I have written many articles on how to catch walleye over the years. Most of those articles focused on ways to catch a nice feed of eater sized walleye. However, if catching a walleye with an eye the size of a silver dollar interests you, I have a recipe to make that happen. It involves trolling oversized, diving crankbaits with heavy trolling gear and some patience. You will also need to be on a water body in northern Ontario that can deliver a giant walleye. The folks at Wilderness North have already got that part covered.  So you just need to put the other ingredients together and you’ll have a real opportunity of catching the walleye of a lifetime.

I first got onto the big crankbait trolling game for walleye years ago on the Winnipeg River, in Manitoba. Although most anglers were jigging, my angling partner had us on a different program. We were trolling a variety of deep diving baits that could dive down to 20 feet or more. We used large, long rods and bait cast reels with line counters. Using a line counter reel allowed you to know exactly how far back the lure was behind the boat. The bites were few, but when they came, it was almost always a large fish. At one point, we had a double header of 30-inch fish, the kind of walleye most anglers dream about. Both fish had nailed the deep diving crankbaits.

I never forgot how effective that technique was, and have used it many times since, in the lakes and large rivers of northern Ontario. Let’s look a couple of the best deep diving crankbaits for walleye and where to fish them.

Deep Diving Crankbaits

There are quite a few deep diving crankbaits on the market these days and most of them will work when you are targeting trophy walleye. I’ve found the Rapala Deep Tail Dancer 11 to be effective for big walleye just about everywhere. It is my go-to crankbait when I want to try for a giant. The Tail Dancer 11 will get you down deep to 15 feet or more, even with heavier line, and has the large wobble and profile that giant walleye like. If the TD 11 seems too big, a TD 9 will work well. Have a selection of sizes. I’ve also found the jointed Rapala Deep Diving Husky Jerk to be a great trophy walleye lure. The jointed lure has greater wiggle and is a thinner profile, which can be good where walleye are feeding on smelt and shiners.

Speaking of smelt, the LIVETARGET Deep Diving Smelt is another favourite. The LIVETARGET Smelt has a great, shiny finish, suspends when paused and features a knocking sound underwater. The deep diving smelt can get down to 12 feet or more, depending on the line test and speed. That makes it a great lure on long flats where walleye might be cruising. The LIVETARGET Deep Diving Perch is also worth having in your crankbait arsenal. Walleye feed heavily on perch and have a hard time passing up an easy meal wiggling by.

As for colours, the already mentioned smelt/silver and perch are always worth a try, I’ve also had good luck with metallic perch and fire-tiger finished crankbaits. There are a number of glow finishes out there as well. Glow is worth a try in dark water or if you are fishing in low light.

Terminal Tackle for Crankbait Trolling

These days, I troll large crankbaits almost exclusively with heavy, fiberglass or composite rods such as a nine-foot Shakespeare Ugly Stik. You don’t need high density graphite when you troll deep diving cranks. You want a forgiving rod that will put up with abuse but has the backbone to handle a ten-pound walleye. Couple that with a line counting bait casting reel that can hold a couple hundred yards of 30-pound braid. I prefer braid for trolling as there is much less line stretch, but 15-to-20-pound monofilament will also do the job. Use a metal clip to attach the crankbait and, if pike are around, it’s ok to use a steel leader. Big walleye aren’t line shy so running a steel leader will save some unwelcome (and expensive) bite offs.

Trolling speeds can be on the fast side, but they don’t need to be breakneck. I find a speed of 2.3 to 2.6 mph gets the crank moving well and will trigger more strikes. Don’t be afraid to play with your speeds a bit, slowing down or speeding up as you see fit. The fish will tell you what they want. If the rod tip stops wobbling, there is likely weed or debris on the lure. A dirty lure won’t catch fish.

I often run the rods in holders as a crankbait does not need to be worked by an angler. If anything, constantly pumping on a fishing rod may turn fish off. Put your reel clicker on and set your drag so it will slip if there is a strike. A big walleye won’t always pull line if the drag is tight. Play a big walleye carefully, and don’t horse it in. You are not in a race.

Trolling Crankbaits Location

Much of the crankbait trolling I do for big walleye is on large flats of 10 to 20 feet. Flats are prime crankbait locations, especially if there are areas of cabbage weed and structure. The walleye may be deeper than that, but often the most active fish are in slightly shallower water or holding off the bottom a little bit. If there is a main lake point that sticks out onto a flat, it’s going to be a fish magnet. There are loads of reason why points attract fish, but you can assume that if there is a point, walleye will be holding somewhere near by. The larger fish may be a bit deeper, but they will be around. Trolling passes by a point should come at a variety of angles, so that fish get a look at the crankbait in different ways. If a wind is blowing in on a point, so much the better.

If you have the ability to mark reefs and rockpiles on electronics with GPS, it will help you map out trolling routes.  Make passes around the reefs and along the edges of them. Unless the reef is deeper than 10 feet or more, you may not want to troll right over it however. Deep diving crankbaits have the nasty habit of digging into rocks and cracks and that can mean lost lures. You will lose lures trolling, but the modern deep diving crankbait is not a cheap lure, so you won’t want to leave them all over the bottom. Using heavier line will help your retrieve more lures from snags, but it will also impact how deep you can get.

Give trolling with a mega crankbait a shot this season, you might catch the largest fish of your life.