Walleye don't fish the same way twice. A fish that's glued to the bottom in cold, clear water wants something slow and subtle. The same fish two weeks later, chasing bait up through the water column, will crush something moving fast and loud. If you've ever had a "great" walleye lure go completely cold on you, it probably wasn't the lure's fault. You were probably fishing the wrong presentation for how the fish were actually behaving that day.
The best walleye lures for Ontario lakes and rivers are a jig tipped with a minnow or soft plastic, a minnow-profile crankbait like the Bandit Walleye Deep, a jigging spoon or Jigging Rap for suspended fish, and a crawler harness or spinner for trolling. Which one wins on a given day comes down to depth, water clarity and how hard fish are feeding.
Below is what to throw and when, the gear that pairs with each style of fishing, and some of the Ontario waters where these techniques produce best. Choosing the right walleye fishing technique for the conditions can make all the difference when it comes to presentation, timing, and finding active fish.
Understanding Walleye Depth and Mood
Walleye relate to light more than almost any other gamefish in Ontario. Their large, light-sensitive eyes are built for low-light hunting, which is exactly why dawn, dusk, and after dark are prime windows, and why bright, sunny days often push fish deeper or tighter to cover.
Depth follows the season and the light. Post-spawn fish often hold in shallow water and feed aggressively throughout the spring, with Ontario's different spawning cycles playing a big role in when that feeding activity picks up. Through summer, walleye settle onto structures like rock humps, deep weed edges, mud basins, and follow baitfish schools more than any fixed depth. By fall, they're feeding hard again ahead of winter, often suspended over open water chasing schools of baitfish.
Water colour changes what fish are hunting by. In clear water, walleye are sight feeders and can get leader-shy on pressured lakes. In stained or off-colour water, they're relying more on vibration and silhouette, which opens the door to louder, brighter presentations.
Speed matters too, and it's the lever most anglers underuse, as a slow-crawled jig and a fast-trolled crankbait can both catch the same fish on the same day, depending entirely on how aggressively they're feeding. And where you're fishing from changes what's practical: shore anglers are largely limited to casting distance, favouring jigs, crankbaits, and light jerkbaits worked along drop-offs and points within range. Boat anglers can add trolling and spinner rigs to the mix, covering far more water and depth range in a single pass.
Choosing Your Walleye Lure
Jigs and Soft Plastics
Jigs are the most versatile category in the walleye world, the one most anglers should default to when they're not sure what else to try.
Lure Lipstick Pro Series Walleye Jigs: A dedicated walleye jig in 3/4 and 1 oz, heavy enough to hold bottom in current or deep water. Tip it with a minnow or soft plastic and work it slowly along the structure.
Domo's Walleye Jig Heads: A locally made jig head in 5/8, 3/4 and 1 oz, built for rivers and deeper structure. Pair with a 3–4" paddle-tail or minnow-profile plastic for a presentation you can swim, hop, or drag depending on how active fish are.
Rapala Crush City The Suspect: A 2.75" paddle-tail from Rapala's Crush City lineup, small enough for tough, finesse-bite days. Rig it on a light jig head and swim it just off bottom for fish that want a moving target rather than something dead-sticked.
Blade Baits, Jigging Spoons and Gliding Jigs
For vertical presentations over structure or suspended fish, this category does the heavy lifting.
Rapala Jigging Rap: A horizontal jigging bait that glides on the fall. Snap it up and let it swim down and away on a semi-slack line. Walleye typically hit on the drop, so watch your line closely. Explore more options from the Rapala lineup to round out your walleye tackle.
Northland Buck-Shot Flutter Spoon: An S-curve flutter spoon with an erratic fall and a distinct high-pitched sound, strong over deep structure or open basins where fish are suspended.
Rapala Jigging Shad Rap: A shad-profile jigging bait with a slow, circling fall. Snap it up sharply and hold it at a fixed depth over suspended fish or deep structure, and tip the centre treble with a minnow head when the bite is slow.
Crankbaits and Jerkbaits
Best for covering water by casting to structure, or pulling behind the boat on planer boards.
Bandit Walleye Deep: A 4-3/4" slender minnow bait that reaches 27 feet, whether cast to a rock pile or trolled behind boards. One of the more reliable crankbaits on Ontario's bigger walleye water.
Bandit Walleye Shad: A shad-profile crankbait with flat sides and a tight, subtle wiggle, a better match when walleye are keyed on shad-style forage or turn their noses up at a wider wobble.
Rapala Original Floating: The balsa minnow that basically invented the modern minnow crankbait. The 3.5" size runs 3 to 5 feet with a subtle, natural wobble that doesn't spook wary fish, worked slowly along shallow structure at dawn and dusk.
Rapala X-Rap: A suspending jerkbait with an erratic side-to-side action and a long pause. Best in clear water where walleye can track the bait, and especially effective early season when fish are shallow and aggressive.
Spinner Rigs and Trolling
For boat anglers covering water rather than casting to specific spots.
Erie Dearie: A weight-forward spinner that's become a Great Lakes staple, tipped with a crawler or plastic and cast, drifted or trolled. Most closely associated with Lake Erie, but it produces well beyond it too.
