A Complete Guide To Lindy Rig Fishing (Detailed Guide)

Do you know about guide to lindy rig fishing? You’ve almost certainly heard of the Lindy rig if you’ve ever talked to another fisherman about walleye fishing and the most delicate baits or fishing gear.

It’s tough to discuss live bait walleye fishing without mentioning the Lindy rig, which has updated this style of fishing since its introduction in the 1960s. The Lindy rig is a well-known walleye fishing rig utilized by millions of fishers each year and is highly sought after for catching your next trophy walleye.

But how do you put up a Lindy rig, and what are the various variations? This post will go over how to tie a Lindy rig and when and how to use it. We’ll also demonstrate some of the most efficient versions of this setup to help you catch more fish.

What Is The Lindy Rig?

The Lindy rig consists of a sliding sinker, a snap swivel, and a leader with a snelled hook for bottom fishing. It’s mainly used for walleye fishing, but it also works well for bass, trout, catfish, and other fish that like to feed along the bottom.

The original Lindy rig has been developed into various modifications, including extra elements to change the presentation of your bait, whether it’s live minnows, crawlers, or leeches. You might be able to customize a basic Lindy rig if you’ve learned how to tie one. Many anglers make variations of this classic fishing rig. We encourage you to do so once you’ve mastered the basic Lindy rig.

Guide To Lindy Rig Fishing Setup

Lindy fishing rigs are easy to make and may be adjusted in various ways to get the best results. Making knots is the most challenging component of angling, yet learning the fundamental knot procedures will help you considerably enhance your angling skills.

Let’s talk about how to put up a Lindy rig now. For this, you’ll need the following items:

Mainline: braid or monofilament of 10 to 15 lb test

Swivel: size 4 to 6 snap swivel

Leader: 4 to 6-pound fluorocarbon test

Weight: 1/8-to-1-ounce sliding sinker

Hook: size 2 to 6 octopus hook

Setup instructions:

Tying it to the snap swivel after threading your mainline through the sliding sinker. Then, Snail a size 4–6 hook onto the leader line, count out 2–5 feet of leader, and tie a loop at the end. Finally, clip the leader’s circle onto the snap swivel, and you’re ready to go.

It’s best to use a Lindy rig with a 6 to the 7-foot-long spinning rod with rapid action and a light to medium rod weight. A spinning reel size of 2000 to 3000 is ideal.

Lindy rig weights

Making the most of your Lindy setup requires selecting the appropriate weights. The majority of anglers use a walking sinker or a boot sinker. You might also be able to find a Lindy walking sinker, which is specifically built for rigging. The Lindy walking sinker is a flat, extended, curved lead piece with a large eye at the top., allowing the line to slide through quickly in the original design.

The Lindy no-snagged sinker is a banana-shaped sliding sinker with a wire extension at the bottom, making it less likely to be caught on the base structure.

Lindy no-snagged sinkers are highly recommended for avoiding getting your weight snagged. You are free to utilize any other kind of sliding weight, such as a bullet, egg, or bank sinkers.

Lindy rig variants

If you look around long enough, you will notice a variety of alternative versions of the fundamental Lindy rig design. Minor modifications will be made by both starting and expert anglers to achieve the most remarkable results from their rigging. 

The majority of the adjustments are in the leader length. It depends on the type of water they’re fishing in and the size of the fish they are targeting. However, you may also select a different or dual swivel, a different form of a hook, or even a more significant hook point.

We will be unable to cover all of the Lindy rig variations in this article. Still, we’d like to highlight three of the most important ones that considerably improved the rig’s performance and ability to catch fish in specific scenarios.

 Lindy rig with floating jig head

Another way to get your bait to float off the bottom is to use a floating jig head. This is very popular when fishing a floating minnow rig for walleye with a live minnow on the floating jig head. This can help attract dispersed walleyes, letting them take your hooks quickly and give your reel a pleasant tug.

Rather than securing a hook to the leader, this variation uses a size 2 to 4 floating jig head. Another benefit is playing with various jig head colors to make your presentation more appealing.

Lindy rig with a crawler harness

The Lindy rig is ideal for trolling walleye because it lets you offer your bait near the bottom, where most walleye may be found. The crawler harness is one of the best bait presentations you can use with the Lindy rig for trolling walleye.

You can make your worm harness or purchase one already manufactured at a tackle shop. Connect the loop at the end of the leader to the snap swivel once your crawler rig is complete and your Lindy crawler rig is ready to use.

