Blade Baits for Walleye: Where, When, and How to Fish Them

Sometimes, walleye need something slow in front of them that they can inspect before deciding to eat. Other times, these fish are super aggressive and ready to strike anything that comes near them. As these fish are gearing up for the long winter months, chances are you’re going to be chasing after them when they’re more aggressive. That makes the perfect situation to try out a blade bait.

So, what is a blade bait? It’s a compact metal lure that’s designed to be fished deep, and it creates a ton of flash and vibration in the water to call fish in and get aggressive strikes. These baits typically have most of their weight on the lower half and can be fished vertically and horizontally.

Whether you’re jigging your blade bait or retrieving it along the bottom, you’re going to feel a lot of vibration in the rod as you pull on the bait. For walleye, you’ll usually find them as light as 1/8 oz to as heavy as 3/4 oz. This gives you a ton of options for picking the right lure depending on how deep you need to fish. It’s also common for a blade bait to have different places along the back to tie onto. The spot that you decide to connect your line will determine how much vibration your blade bait makes as it’s retrieved or jigged.

There are a couple of main reasons why blade baits work so well for walleye. The first is the vibration that one of these lures can create. All of the commotion in the water gives the fish in the area something else to key in on besides sight, making it much easier for them to locate it. When you pair that with a short fall back to the strike zone, you give fish the perfect opportunity to eat.

Their ability to sink quickly and make contact with the bottom is another reason they work well for these fish. These baits are great at packing a lot of weight into a small package, which allows you to toss a smaller profile lure at these walleye while still getting down to them quickly. This also makes them great in current, so fishing them in rivers or river outlets works as well. Regardless of where you’re fishing, these baits are going to be able to cover a lot of water fast, so you can spend more time finding the fish instead of tying on the next lure for a new spot.

So we know what a blade bait is, and why they work well for walleye. But where should you actually fish one of these baits? Here are a few great places to try.

The first place you want to try a blade bait for walleye is anywhere with a rocky or hard-bottomed, structured area. Look for rock humps, reefs, points, gravel transitions, drop-offs, and other similar places where walleye are able to ambush prey easily.

If you can find these areas that have little to no additional structure (weeds, sunken logs, etc.) that could potentially snag your blade bait, that’s ideal. As temperatures drop and the water starts to cool down, look for these areas in the 20 to 40 feet of water range to target these fish.

It was mentioned above, but rivers and areas with current are also solid places to use a blade bait for walleye. When you know the fish are in these areas, you’ll want to focus on current seams, eddies, pools, mouths, and near any structure that breaks up the current. These are all places that walleye love to spend time in, and a blade bait can easily reach them as they’re waiting for their next meal to swim by.

When you’re fishing in current, you’ll need to pay attention to how strong that current is, as well as how deep the water is when picking the right blade bait. You want something that is heavy enough to get down to the bottom and stay there without getting swept up by the current.

One place that walleye love to spend their time feeding is on expansive flats. These areas are usually in shallower water, with drop-off edges nearby for them to retreat to throughout the day. Walleye will push up onto these flats as they look to actively start feeding, which can often be during low-light periods or at night.

Blade baits are perfect for these areas, since you can cover a ton of water quickly with them. When walleye are on these flats, they’re going to be spread out, so being able to cast and cover as much water as you can is key to finding success here. That vibration in the jig can also help call walleye in to strike from a long distance along the flat.

When it comes to actually fishing your blade bait for walleye, there are two main ways to do it.

With this first method, you’re going to cast out your blade bait and let it sink down to the bottom. Then, lift your rod tip up quickly until you feel the vibrations in the rod from the blade bait. Once you feel that, stop lifting and let the bait fall back down as you reel in the slack.

As it’s falling, you want to maintain balance between letting it fall with enough pressure to detect bites, but not too much so that it can’t fall naturally. Leave just enough slack in the line so that both can happen at the same time. You’ll probably notice that most of your bites happen on the fall with a blade bait, so controlling the fall correctly is key.

Your other main option when fishing a blade bait for walleye is to vertical jig it. This method works well when walleye are pushed out in deeper water, and you can safely position your boat over them without scaring them off.

To start, find some fish out deep around structure and stop the boat. Drop your blade bait to the bottom, and jig it back up in shorter, controlled lifts. You don’t want to go too crazy with height or power here, just fast enough and far enough to get the vibrations in the blade bait going. Jigging is ideal when targeting fish near specific structure, as it lets you control the bait and keep it from getting snagged much better than casting and retrieving along the bottom.