Best Sinkers for Walleye Fishing: How to Choose the Right Rig for Any Condition

From Lindy Rigs to Bottom Bouncers—Match the Right Sinker to Depth, Cover, and Fish Behavior

Use the lightest sinker that gives you good feel for the bottom and you'll catch more walleyes. | Photo by Joe Shead

Why Sinkers Matter for Walleye Fishing

There are lots of ways to catch walleye. Although they do suspend at times and in certain waters like Lake Erie, in many cases, walleyes stick pretty tight to the bottom. Thus, you need a sinker to keep your bait close to the bottom. There are several styles to choose from, so how do you pick the right one for the job?

Lindy Rig Sinkers: Classic Option for Live Bait

Lindy or walking sinkers are often used when drifting or trolling slowly with live bait on a plain hook. | Joe Shead

Al and Ron Lindner made the Lindy Rig famous decades ago, and it continues to produce plenty of walleyes. The Lindners patented their bent walking sinker shape. Although there's plenty of room for variation and experimenting, as sinkers go, these are generally light, from 1/4 ounce to 3/4 ounce. You would normally use them with live bait without spinners. Because of the light sinker, this rig is best fished at slow speeds, either drifting or trolling very slowly.

The rig is fished well behind the boat in order to reach bottom. The sinker slides along easily on sand or mud. Most anglers let out enough line to occasionally tick bottom, so you know you're in the strike zone. However, don't drag it on the bottom or you might get snagged. When a fish hits, the angler feeds line to the fish. The line slides through the sinker and the fish is free to take line. Then, after a few seconds, the line is tightened until the angler feels weight, then sets the hook.

The Lindy No-Snagg sinker is a more modern update to this style of fishing. The No-Snagg sinker is designed to move over rock or rubble without snagging.

Bottom Bouncers: Best for Deep, Snaggy Cover

Bottom bouncers keep your live bait rig above snaggy rocks. They get down quickly and are trolled as vertically as possible. | Joe Shead

A bottom bouncer has a lead weight and a wire dropper that is designed to be fished as close to vertical as possible, unlike the Lindy sinker. The rule of thumb is one ounce of weight for every 10 feet of water to keep your presentation nearly vertical. You can make near-constant contact with the bottom to ensure you're at the right depth.

The wire dances over rocks or other snaggy bottom types, but can also be fished over sand or gravel. The bottom bouncer is trolled at faster speeds; usually with a spinner harness. The line is fixed to the bottom bouncer, thus, there's no dropping the line back when a fish hits; you just set the hook immediately. Often, the fish is simply on there and you don't feel a classic walleye tap.

Slip Bouncers: Feed Line to Finicky Walleyes

Slip bouncers are much like traditional bottom bouncers, but they have a slide attachment, that allows them to be dropped so the angler can feed line to a fish.

Bullet Sinkers: Top Choice for Weeds and Shallow Fish

Bullet sinkers fished with live bait rigs for walleyes cut through weeds or stay above them. They are good choices for fishing shallow water. | Joe Shead

Bullet sinkers are utilized when you want to cut through vegetation or stay just above it to access the walleye that live in the weeds. Use a light 1/8- to 1/4-ounce sinker fished in front of a swivel and a live-bait harness. Troll just a short cast behind the boat; maybe 25 feet. This keeps your bait riding high over weed tops or shallow bottom. A spinner rig fished 25 feet behind the boat on a 1/8-ounce sinker is only going to fish about 6 feet down at 1 mph, making it a good presentation when fish are shallow or when you're trying to stay above weeds.

Final Tips for Choosing the Right Walleye Sinker

Knowing the right style and weight of the sinkers you need for a variety of conditions will help you put more walleye in the boat. | ChurchTackle.com

These are some of the basic sinker types when drifting or trolling for walleyes. Depth, boat speed, wind and current all help dictate the size of sinker to use. Use the lightest sinker that gives you good feel with the bottom. Keep in mind, if wind or current pick up, the sinker that worked in the same spot yesterday may be too small for today's conditions.