Take a Break in Your Retrieve

One of the most common mistakes made when casting cranks for shallow walleyes is to cast and wind without pausing the bait at all. Putting a pause in your crankbaits is one of the best ways to trigger more strikes and make it easier for the walleye to actually catch your lure. There are two ways to put a pause in your retrieve. First, manually pause several times on the way back to the boat. Something like wind, wind, wind, stop, wind, wind, stop will do the trick. The other way to create a pause is to use a crankbait that dives deep enough to be pounding bottom on the retrieve. Each time the bait ticks bottom it will pause for a split second giving the walleyes an opportunity to eat. Next time you are casting cranks for walleyes remember to give them a chance to eat by pausing your bait somewhere in the retrieve.