Crawler harness for walleye

[kickingfrog]

So you're out and you've decided that a crawler harness is the way to go.

 

The questions are:

Blade colour? Size? Shape?

Bead colour?

Minnow or worm?

Live bait or plastic?

3-way? inline sinker? bottom walker?

 

Some/ many/ all of the above decisions are based on conditions I realize, but do you have a go to colour or style for a harness?

 

For me it's red beads with a silver Colorado blade (I think its a size 3) with a power worm on a 3-way rig, the weight is changed to suit the conditions. That is in relatively clear water and during daylight (sunny or not). Glow blades and beads when it's dark.

 

Ideally, if and my fishing partner and I are on the same page, we'll both go with vastly different harnesses and modify the presentation depending on the fish. Almost all of my harnesses I have quick change clevises so I can at least change the blade, colour and size easily.

 

What do you like?

[Ramble]

I am also a fond of the red beads and silver colorado blade.....hammered blade preferably. In the lower light conditions i prefer a willow leaf design with relflective green or blue tape on it with mathing beads. i have little to know experiance with glow blades, and my buddy who i fished quinte eyes using worm harnesses with has been out of comission the last few seasons with health problems. i'll check in with him agian this year, maybe he'll feel up it?

 

Good Luck

 

-R-

[Big Cliff]

Made one in a pinch one time on BOQ, one pink, one green' one blue blade, a few of whatever beads I had, the other guys laughed and called it Cliffie's Christmas tree. I caught 11, the other two guys in the boat caught 2 between them, for some reason, they didn't laugh so much any more LOL. I really think it has more to do with presentation than colour, I was letting out line untile I felt mine bumping bottom then bringing it up just a bit. Worked well for me at least!

[MuddyWater]

Gold blades are a must

[Billy Bob]

On small inland lakes I like a #2 or #3 Chartreuse Colorado Blade with 5 red beads.

 

Now on Lake Erie we use a lot of different blades in many colors and all the blades are twice the size used in the smaller lakes.

[sonny]

#4 colorado blades in watermelon,,,,can't beat it for a goto!

[eye-tracker]

Well no single favorite for me, as I let the walleye tell me what they want as every day or hour can be a little different. I usually start with a bait-fish pattern of beads and blades that mimic perch, sunfish, smelt or alewife. I always start off with a holographic #3 blade when working structure while pulling bouncers, on open water I will start with a #4 and move up as high as a #6 or #7 blade. Some days I will run tandems or singles in willowleaf, colorado, hatchet, chopper or indiana. I prefer to use facetted metallic beads that have a natural reflection like bait and never use the glow as I have yet to see bait that glows. I always pull crawlers behind my spinners as walleye just can't seem to resist the action of a crawler dancing and rotating behind a spinner.

 

Once I start to catch some walleye I start playing with bead colours and reflection until I dial in the best pattern for the day. I have found that sometimes on pink bead in the right position can make or break a great day of fishing. The beads are the most important part of a spinner harness as the blade is mostly vibration and the beads colours/pattern are always in view by the approaching fish.

 

I tie all my own as the day passes in the boat, which gives me unlimited options while I play with beads, blades, hook placement, size and colour to dial in the bite. Crawlers and spinners are the number one producing bait for me from spring to fall when fishing walleye on most every body of water I fish.

 

-sheldon

[danbo]

Small fluo red worked for us up in Geraldton years ago.

For Quinte I would use FireTiger blades on chartreuse beads.

Shield lakes..gold blades on red beads.

Edited April 21, 2008 by danbo

[Roy]

Yes, I make my own as needed on the water. They only take but a minute to make and you never end up with a tangled mess of ready made harnesses. I always carry a little kit in my tackle bag.

 

[Zubris21]

The Chartreuse harnesses by jiggernaut. I probably catch 9/10 of my walleye on this rig when Im bottom bouncing. They can be hard to find, but its my go to!

[legacey]

For me it's a white blade with pink 2 pink dots......

 

I don't know where I got my first one but lost it in Hay Bay in the flats of all places where there shouldn't be any snags. I had some made up for me afterwards and they've always done really well.

