Teach me how to fish with a leech

[10point]

I have never used a leech and have not really fished for walleye but will be in June at Dog Lake. I plan to use leeches. Do I just use a jig head and bounce them off the bottom or should I use a lindy rig which I also have not used before. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Nipfisher]

Lindy rig or an in-line spinner (mutiple threads here recently) work well with leeches. Jig will work too but would use a minnow with the jig over leech.

[lunkerbasshunter]

i would use a jig and bounce it off bottom and lift it up off a foot or 2. this action triggers strikes for me. For walleye though I have always had better luck with minnows. Bass love the leaches though!

 

Cheers!

[Rattletrap2]

I used to fish leeches all the time, but haven't bothered with any live bait for a long time. I guess I'm just to lazy to look after them! LOL

 

I liked a Lindy rig with a 1/4 oz. walking sinker that is free to slide up and down the main line. Then a swivel and leader tied to a "Phelps Floater" jig and leech hooked through the "sucker end". Just stick your hand in the leech bucket and the most aggressive one will find you! This is the one you want!

Experiment with different leader lengths, colours of jigs, and even sinker weights. It's nice to have the jig head and leech floating just above the weeds.

 

You can also play around with different set-ups including different floats, coloured beads, and even spinner blades. Leeches are pretty hardy. All you need to do is keep them with fresh water and keep them cold. They are a lot tougher than nightcrawlers if there are lots of panfish around as well. Worms would also be good to try.

 

I always found Minnows so fragile and they died on me more often than not.

 

Let us know how you make out!

[adempsey]

Bottom bouncer and slip bobber rigs would also work. I really like Lindy Rigs, but I find that the fish tend to swallow the hook more often. It's fine if you want to keep them, but if you get to the point where you are catching a lot of fish and have to release them other methods might be better.

 

Hook the leech through its mouth. Their skin is pretty tough, so you only really need to pass the hook through once.

 

I find using aLeech Tamer to hold them in is handy as well.

[Handlebarz]

When I lived in Sudbury and used them I liked just a jig head either plain, silver flake, black, or Chartreuse I would hookem through the head and jig them they were deadly for everything when out walleye fishing.

[ChrisK]

Lindy rig set up with a floating jig head if your dragging bottom. If your anchored or on a slow drift then regular jig head bounced of the bottom.

[Canadave]

When I fish with a leech I always make sure the leech is sitting at the opposite end of the boat from where I'm sitting. Those things give me the creeps.

[HTHM]

When I fish with a leech, I tell him (or her) sorry I am all out of......

[camillj]

My PB Walleye was on a Worm about a foot off bottom - drifting lazily along at high noon.

[Billy Bob]

Fishing with a leach can be hard and a long expensive day...take my cousin Don...he was the best leach I know....I paid for everything and when he reached into his pocket at the end of the day he only had $5 to give me for truck gas, boat gas, tolls and bait...I no longer fish with the leach....

[Handlebarz]

Fishing with a leach can be hard and a long expensive day...take my cousin Don...he was the best leach I know....I paid for everything and when he reached into his pocket at the end of the day he only had $5 to give me for truck gas, boat gas, tolls and bait...I no longer fish with the leach....

 

 

Billy I have weeded out a few of them leeches also. One thought if he brought minnows that was his share. I don't use minnows for walleye and by the end of our last trip out he was using my gulp alive so he could catch a fish.

[Canuck2fan]

Not applicable to walleye but if you want some real fun. Head out to your favourite steelhead hole in July when bass are legal. Rig up your float setup just like for chrome except with a bigger hook and a leech instead... and HANG ON.