Knapp: Snap jigging glide jigs are tricky but can have big payoff when fishing for walleyes
Judging by the deep bend in the medium-power spinning rod my friend Sid Brown was gripping, the fish was a substantial one.
Certainly not one of the modest-sized white perch or yellow perch that had made their presence known throughout the day.
Gingerly working the fish toward the surface, through the lightly stained water of Pymatuning Lake, we saw a quality-sized walleye. It thrashed in protest, made a final dive and was brought back up, giving me a chance to scoop it up in the net.
Sid’s walleye was the third one of the day, and joined its brethren in the ice chest. Not a record-setting outing, but one with moral victories on a lake that’s relinquished its walleyes grudgingly the past couple of seasons.
As has been the pattern the past few years, we relied on glide jigs to dupe a wide variety of fish that calm, sunny day late last week. Besides the ’eyes, white perch, yellow perch (including a couple that would qualify as jumbo perch), bluegills and channel cats provided action.
Glide jigs in this instance refer to lures such as — and including — the Rapala Jigging Rap.
The Jigging Rap was traditionally an ice fishing lure until enterprising Upper Midwest anglers discovered its effectiveness on open water walleyes. The surge in popularity led other makers to come up with similar lures.
I have success with Acme’s Hyper Rattle and Moonshine’s Shiver Minnow.
Essentially, glide jigs are minnow-shaped hunks of lead with a hook (or two) molded into the body. Single hook versions, like the Shiver Minnow, only have a tail hook. Examples with two hooks add a nose hook. These baits also have a treble hook attached to the belly. A plastic tail fin gives the lure the ability to glide during the descent.
Glide jigs are not subtle presentations. In the sizes appropriate for walleyes, they weigh anywhere from a half-ounce to more than 1 ounce. At the end of the cast they rocket to the bottom. Once there, a sharp snap or two imparted by the angler shoots the bait back up off the bottom, so it glides during its return.
Some hits happen when the lure is on the fall. It’s also common for fish to pin the lure to the bottom, strikes that can go undetected until one makes the next aggressive upward snap-jigging motion.
On lakes like Pymatuning, where well-fed fish have a plethora of food sources (Gizzard shad, alewife, spottail shiners, juvenile perch, etc.) to choose from, reaction baits like glide jigs can trigger strikes from walleyes that are not particularly hungry.
Glide jigs are not the most pleasant lures to fish, in that they require energy to put them into motion. On the plus side, fish either tend to hit them right away or completely ignore them. As such, I like to target smaller, specific spots where I expect active walleyes to set up — smaller, hard-bottom humps and the tips of points. Places that top off in 10 to 15 feet of water seem most productive on Pymatuning.
I prefer fishing glide jigs on nylon monofilament like Sufix Advance Mono in 10-pound test. A short leader of a foot or less of stiffer 20-pound test fluorocarbon line helps keep the lure from fouling on itself. A medium-power, fast-action rod in the 7-foot range is ideal, one mated with a 2000-size spinning reel. This year I’m using 13 Fishing’s new Jigging Rap rod with great satisfaction.
Snap jigging glide jigs is just one way of approaching walleyes in a lake with a diverse options such as Pymatuning. But it’s a special moment when the rod loads up under the strain of a heavy, shad-fattened ’eye.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
