5 Must-Have Ice Fishing Lures For Walleye

If you’re wondering how to catch walleye more consistently this winter, taking a look at your lure collection is as good a place as any to start. No one lure is an absolute guarantee, but with the right assortment of baits you can be confident you’ll always have tricks up your sleeve for troubleshooting a tough bite and being able to put fish on the ice. With this in mind, here’s a list of five must-have ice fishing lures for walleye.

The Jigging Rap and Jigging Shad Rap are tried-and-true presentations for fooling cold-water walleye. No less deadly are the more recent additions to the series, the Snap Rap and Jigging Shadow Rap.

Undeniably, part of what makes these lures so tempting is their pronounced, captivating swim on the rise and fall, combined with an alluring slow, circle-down action. Add a horizontal baitfish profile and an incredible colour selection, and it’s a no-brainer why walleye can’t resist these baits.

• The lure should fall on slack line for the best action — but keep the bow in the line to a minimum by following the lure’s fall closely with the rod tip in order to detect bites on the drop.
• After the falling lure pulls the line tight, don’t jig it again until waiting a couple seconds to give the bait has time to swim back to centre from the side, as this final move regularly prompts bites.
• Experimenting with various models helps determine what walleye like best based on the day’s conditions as each bait in the series offers a different profile, action and fall rate.
• Tie a swivel 18” above the lure to prevent line twist.

The Rippin’ Rap, and Rap-V Blade are each worthy of space in your tackle collection. Their loud rattles and strong vibrations attract walleye and prompt a feeding response.

The Slab Rap is another essential. A non-rattling lipless crankbait, it’s great when you need some finesse for coaxing strikes during mid-winter and other tough-bite scenarios.

• To attract walleye, jig a lipless crankbait with a series of one to two foot lifts or several short, hard snaps with the rod tip, moving the bait six to 12 inches.
• Shaking a lipless crankbait with varying amounts of intensity can also call-in fish as well as prompt onlookers to bite.
• Lightly nodding the rod gives a lipless crankbait a rocking action and is another effective maneuver for drawing out hits from hesitant fish.

Brass rattle chambers make it hard for walleye to ignore the sound of a dancing 1/4-ounce Rattle Spoon or a 3/8-ounce Flash Bang Jigging Rattle Spoon. These 1-1/2 inch lures are just the right size to tempt fussy walleye. Their rattles also make these spoons “fish big” and very appealing to aggressive fish.

• Walleye are attracted to the flashy, tumbling action of a rattle spoon jigged using a lift-fall-pause or snap-fall sequence, but be sure to impart shakes after the pause.
• When a walleye needs extra convincing, try shaking the spoon as you slowly raise your arm to tease the fish and get it to chase — do this and you’re well on your way to getting the fish to bite.
• Amp-up the visual appeal of a rattle spoon during low-light conditions by using a model with glow paint, or activate a Flash Bang glow stick and insert it into the spoon for hours of uninterrupted glow.

Beveled edges and a tapered design give the Cast Champ and Flash Champ spoons enticing, fluttering actions with the perfect amount of erratic movement to drive walleye wild. Featuring heavy-duty construction, these slab-style spoons are made to withstand multiple attacks, which is exactly what is going to happen when jigging these lures for walleye.

• Walleye like jigging sequences consisting of short rod snaps and hops, which give slab spoons an erratic, flashing, tumbling action.
• Use the 1/8-ounce Champ for shallow and mid-depth jigging scenarios, and the 1/2-ounce Cast Champ for working deeper structures.
• Let the spoon free fall to maximize its erratic action and flash but, like Jigging Raps, keep the bow in the line to a minimum in order to quickly detect bites on the fall.

Many ice anglers would prefer the potency of flutter spoons for walleye to remain hush-hush. Truth is, the cat’s been out of the bag for a while.

Flutter spoons, like the Tingler or Origami Blade, produce high flash combined with a slow, fluttering action. In a walleye’s world this replicates a dying baitfish and an easy meal.

The 3” Coyote and 3-1/2” Matrixx are other deadly flutter spoons. These are good picks for attracting fish from far distances and will also appeal to walleye feeding on cisco, whitefish, smelt and other sizeable forage.

•  Jigging a flutter spoon up several feet puts out a ton of flash and action on the rise as well as the drop, which draws in walleye from far and wide.
• When falling, certain flutter spoons tumble out to the side of the ice hole, helping you cover more water beneath your feet.
• The vulnerable baitfish appearance, strobing flash and slow fall of a flutter spoon are key stimuli to walleye, but if these don’t evoke an attack adding a couple hops and shakes will likely seal the deal.
• When walleye are intrigued by a flutter spoon but won’t commit, quickly reeling up the spoon and dropping down a smaller bait with a more conservative action will likely persuade the fish into biting.

Every walleye ice angler needs a good collection of lures. The Jigging Rap Series, lipless crankbaits, and rattle, slab and flutter spoons are our Top 5 must-have bait styles for ice fishing walleye — don’t be caught on the hard-water without them this winter.