Over the years there have been numerous so-called “secret tactics of the Pros” that have popped up in the walleye world. For instance, the slip-sinker live bait rig was one of those early tactics that only a select handful of Minnesota guides used to coax tight lipped ‘eyes from deep summer structure. That was until a pair of brothers from Chicago made a few small refinements to the technique, shared it with the angling world, and eventually built an empire known as The In-Fisherman from that foundation. OK, so that’s simplifying the story a bit, but you get the idea; most popular fishing techniques started out as a “secret” some where along the line, but like most “secrets” in fishing, they don’t stay secret for ever.

One such “secret” tactic that has been getting a lot of attention the past year or so is one that we’ve been having great success with in all sorts of livebait rigging situations. It’s called “Slow Death Rigging”. It’s one of those techniques that anglers “in-the-know” have been utilizing but keeping under wraps for several seasons now. Credit for the presentation goes to a South Dakota guide and tournament angler, Dave Spaid. It’s said that Dave would observe the small smelt that would get caught up in the turbines coming through the Oahe Dam; they would then come rolling and flickering down the current – an easy meal for waiting walleyes and other predators. Through trial and error, he discovered that a short piece of crawler on a bent Aberdeen-style hook immitated the “Slow Death” of these smelt as they washed downstream.

The key to the Slow Death presentation is the hook. The problem was to get the hook-bend just right so the bait would spin consistently. In the past, we’d take a size #2 Mustad Aberdeen hook and with much experimentation trying various “bends” in the hooks we finally got a design that gave us the action we were looking for. Once we had the hook bend figured out, we took the idea to Mustad and asked if they’d produce a hook with the specific design we had developed. They jumped on the idea, and we now have a factory made hook specifically designed for the Slow Death presentation. Mustad’s Slow Death Hook model 33862 comes in 3 finishes, red, bronze and gold, and has the perfect bend to give the action needed to make this presentation work.

The Slow Death tactic is most often fished as a modification of the bottom bouncer-live bait rig. From the bouncer, run a 3 to 4 foot leader of 10-pound test Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon then tie on the Slow Death Hook. To properly rig the hook, thread a nightcrawler up the hook right up over the eye and knot, then pinch off the tail end of the crawler leaving about a half inch dangling off the back of the hook.

This rig has proven deadly in many of the same scenarios where you’d run a bottom bouncer spinner combination. For instance, situations when walleyes are scattered across main-lake flats or feeding shelves on points in depths of 12 to 25 feet, or possibly when walleyes are relating to specific structure such as a channel edge or even deep weed edges. As far as how fast to run the rig, you want to move along a little slower than the speed you would when running spinners; in the ½ to ¾ mph range or just fast enough to get the hook and bait spinning seductively in the water. The Slow Death rig is a presentation that lends itself well to situations where you need to cover water but want to do it with a “power finesse” attitude.