The meat rig, more commonly known as the crawler harness, it is one of the most effective baits available for catching walleye. You can spend anywhere from two dollars, or as high as four dollars to add one of these rigs to your eye catching arsenal. The alternative is to build your own, for a dollar or less! I will also show you an inexpensive and time tested method to store your harnesses at the end of “lesson”.
Here’s what you need to purchase:
(one) 1/4 lb spool of Trilene Big Game clear mono, 15 or 20 lb test.
Some colorado blades, sizes 2,3,4 or 5. The size depends on the method of fishing you enjoy most.
Hooks, like the Mustad Ultra Point Beak Hook, either size 2 or 4.
Selection of beads, 5 or 6 mm
Piece of styrofoam, for tieing several rigs at once.
Size 1 or #2 folded Clevis
Bottle of Flex-Loc from Larva Lace, head and knot cement
Pair of small spring loaded wire snips
4 inch water noodle or foam pipe insulation
wooden toothpics
one applicator brush (arts and crafts store variety)
Ok, those are the ingredients, time to start cooking!
For starters I dont measure the line when I take it off the spool. It would just take too long, and even though you might not burn through a spool of line in a week like me, it is time wasted neverless. For a rough guideline, cut your casting rigs a little less than 2 ft long, dragging rigs about 30″, trolling lengths vary from 3 ft to 12 ft long. Rather than play with the traditional finger nail clippers, trust me and get a pair of those spring loaded wire snips. Should not cost you more than $3.00 at your local ACO, ACE, Meijer or Harbor Frieght Tool Store. Also, take them out on the boat with you when you go fishing, they are just too handy to leave behind.
Next step is to choose what kind of rig you want to make, and select the proper hook to make that harness work to its best ability. For casting and dragging, size 4 works best. It is a slower presentation and you can get more of the hook into the bait. For trolling, size 2 is the hook you want. You are covering ground and because walleye will take swipes at the bait, give them a bigger hook to sink their teeth into.
Now that you have the hook selected, take one of the end of the line that you took off the spool. Slide the end through the eye, down the length of hook’s shaft. Take the opposite end of the line in front of the eye, and pull it behind the eye. Start with ten tight wraps over the shaft and line that you ran through the eye. Hold these wraps tight between your forefinger and thumb while you get the opposite end of the line, and run it back through the eye. Pull it through the eye, and take up any slack there might be in the line or the wraps.
Now you have a casting rig, and if you want to make a dragging or trolling harness, just repeat the process to add one or two hooks to your length of line. Spacing between mulitple hooks should be roughly an inch and half. Take these leaders, and sink the hooks into the foam.
It can be any kind of foam you have handy around the house. It can be from a box that held your new TV, microwave or stereo. A strip of pink of insulation foam works, too.
Make as many rigs as you want, could be enough for the whole season, or just enough for your next trip. Once you are done tieing these up, grab the bottle of Flex-Loc and the applicator brush. Wet the brush, and dab a little of it on the wraps you made on each hook. If you cannot find this particular brand, you should be able to find a suitable subsitute at your local fly fishing shop. These are pretty quick to dry, so come back to it in a half hour or so.
The next step is to choose the beads you want to use. The 5 mm size will work for any rig you choose to tie up, and if you are just making trolling harnesses, you can use the 6 mm exclusively. If you want to make a casting or dragging presentation, choose a #2 sized blade and #1 clevis. Sizes 3,4 and 5 are for trolling with the size 2 clevis. You can determine the number of beads you want to use by having enough to where the blade just hangs on top of the eye of the hook. It is totally up to you, whether you want to put an additional bead in front of the blade and clevis on the line.
Blade colors vary, mostly by personal choice of the individual. Some of the basics to have are your copper, greens, gold and chartruse/orange colorado blades. You can go one step further and paint and design your own blades. Try and match the beads to the color of the blade, honestly this is probably my own personal hang up, but it works.
Last of all put a loop know in the end of the line. You can find a better diagram on any website that you found while searching fishing knots. Here is just one example of a webpage with a diagram… loop knot . If it starts to slip, cut it off and do it again until it locks into place when you pull it tight. For the casting and dragging rigs, place a bead inside the loop. Make the loop long enough to slide through an egg sinker, the bead will protect the knot from the sinker, and you can attach your snap and swivel to the opposite end of the loop on the top of the sinker.
All the components for your rig can be bought at either of these locations; Jann’s Netcraft , Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops. Whatever you see on the Netcraft website can be purchased in their showroom. Call ahead to make sure Cabela’s or Bass Pro has these items in stock.
Your first “meat rig” is now completed, now how are you going to store them? You can go out and spend some big bucks for different units, or you can try this simple solution. Take that water noodle that you got at the dollar store, or the pipe insulation from the local hardware store. Place the first hook behind the beads and bury it into the foam. Then stretch the line tight behind that hook and repeat the process until they are held secure by the foam.
Take the line in front of your blade, and wrap around the foam unitl you come to the loop. Take your toothpick, break it in half and use one end to secure the loop by pressing it into the foam.
You are all set with your own harnesses and ready to go drown some worms, good luck!