 

...come on Walleye 2008!

[walleyejigger]

i used to love charteuse beads and black/chartreuse 5 of diamonds blade

[kickingfrog]

The first harness I used had a silver blade and red beads (I guess that's why I always start there). It was about 8 inches long and was made with heavy wire, not mono, and had three big hooks. I did catch a lot of fish on it though. I make my own now as well in part because it's not that hard and I can control the line, hooks and bead pattern.

 

What about storing them? I've gone from a plastic tube that you wrap them around to little zip-top bags and back again to the plastic tube. I'm not happy with either but I don't know what's better.

[Zubris21]

What about storing them? I've gone from a plastic tube that you wrap them around to little zip-top bags and back again to the plastic tube. I'm not happy with either but I don't know what's better.

 

 

Whenever I use spinners it's typically because I'm bottom bouncing. I usually slide the open wire end of the bottom bouncer through the snap for the spinner, then I wrap the spinner around tightly and clip the hooks onto the weight. I know its not idea, but works for me and my rig is almost all ready for next time. Just have to put a big fat crawler on there.

[solopaddler]

Most of the waters I fish are heavily tannin stained so I'm a big fan of hotter blade colours like charteuse, lime green and hot orange.

Definitely prefer anything 2-tone though over one straight colour though, it seems to make a difference.

I'll generally use various colorodo style spinners and use a quick change clevice so I can change up blades easily.

Pretty much all I use are worms on my spinner rigs regardless of the season, but they've got to be large and conditioned. The conditioning process is crucial...

I've used Berkely Power worms and Gulp worms on occasion. They work okay when the bite is hot, but definitely will not outfish a conditioned crawler on a day to day basis ...

In water less than say 15' I'll slide a worm weight on my main line above the harness. The inline rigging and bullet shape helps the rig slip through weeds much better than a dropper rig or bouncer.

For waters beyond 15' I strictly use straight shaft (as opposed to the more common "L" shaped) bottom bouncers. Anywhere from 1-4oz in weight.

I run another quick change clevice on my main line above the spinner rig. You can snap the straight shaft bouncers in and out of the clevice allowing you to change weight without having to re-rig...

(not sure if that's clear or not )

 

Cheers

[solopaddler]

What about storing them? I've gone from a plastic tube that you wrap them around to little zip-top bags and back again to the plastic tube. I'm not happy with either but I don't know what's better.

 

I've always got a couple of these in my tackle bag, made by Cabelas they're great:

 

[fishindevil]

I tie all of my own as well,and try several different blades & bead colors as well as double blades & singles too,i let the walleyes tell me what works best,but my mainstay is a #5 indiana blade,in chartruese & silver with green or orange beads...and well theres the greatest muskie color harness ever invented and thats a red beads with 2 silver#3 blades !!!!! many of kawartha lakes muskies have fallen to that one !!!!! cheers

[bucktail]

In Quinte its usually a chartreuse and orange combo and Lake Erie I almost always start with a big magnum purple setup.

[kickingfrog]

It's not as much of an inside secret anymore, but craft stores are a good place to get beads of just about every colour. Usually way cheaper too.

[doubleheader]

I started making my own harnesses about 10 years ago. The size, style, color, and presentation are dependent on the body of water and the mood of the fish. On Lake Erie I fish a completely different harness than on my home water an inland reservoir, and under normal conditions each of those is different than on a tanin colored lake. Typically I fish small Colorodo blades (3's and 4's) except when on Erie. In clearer bodies of water I start with natural colors, and with stained waters I get bright; sometimes downright gaudy with beads,floats and blades. Changing colors and speeds is critical until you figure out what the fish want. Last year on vacation we were on a very hot bite. One morning we fished for a couple hours with only a couple fish. I had to run back to camp and was gone for about 45 minutes. My buddy in another boat switched over to all red tiger blades and landed 7 fish before we got back. We ran red the rest of the day and hammered them. In shallow water I often just use in-line weight. I typically use mono up to 15 ft then switch to a small diameter braid that allows me to keep the BB as small as possible for the given type of bottom terrain. I like a very soft tip rod most of the time.