When it comes to walleye fishing it’s the little things that can end up making a big difference. The wrong bait or lure on the right day can be completely ignored. Same goes for speed; too much or to little and you could easily come home empty handed. Walleye’s can be extremely fussy and you have to get things just right to make the most out of a situation, or at least have any chance of putting a few in the boat. While you can re-tie, re-rig, and change baits and lures until you find what they want, you have to have the right gear to hit a specific speed and keep it there.

Hitting the right speed can be accomplished several different ways and includes the use of the main motor, kicker, or electric trolling motor. Electrics have handled most of the slower speeds, the main for anything with a warp factor, and gas powered kickers for everything in between.

The main motor really doesn’t get the call that often because it will only troll down so slow, and it uses more fuel than a much smaller kicker. An option is to drop a drift sock of the bow which can get your speed down there but it will make the boat under steer when trolling forward and can be a little more difficult to handle. You can also run a sock off the back but it might get in the way if you’re bringing up a fish with a mouthful of treble hooks. On the other hand if you’re running fast (say over three mph), and or you’re dealing with a lot of wind; the main engine might be the way to go.

Many anglers hook their kickers up to the main motor steering system and use the wheel to control the boat. That’s fine for open water techniques or when working expansive flats, but when you absolutely positively have to work a tight contour line to catch fish you just don’t have the control that you do with a tiller handle. It’s also why my kicker motors are always rigged with a tiller handle as I can change speed and direction all at the same time. The downside of using a kicker for the slow to medium speeds is being able to lock in on the perfect pace. Another is the noise factor as a gas motors’ underwater exhaust produces plenty of commotion and can be real detractor when it comes to operating in shallow water.