This author is extremely picky about spinner crawler rigs. I assemble all of my own rigs using only the best, premium quality components. A few years ago, I started using fluorocarbon leader material on my spinners and have found Berkley Vanish in 12-lbs.-test ideal. The stuff is tough, nearly invisible underwater and it also has very little memory, so it doesn’t kink and coil like other leader materials. My leaders are always 4' in length and a loop knot is tied on the end. White, quick-change clevises are standard equipment. I never put beads in front of the clevis, as they tend to put pressure on the clevis reducing the spinning action of the blade at slow speed.

For a suspended fishing rig, I string on 7 or 8, 6mm beads preferring the 28 sided, plastic beads that I have only found in craft stores. My hooks are #4, Eagle Claw, Laser Sharp, short shank trebles. The front hook is attached with a snell knot. The stinger is about 8" behind the front hook and is attached with a half-blood knot.

Most of my blades are ordered from the Cabela’s Tackle Craft catalog. I use #6, Colorado blades exclusively for suspended rigs. My overall favorite pattern is chartreuse beads with either a plain chartreuse or chartreuse splash blade. I also like purple beads with a red splash blade or red beads with a hammered silver or red splash blade.

I try to find the biggest crawlers available for my suspended walleye rigs. The crawler is hooked crossways through the nose on the front treble hook. The stinger is stuck through the worm about 2/3 down its flank.

My bottom bouncing rigs start out with the same 4' leader length, but the lead is often shortened depending on the bottom composition and the mood of the fish. After sliding on a quick change clevis, two 6mm beads are strung on followed by a 3/4" rig float from Cabela’s, then two more beads are added. The rig float adds bulk and a little flotation, which prevents snagging. For hooks, I rely on #4, Eagle Claw Bait Holders, which I sharpen to a sticky point with a stone. I snell on the front hook and attach the rear hook 5" down with a half-blood knot. The crawler is strung onto the front hook and the stinger is applied about half way down the worm leaving plenty of tail for action. I often inject the crawler with air under the collar and in the tail.

My blades for bottom bouncing are #3, Colorados. Favorite colors are chartreuse beads, float and blade or orange beads, chartreuse float and yellow orange splash blade. I also like pink beads and float with a silver blade, red beads, red float and silver blades or gold beads, chartreuse float, gold blade.

Rocco Papandrea and I agree that our overall favorite trolled, suspended crawler presentation involves using a Pa’s Lures. A very popular bait on Saginaw Bay, Pa’s also work wonders on Erie’s walleyes.

Pa’s Lures are like a cross between a sinker and a crankbait. A piece of lead is molded onto a wire shaft like a weight forward spinner. The painted weight has a crankbait style diving lip and the lure has a few beads and spinner blades for attraction. The diving lip allows the Pa’s to maintain depth better than a weight forward spinner, snap weight or sinker. Pa’s are readily available at every bait shop around Saginaw Bay, but I’ve yet to see one anywhere around Lake Erie. A search on the Internet found them for sale at www.walleyecentral.com/paslures.htm.

I use 3/4-oz. deep diver Pa’s exclusively and match the color of the PA’s to the bead color of my harness. Out of the package, I make a quick modification to the Pa’s lures replacing the supplied single hook with a ball-bearing snap swivel to which I attach my crawler harness. A 1-2' harness lead length seems to work best behind Pa’s. I try to keep my trolling speed at 1-1.5 mph and vary the setback to target specific depths. For accurate presentations, the book Precision Trolling (800-353-6958) has running depth information for Pa’s lures. I usually run a spread of Pa’s behind inline boards.

Pa’s can also be used as a casting lure. Using the supplied single hook, string on a chunk of a crawler and cast it out, let it sink a few seconds and then retrieve it.

When fishing snaggy waters or shallow spots, I prefer using a simple, rubber-core sinker or snap weights to take the rig to the desired depth. Last summer I had a great day catching walleyes on crawlers by letting out 100' of line, attaching a snap weight and then letting out just two feet of line and putting on a board. The fish were in shallow water and just under the surface.

Bottom bouncers are perhaps the best way to take walleyes with sand rubbing their bellies. I’ve had my best luck with standard, Plain Jane, unpainted bouncers. Bottom bouncers can be used as an effective drifting presentation, but they really shine when slowly trolled.

One of the biggest mistakes anglers make is not using a heavy enough bottom bouncer. I rarely use lighter than two-ounce bouncers and typically use three or four ouncers. Walleyes are attracted to the silt that the bouncers kicks up, but the key is to let out just enough line so the wire tip skips on the bottom without dragging. For bottom bouncing I rely on Fireline. The no stretch feature of Fireline communicates every tic and bump to the rod tip so the angler can adjust the setback or re-bait after a perch attack. I usually stick my rods in the holders and run the bouncers right behind the boat, however I sometimes run a couple on diminutive, TX-12 inline boards and watch them like a hawk. I usually try to keep my speed under one mph when pulling crawlers across the bottom but sometimes it pays to experiment with speed.

On one trip last year the walleyes were deep and just wouldn’t take a slow moving crawler, so we trolled with Hot’n’Tots down deep and caught some fish, but they were only coming sporadically.

Just for kicks, I sent out a couple spinner/crawler rigs behind bottombouncers. I used four-ounce bouncers and kept the trolling speed at 2.0 mph. It didn’t take long before we started taking walleyes regularly on the bottom bouncers that were running right behind the boat. That fast trolling, multi-pronged technique paid off with limit catches on several charters last year and we seemed to take the biggest fish on the crawlers.

The best storage method that I’ve found for spinner/crawler rigs is to buy one of those noodle floats that kids use as pool toys. I cut them into foot long sections and also cut a shallow slit around the tube every couple inches. The leader with the loop knot is wedged into the slit and then wrapped around the tube with the hooks burred into the foam to keep the rig in place. The tubes can then be stored in a bag or boat compartment. Send questions to [email protected].