Live Bait Rigging Tips
When the going gets tough, many experienced anglers go to live bait. It’s a well-known fact. Live bait rigging involves using finesse tactics to present a minnow, night crawler, leech, or terrestrial in a very natural way to entice a bite. The key here is natural. The more natural the presentation, the better the chance the livewell gets some use.
I recently fished a tournament on Mille Lacs Lake in Garrison Minnesota. Mille Lacs is a walleye factory and is probably one of the top ten inland lakes in the United States for quality walleyes. It is also a well-known live bait rigging lake. Slip bobbers and Lindy rigs are the main method used by the thousands of anglers that fish this lake each day. During this tournament, most of the anglers went through fifteen to thirty fish per day. This is what it takes to be a successful live bait rigger.
One of the most important aspects of live bait rigging is the rod set up. It is very important to be able to feel very subtle bites, which means high modulus rods and sensitive line. I use one-piece graphite rods and Fireline in the 2/6 category. The terminal connection must be made with the smallest snap swivel possible. The most important aspect of a typical lindy set up is the line is threaded through the sinker before the snap is tied on to allow the line to be fed to the bite so the fish does not feel the weight. Several types of weights can be used. Egg sinkers, walking sinkers, Lindy no snag sinkers or bottom bouncers can be used. I will often clip the portion of the bottom bouncer off that the line attaches to and add a through line clip so I can feed line to fish while I’m bottom bouncing thus combining the positive aspects of bottom bouncing and live bait rigging.
The presentation involves moving very slowly along weed lines and breaks preferably with an electric motor. Most experiences live bait riggers are up on the bow, watching the graph and GPS. That’s right, they also have a GPS up on the bow and follow a predetermined plot that marks the targeted area. The speed of the presentation and ability to present naturally is the most important. At Mille Lacs, we found we could double our catch if we slowly pumped the rod creating an irresistible offering to the fish. Imagine a leech or crawler floating by and stopping, then floating naturally or swimming under their own power for a few seconds before moving on. The take is usually very subtle, a classic tick is felt or just a stop in the flow. I always allow the fish to take line, and it quickly becomes evident how the bite is on any particular day. At Mille Lacs, we were allowing fish to take fifteen feet of line, as the bite was slow. Many times the fish would grab the end of the leach and start swimming away. The fish would not take the offering fully until it stopped the first time very similar to a pike bite. Sometimes the bite is so negative it becomes necessary to turn the boat and get on top of the fish to increase the angle of the hook set.
Walleyes are not the only species targeted with live bait. Slip bobbers provide an ability to present a leach or minnow in one of the most natural ways possible, and can be used for perch, bluegill, bass and pike. It involves rigging a line through the middle of a balsa or cork bobber with a stop rigged on the top. This allows the depth to be changed to fish different levels of structure. The key here is setting the depth of the bobber stop correctly and boat control. Anchoring the boat up wind from the structure is the most common so the angler can feed line to the bobber as it drifts down wind towards the structure. Wind always is beneficial as it helps the bobber cover water as well as provide action to the bait. Again, imagine a leech or minnow bobbing along slowly trying to swim away. It is hard to resist and an easy meal.
Terrestrials such as crickets or grasshoppers are absolutely impossible for fish to pass up later in the season. It is truly amazing how every fish that swims will make an exception to come up and engulf a hopper or cricket from the shallows. Trout, bass and bluegills have been targeted with terrestrials for years and have many artificials in these patterns. Again the key is a natural presentation. I usually use a number 6-8 live bait hook as the shank is thin and doesn’t destroy or displace too much flesh when impaling the insect. The underbelly or tail is the best and easiest to hook and allows the insect to swim upright giving that live look. A split shot 12-18 inches up is all that is needed to present this offering. Hold on tight!
Live bait rigging is one of the most effective ways to catch most species of fish. It becomes effective when other methods won’t produce, and will keep the angler catching fish when weeds make it difficult to troll cranks or spinners. Give it a try the next time your out and it will add another potent technique to your angling arsenal.