Crawler harnesses: The classic Ontario trolling rig. A worm harness runs a spinner blade and beads ahead of a nightcrawler on one or two hooks, so fish get flash, vibration and real bait in one pass. Pull it behind a bottom bouncer or inline weight through summer and early fall.
Wolverine Tackle Silver Streak: A 4" trolling spoon built for aggressive action at any trolling speed, run behind snap weights or Dipsy Divers. A proven Great Lakes option for covering water and targeting walleye at different depths from the boat.
Thill Walleye Fishing Float Kit: For drifting live bait or jigs along current seams and structure, a slip-float setup covers more water than a straight bottom rig, and it's a favourite for river-mouth walleye in spring and fall. The kit pairs a balsa float with slip knots, split shot and two 1/16 oz jigs.
Matching Lure Colour to the Water
Walleye eyes are built for low light, and that same sensitivity is what should drive colour choice. Match the colour to how much the fish can actually see, not to what looks realistic from the dock.
Off-colour water, after a hard rain or in naturally tea-stained rivers and bays, calls for something fish can pick out by contrast rather than detail. Chartreuse, orange, and firetiger read as a strong silhouette in murky water, which matters more than looking like real forage.
Clear water flips the approach. Silver, perch, and gold shiner patterns blend in enough to pass for the real thing, which counts for more on pressured lakes where walleye have seen every bright bait in the box. The exception is light, not clarity: a dawn, dusk, or heavy-overcast bite can justify a brighter pattern even in gin-clear water, since the fish are working with less light regardless of how far they can see through it.
After dark, or once you're fishing deep enough that sunlight barely reaches, glow and UV finishes take over from straight colour. The Jigging Shad Rap comes in several glow patterns worth keeping in the box for exactly that window.
Top Ontario Waters for Walleye
Everything below is written for open-water fishing. Once these lakes freeze over, walleye behaviour and presentations shift, calling for different approaches to finding and catching fish through the ice.
Bay of Quinte: Widely regarded as some of the best trophy walleye water in North America, and for good reason. Its structure and depth changes concentrate roaming schools, and it produces big fish through open water as well as through the ice.
Lake Erie: One of the most productive walleye fisheries on the continent. For 2026, the lakewide quota was set at 10.171 million walleye, with 4.38 million allocated to Ontario (Outdoor News). Big-water trolling with spinner rigs and deep crankbaits is the standard approach here, covering the reefs and open basins where massive schools of fish roam. For a real charter captain's take on rigging for this water, see The Perfect Setup for Fishing Walleye on Lake Erie, featuring Captain Paul Powis of J&P Charters.
Lake Simcoe: Best known for lake trout and perch, with walleye as a secondary target. Provincial nearshore monitoring has found walleye numbers relatively stable over 30 years (Ontario.ca). Rocky shoals and steep breaks near shore are the places to start.
Lake Nipissing: Big, shallow, and full of life. Work the areas around Callander Bay and the shoreline off North Bay for consistent results. Nipissing has its own rules: the open-water walleye season runs from the third Saturday in May to October 15, and any walleye you keep must be 40 to 45 cm (Ontario Fishing Regulations, Zone 11).
Rainy Lake: Straddling the Ontario-Minnesota border, Rainy Lake's deep basins and current-fed stretches hold walleye through the season. Fish the edges of drop-offs, especially where current concentrates baitfish.
Stock Up and Get Out There
For the jigs and soft plastics above, a light-to-medium spinning rod is still the standard, with enough sensitivity to feel a subtle bite without extra weight you don't need. G. Loomis spinning rods, including the purpose-built GLX Walleye, are a well-regarded option. For crankbaits, jerkbaits, and anything trolled, a baitcaster setup takes over, giving better control when pulling baits like the Bandit Walleye Deep. For the spinner rigs and trolling section specifically, a dedicated line-counter trolling rod paired with trolling reels built for repeatable depth control makes it far easier to run a crawler harness or Silver Streak at a consistent depth. Daiwa, Okuma, and St. Croix are all well represented across the walleye rod and reel lineup at Angling Sports, at every budget.
Whatever's biting on a given day, having a few options across all four categories above means you're never stuck fishing the wrong presentation for the mood the fish are in. Stock up on your walleye tackle at Angling Sports before you head out.
FAQ
What is the best lure to catch walleye? A jig tipped with a minnow or soft plastic is the most consistent producer across Ontario walleye water. Boat anglers covering more ground should add a minnow-profile crankbait and a crawler harness.
What lures to use for walleye in Canada? Start with a jig and minnow, a Bandit or Rapala minnow bait, and a jigging spoon for suspended fish. On big water like Lake Erie, add spinner rigs and deep-diving crankbaits for trolling.
What colour lures work best for walleye? It depends on clarity and light, and they don't always agree. In clear water, key on natural colours, but low light (dawn, dusk, overcast) can justify a brighter choice. In stained water, chartreuse and orange stand out best regardless of light.
What is the best rig for walleye? A jig-and-minnow (or jig-and-plastic) combo is the most versatile rig across the widest range of conditions. For covering water from a boat, a crawler harness trolled slowly behind a bottom bouncer is hard to beat.
