Canadian Walleye Lure Suggestions

Hey guys i mostly fish muskies but am going on a fly in fishing trip in Canada this early June and main focus will be walleye and big pike… Grew up fishing walleye with the usual jig and minnow and leaches with a slip bobber but on the this fly in im not sure on live bait availability. So i thought I would hit you guys up on here to see some suggestions on the artificial stuff. So far i have decided on Gulp Alive minnows and leeches and then a handful of the BNfishing moxi and pulse-r’s… What are some other baits that i should throw in. Also size or color(clearer water) would help as well as what jig to pair with it. Thanks

We have fished in Canada in early June several times. We have had good success with Gulp baits.

Can’t go wrong with an assortment of jigs in various sizes and colors and some soft plastics. …my fave is trigger x minnow series.

My last 8 trips to Canada (Pickle Lake/PashkekogenArea), we found out that if it was gold or copper colored, we didn’t even need anything extra. Plastics produced when we tried them, but the copper & gold were consistently producing all day under any conditions. I even took a copper Sanka Coffee measuring spoon, drilled holes for a treble hook & a swivel, & caught both northerns & walleyes every time out. I’m not sure of your area, but this worked for us. Good luck!

K grubs, Paddle Tails work great for plastics, flicker shads and shad raps great for walleye. Stick baits are great if you troll over long flats also…have fun

I’d definately throw in some lindy & spinner rigs too & slip sinkers! for drifting & slow trolling!

Ive had GREAT success with bass spinner baits 1/4 or 3/8 ounce white with Hammered gold blades. Ca ught walleyes and northerns on the same bait. Try it youll be surprised.

I am going to try some of Uncle Joshes “Meat” on a jig in June. Looks like there are many colors and shapes.

We typically fish jig and frozen shiners and suckers and experiment with everything else. The area we fish has alot of flow,so we use 3/8 to 1/2 oz jigs. If i had to bring only three colors it would be gold silver and white, but they all seem to work.

It is just such a great adventure in the wilderness.

3/8 oz. gold jig and a purple/chart. ringworm. That combo is always my go too in Canada

I’ve had good sucess with many of the lures mentioned. I’ve also had good luck with salted minnows. Buy a 1/2 pound or a pound of minnows and some pickling salt. lawer the minnows in the salt and let cure for a week. Remove from the salt and put in zip lock bags.

Take a flat of night crawlers in buss bedding. Most days you won’t need them but on the tough days they will out fish plastic 10 to one.

If you need live bait why are you going all the way to Canada? The lake we go to has that deep copper tone to the water but most years it does have really good clarity but these baits are the best I have come across. Really those minnow grubs are the ticket for the small ones and raps for the big girls hanging a little deeper.

See a color pattern?

On tough days i would rip a good size chunk off of the purple/chart ring worm from the top and slide on a half of a crawler.

The biggest shallow runner shad rap in walleye pattern always worked the best for us on big pike. Fished it like a jerk bait they can’t resist it.

Orange H2O Jigs with Orange plastic tails….bring lots. Early June ? Where you going ? Could be close to ice out

Careful on bring too much orange and the brighter “northern colors”. If i were to only fish orange, chart, and pink our lines would get snipped off every 20 minutes. Some of you say get a leader.. but as a confidence thing, i just hate walleye fishing with one, just not my thing.

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Careful on bring too much orange and the brighter “northern colors”. If i were to only fish orange, chart, and pink our lines would get snipped off every 20 minutes. Some of you say get a leader.. but as a confidence thing, i just hate walleye fishing with one, just not my thing.

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Serious dude? Well while you are busy snipping off this and that and getting your fingers dirty with crawlers I’ll catch fish after fish like this 42″ beast with the “bright” colors. Thing had the “bright” colored jig and plastic down its throat in current took about 20min to land but nothing 14pd flouro couldn’t handle. Seems insane to not use something that works bc of fear of a big fish biting it off. Sorry lil crabby tonight ill go to bed now.

