nanofil in the 10-12 test range, diameter is smaller but little stretch


5) Finally, how are swimbaits for smallmouth, especially in the deeper summer patterns?

for smallies, they love to "rock" it up, so they can be at variety of depths in the summer dog days usually u can find some around rock outcroppings no matter what ... fast transitions on mid lake structure seems to do the trick too, and we always find SOME bass shallow too (wife and I)


Sounds maybe like you'd kind of prefer not to 'spill the beans', at least not all the beans, but any insights would be welcome."

some beans spilled with sloppy grammer

yea, when u tell-all, people will fish in your spots and tell all their friends too lol :) no matter what though, we usually have a plan after looking over maps, for when people will be fishing in the spots we picked out to try (no matter what the lake or time, its good to understand that everyone seems to be able to read maps and find fish, so its best to be patient and learn new ways to fish instead of being mad when they are on our "Spot" ..) although it is upsetting "in the moment" at times , lol , when we think we can have the best spots and someone/ others are there.