Flukes for walleyes?

[DitchPanda]

Anybody ever do this? Me and a buddy caught some walleye and sauger on a fluke tail bait today..he also told me that several he has cleaned had large baitfish in them. Got me thinking that a good old super fluke may work well.

[Finessegenics]

Why not? I think any predatory fish would be tempted by a fluke. I've caught plenty of bass and pike on soft jerkbaits.  They're probably not popular for walleye because it is somewhat difficult to fish a fluke effectively in deeper water, where walleye like to hang out most. So when the walleye come shallow in the fall, like right now, the fluke could be productive. I guess it could be a year round thing if you're fishing a shallow river where walleye are present.

[TnRiver46]

My buddy catches them on accident while casting magnum flukes on 2 oz jig heads for striper 

[DitchPanda]

I may bring the fluke rod along tomorrow just to satisfy my curiosity

[Teal]

I've never caught a walleye on a fluke.  But I have caught them on live shad...so I would think they would hit it.  We dont have alot of walleye here..but we have a few.

 

 

[DitchPanda]

Between me and my buddy we caught probably a dozen today and lost several more. All were on a ring worm looking thing with a forked fluke style tail...couldn't get much action on a twister. Got me thinking why not use a fluke on a lead head. Nice big easy meal.

[Vilas15]

14 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Got me thinking why not use a fluke on a lead head. 

Plenty of people do this. Rip it off the bottom and let it fall aka snap-jigging. They'll be on it when you go to rip it again so the hook set is automatic.

[Bluebasser86]

Lots of walleye guys use them on a jighead and snap them.

[Dwight Hottle]

I have caught a lot of walleye over the years & can tell you they will hit all the baits you use for bass. Obviously bottom oriented baits like jigs, blade baits & jigging spoons rule most of the time but eyes hit surface baits regularly during low light conditions. Eyes also suspend like bass based on bait schools depth. They are suckers for hard baits like jerks & cranks & spoons/spinners. Soft bait minnow imitations like flukes, paddle tails & grub tails all work very well. Eyes will also attack bigger baits like Mann’s stretch 25’s or stretch 30’s. It’s not unusual for big walleye to hit musky plugs either. So don’t be afraid to try whatever baits you might have with you when targeting walleyes. 

[DitchPanda]

Most of the guys around here are live baiters: jig n minnow, lindy rig or bottom bouncer with minnow, worm or leech. So outside of throwing a 3in twister and a size 5 shad rap I don't have alot of experience with artificials for walleye. That said I've caught them on a variety of baits while bass fishing...spinnerbait, cranks, jerk bait...those all make sense to me. Weirdest bait I've caught one on? Senko... Doesn't like like anything a walleye eats. To be fair it doesn't look like anything a bass eats really.

[Steveo-1969]

17 hours ago, Finessegenics said:

I guess it could be a year round thing if you're fishing a shallow river where walleye are present.

 

13 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

Got me thinking why not use a fluke on a lead head. Nice big easy meal.

On my local river lead heads and plastics are very popular and effective for walleyes. Flukes, paddletails and curlytails.

[Finessegenics]

10 minutes ago, Steveo-1969 said:

 

On my local river lead heads and plastics are very popular and effective for walleyes. Flukes, paddletails and curlytails.

Yeah. I assumed the OP meant flukes which were rigged weightless, the way flukes are most commonly fished for bass, and that’s what I also meant in my post. Those are hard to fish deep. The whole point of the soft plastic jerkbait is to fish it weightless and resemble a hard jerkbait. If you’re gonna throw it on a jighead, you might  as well use a power bait minnow which doesn’t have the hook cavity. 

Here too, the most popular way to catch walleye is a jighead and curly tail grub. Minnow baits like the gulp minnows or powerbait minnows work well. 

[Boomstick]

I don't fish in many lakes with Walleye too often - the only one I caught was on a crankbait, and I almost caught a good sized one on a spinnerbait when was in Canada a few years back. But I have seen people using flukes on small jigheads and catching a good number of Walleye before.