Well thats fantastic for you, and im sure i would have a lot more to say if you werent wearing that twins hat (lucky you ) but i was just letting him know. When im fishing for walleye, the last thing i want to do in the cold is repeatedly take off 15 inch northerns, if youre lucky to not lose the jig in the first place. Unfortunately for us, not every northern we catch is 42″, otherwise i would be more than happy to catch northerns while walleye fishing.

Erie deerie dipped on maple syrup.

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the last thing i want to do in the cold is repeatedly take off 15 inch northerns

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I hear ya man that is quite annoying and would not want to deal with that myself. I do need to ask you a serious question though which part of Canada do you fish? lake name possibly? BC if that is what you catch while you go up is 15″ northerns all day I could recommend a few fantastic local lakes with that quality of fish, no need to drive 10hrs for that. I have been fortunate enough in my lifetime so far to go on a few fly-ins and several roadies into God’s country myself and every single lake we encounter ain’t got no 15″ northerns snapping on your line. That is why you go to Canada to get the quality average Northern should be about 5#. If you are getting so many lil northerns I would recommend not changing lures but locations. Again my 2 cents.

And another lure that killed it was the jointed rap same color on a BB. Got all my PB walleyes on that setup. Find the small fish, then look for the deeper structure adjacent to them and BB the heck out of those points or drop-offs.

we found out that if it was gold or copper colored, we didn’t even need anything extra. I even took a copper Sanka Coffee measuring spoon, drilled holes for a treble hook & a swivel, & caught both northerns & walleyes every time out.

I have heard similar instances from the guys that have been up to the place we are going as well, they dropped down martini olives as well as the sour gummy worm candy and licorice on jigs and all got bit lol.

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If you need live bait why are you going all the way to Canada?

Didn’t say i needed it, in fact i highly doubt that it would will necessary and it will likely be unavailable. Was just stating it to avoid suggestion of live bait. And yes i see the color pattern, thanks.

The last time I was up. Gulp wasn’t getting it done for us I had taken a flat of crawlers with and tried them whacky rigged(hooked them in the middle) on a pink/glow gumball jig. I just kind of fluttered it above the rocks as we were drifting. Worked great and my average size was better than the guys using minnows.
We also casted big twisters(white) to shallow weed lines when we could find them, that worked great too morning and evening.

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The biggest shallow runner shad rap in walleye pattern always worked the best for us on big pike. Fished it like a jerk bait they can’t resist it.

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thanks for the tip, after we get bored of catching walleyes catching some big pike will be the other focus. Im bringing my lighter musky gear along with all the baits that can work for both like bucktails, spinner baits, phantoms, smaller swim baits and topwaters and buzzbaits. Gonna be a ball due to the group im going with catching about a dozen over 40 accidentally (claimed)every trip.We shall see! should get some good go pro footage.

Early June ? Where you going ? Could be close to ice out

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We are going through greens fly ins, poplar grove camp on Birch Lake 65 air miles NE of Red Lake.. So its up there lol. With the way this spring is going very well could be close to ice out

Check out this thread in the Canadian forum from a little while back. Some really good advice in here.

http://www.idofishing.com/forum/showflat.php/Number/1213090/fpart/1/top-walleye-lures-canadian-shield-lakes

Wish I had the same problem of figuring what lure to bring? I can’t figure out how to get myself up there for too long

I had a buddy that went to Canada a few years ago and they caught all there fish casting flicker shads. I would definitely recommend taking some

Well, we go past the kakabeka falls area of ontario and the lake we fish does have monster pike in it, but we mostly fish walleyes. And where we fish walleyes we dont catch much for big pike, but we do have our spots where we can troll big sliverspoons and pull out the occasional 40″, we probably get 2 or 3 as a group in 4 days of fishing. Nothing special, just enough to keep us on the edge of our seat all week! We just choose to fish in locations with a lot of big walleyes, not big northerns!

thanks for all the suggestions guys, sounds pretty simple and a lot cheaper than my musky gear. Only one question and that is what colors for jigs, plastics, rapalas, and such in the clearer water? Apparently the lake isnt the normal super dark copper stained water but more clear. I know with musky i would match the hatch and go with more natural golds, browns, blacks, blues etc. But with walleye videos i often see guys with purple and pink and more bright colors despite the clear water.. So what colors do the eyes prefer in clearer water?