The jig is the cultivator of multi-species angling. When it comes to walleye fishing, you better have one tied on!

The first jig was produced in the Flintstonian period when Fred and Barney fashioned a hook out of a piece of brontosaurus jawbone and tied a rock to it. They proceeded to catch so many plesiosauri that they had the whole town of Bedrock over for a fish fry!

I first tied a jig on when I was 8 years old. I put it 6 inches below a giant bobber, globbed on a nightcrawler and caught a mean turtle. I kept that turtle in the bathtub of a bathroom that nobody except me used until my aunt stayed overnight. She screamed like a little girl when she pulled the shower curtain back and saw Tommy the Turtle.

Many years later, I figured this whole jigging business out on trips to Northern Wisconsin, Ontario and on the Illinois and Wisconsin Rivers while fishing with top-notch jiggers.

You see, in the hands of the right angler, (like Fred or Barney) not only is a jig a deadly weapon on all species of fish, but on walleyes in particular.

The key to the jig’s specialness is it’s simple design. Lead, hook and paint is all it is. Add some live bait, plastic or bucktail and you have a walleye magnet!

When I pitch jigs in a river in the spring , strikes usually occur in one of two places. The first is right as the jig hits the water and the initial few cranks of the reel. Whether I’m pitching from the boat towards shore or from shore out a little ways, a strike often occurs right away.

The second time a strike often occurs is on the swing. The swing is where the current picks up and your jig tumbles downstream, your line goes taught and your jig swings towards the back of the boat. This is a definite sweet spot for walleyes! You want to use a jig that just barely ticks bottom. Too heavy, it snags; too light, it stays above the strike zone.

Up on Pool 4 of the Mississippi River, walleye are abundant and anglers catch many giantst. Jigmeister, Ryan T. King catches dozens over 10 pounds there each year.

“It’s of the utmost importance to have the absolute minimum jig weight required to get the falling action or twitch action needed to work a bait in a river setting,” King said. “If you’re pitching jigs to rocks, you want the jig just ticking rocks, just ticking the rock edges not plummeting into the creases of the rocks and snagging up.”

“Slowing the fall imparts more action and gives you more time to work the bait,” King continues. “When dragging jigs, guys often make the mistake of using way too heavy of a jig so they can feel the jig thump bottom and know they are on bottom. The problem is that fish get on the bait and flare their gills to inhale it but it doesn’t come back to their mouth like normal prey would, since the jig is too heavy. This causes the fish to miss the bait or only get the tail leaving the angler thinking the fish are short striking or in a negative pattern.”

Our favorite jigs for pitching are B-Fish-N Tackle’s H20 jigs. They have a great head design that cuts through the river current. Their wire keeper hooks hold plastic tight to the jighead (also woks great for ’crawlers). Best of all, they have the weight stamped on the bottom for easy ID. These jigs come in nine different weights. 1/8-, 3/16- and 1/4-ounce sizes are what I primarily use for pitching in a river.

While many anglers swear by minnows, the walleye plastic revolution has begun and you should really add an assortment to your arsenal. My favorite spring lure is a Ringworm. It is a staple in every river rat’s tackle box. B-Fish-N/AuthentX Tackle revived the Ringworm revolution about 10 years back with 36 color combinations of their standard 4-incher. The key to the Ringworm’s fish appeal are the rings, which make a bubbling sound when in motion and the large twister tail, which makes noise and wags to look like a real fish.

B-Fish-N Tackle has expanded the basic Ringworm style by leaps and bounds with the Moxi and Pulse-R. The Moxi is basically an oversized Ringworm with a larger, beefier belly and a longer twister tail. It emits a lot of vibration under the surface and comes in 3- and 4-inch sizes.

The Pulse-R has that same beefy belly as the Moxi, but with a large thumper paddletail instead of a twister. This paddle is in constant motion even when there is hardly any current. The Pulse-R is a good swimming jig style body also. The Pulse-R is available in a 2.45- and 3.25-inch sizess. Hint: The 325 Pulse-R is Ryan T. King’s favorite.

Another ringworm hybrid is the 4-inch Ribb-Finn—my new personal favorite. It has a Moxi body with a split tail normally found on fluke style plastics. It swims and undulates with little tail motions and really attracts lethargic fish. This is my go-to bait!

So, don’t miss the walleye run this spring. Just make sure you have a nice assortment of H20 jigs in different weights and a few bags of AuthentX plastics!

If you want to learn more about walleye fishing, look for the full article in the March Issue of MidWest Outdoors magazine, available now at the newsstand or by subscribing on our website.