If you’re fishing with giant nightcrawlers, a tiny float or bobber can help keep them lifted above the muddy bottom; otherwise, they’ll fall like a rock.

Floating Lindy rig

The original Lindy rig has the disadvantage of presenting your hook directly on the bottom, which isn’t always optimal. Many fish, including walleye and trout, prefer bait suspended slightly above the base to temptation lying now on the bottom.

The floating Lindy rig cleverly solves this issue. It comes with a sliding float looped into the leader line that raises your baited hook above the water’s surface. This is especially beneficial if you want your theme to float over the weeds growing on the bottom.

You may get your bait to float above the weeds by adjusting the length of your leader. Then the line between the float and the hook.

A plastic or glass bead keeps the float from completely slipping onto the hook. You can secure the dot to the leader by looping the line through it multiple times or using a bead peg.

Related post: Trout Fishing Destinations in Utah

Brief Lindy rig history

The Lindy rig was created by the late Ron Lindner in 1968 and quickly gained a reputation among fishers as one of the most fantastic bottom fishing rigs on the market, particularly for walleye.

According to Ron, over 70 million Lindy rigs have been sold. When you include the number of anglers that tie their own, millions of anglers use this rig every season.

Since 1968, innumerable versions of the original Lindy rig have been built, including some of the most noteworthy ones above.

The ways to fish a lindy rig 

Fishing using a Lindy rig for walleye and other species is both practical and exciting. It works with any style of rod or reel. Lindy fishing can be done in a variety of methods. You can use a baited hook to cast it out, wait for a strike, cast and retrieve it, drift it, or troll it.

Lindy rig trolling

Maintaining consistent contact with the ground is crucial when trolling with a Lindy rig, requiring the right trolling speed and weight. As a general rule, keep your line at a 45-degree angle and check for regular bottom contact with your sliding sinker.

The optimal trolling speed for a Lindy rig is about 1 to 1.5 mph, and you’ll probably need to upsize your sinker to 1 or 1 1/2 oz to get it down to the bottom successfully. You don’t want to troll too fast when trolling a nightcrawler Lindy rig to avoid ripping the worm off the harness. It also works well with nightcrawlers when exploring with a delayed death setup.

Fishing a Lindy rig from shore

It’s best to use a stationary fishing technique while employing a Lindy rig from the shore, where you put out your bait and wait for a fish to come by and take it. When using live bait, it’s best to avoid casting and retrieving your rig frequently, as this will almost always result in the bait being pulled off the hook.

Lindy rig drift fishing

Walleye drift fishing with a Lindy rig is excellent because of it. It allows you to slowly pull your sinker across the bottom while keeping your bait in the strike zone.

This is a great way to catch live walleye with live bait on top of notable underwater formations in lakes such as underwater hills, reefs, or saddles. When trolling with a floating jig head to keep your live bait floating above the bottom, you should make frequent bottom contact with your sinker. 

How To Make A Lindy Rig?

Pre-made Lindy Rig Kits are the most convenient way to set up a Lindy Rig. You can also make your own from scratch, a more cost-effective option for the serious angler.

Setup: 

The first step is to thread your fishing line onto your reel. Attach your sinker to the end of the line after that (either this type of Lindy Walking Sinker or the design No Snag Sinker). Add a swivel to the line to keep the sinker in position. Then allowing it to move up and down the line. Connect a 12-36-inch length of line to the barrel swivel’s opposite end. The length is up to you; longer is more common. Finally, tie a snell knot at the end of this thread to secure your size 2, 3, or 4.

How To Use A Lindy Rig?

When fishing with a Lindy rig, the idea is to troll it softly through the water near the lake’s or river’s bottom. The sinker should keep the U-shaped line drawn down while The live bait should fall swiftly and move about naturally just above the muddy bottom.

Conclusion

This setup is one of the most effective for bottom fishing. The Lindy rig is the most effective method for obtaining guaranteed hits from that massive trophy fish. Walleye are an excellent species to target for both novice and experienced anglers. You’ll be catching walleye, trout, and other shallow-water fish in no time, whether you’re using the classic setup or experimenting with your versions.

The Lindy rig is all possible for trolling, drift fishing, and shore fishing. Depending on your experience level and the number of fish you intend to catch, you can tweak your particular configuration. One of the reasons it’s so popular is that it’s incredibly versatile.

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