One of our favorite ways to fish for walleyes during the warm weather is with a bottom bouncer and a spinner. In the summertime, the fish are typically spread out. A bottom bouncer and a spinner allows you to cover water and still use live bait. Even when the fish aren't real aggressive, they'll typically bite a crawler on a spinner.

Gary Parsons is the only person to have won "Angler of the Year" titles in all three professional walleye circuits.

The flash, thump and vibration of the spinner are what draws them in. The blade looks like the side of a baitfish, and when they get in close, the crawler’s scent and seductive action triggers a bite. It's kind of a one-two punch: drawing the fish close with flash and vibration and then giving them something good to eat once they arrive.

Northland makes an excellent bottom bouncer, the Rock Runner. It comes in a variety of sizes. A good rule of thumb for selecting the right bouncer would be: 1 ounce for every 10 feet of water. So if you're fishing in 10 feet of water, choose a 1-ounce bottom bouncer. At 20 feet, use a 2-ounce bottom bouncer, and so on.

Bottom bouncer/spinner rigs are best fished fairly slow, usually just fast enough to get the blade turning in the water. Working from the bow-mount trolling motor, concentrate on fishing one depth. Say you graph a piece of structure and see fish at 16 feet. What you’ll want to do is hold the boat at that depth with the bow-mount trolling motor, and precisely follow that 16-foot contour to stay in the strike zone.

Another reason to fish just one depth is that fishing spinners lends itself well to fishing a secondary rod where legal. In the Walleye Angler Signature Series there’s a rod called the Dead Stick. The Dead Stick is designed to be used with a bottom bouncer. Just set the bouncer so that it’s ticking along the bottom at a particular depth, and then put the Dead Stick in a rod holder. It'll catch nearly as many fish as a hand-held rod, sometimes even more. The Dead Stick has a very soft tip, which allows the fish to bite, without feeling much, if any resistance from the rod. As the rod doubles over, reach down, pull it out of the holder and catch the fish.

The Walleye Angler Signature Series 6' 6”' Bottom Bouncer rod is one designed to be fished hand-held. There are two things to look for in a good bottom bouncer rod. First is comfort. You want a rod that's light and not too long. You need to be able to feel the bottom bouncer tick along bottom, making sure there's good bottom contact. Second, the rod must be sensitive. The Walleye Angler Signature Series Bottom bouncer rods are made of high modulous, IM8 graphite. Sensitivity in walleye fishing is always important, because not all bites are aggressive.

Occassionally, especially when fishing a bouncer with plain live bait and no spinner, a fish will often grab the bait and swim along with it. The bite can be very subtle, much like a jig bite. If the fish feels something wrong -- it simply opens its mouth and swims away. A sensitive rod will help you feel that bite and set the hook quicker.

For spinners, our “hands-down” favorites are Northland Tackle’s Rainbow Baitfish Image Spinners. They have holographic blades, which combine flash and color for great fish attraction. In the past, the choices in spinner blades was limited. For instance, you could choose a hammered silver or brass blade to get a lot of flash, or a painted blade, like chartreuse, for color. The holographic blade provides both flash and color, allowing you to try couple of different things at once.

Keith Kavajecz is a "Legendary Angler" inductee into the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.

Most of the time we’ll tip a spinner with a nightcrawler. If the walleyes are super aggressive, or if a lot of perch, bluegills and other pesky fish are chewing up my crawlers, we'll switch to a 6-inch Berkley Power Bait Nightcrawler. The best colors are the pumkinseed or natural crawler color. They really look like a real crawler on the spinner, but are much more durable.

One thing to avoid with this presentation is moving the rod too much. That makes the bottom bouncer sweep forward, then fall over. You need to let the bottom wire of the bouncer tick along the bottom, doing the work for you. Another common mistake is letting out too much line. That bottom bouncer should track at about a 45-degree angle back from the rod tip. Letting out too much line will make a bottom bouncer tip over on its side and drag the bottom.

Keith Kavajecz and Gary Parsons of Kaukauna, Wis., are top competitors on the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail. They pioneered many of the trolling and open-water techniques that are commonly used today.

The article is courtesy of Bass Pro Shops Outdoor Site. For great fishing gear, shop our co-branded store today