This has been educational. It sounds like most of you use them similar to the way I use cranks, as a search bait. I don’t carry much Gulp or Powerbait anymore. The cranks get the active fish. I can see where it would be productive to use a Lindy when the fishing is slow. Anyway, I’m working on a tackle reduction plan to simplify my options. I may miss a few fish, but as db pointed out, we don’t need many to have a fish dinner. Like Wally 13, when I locate waldo, I start jigging. That’s when I use plastic or the smelly baits. 

Thanks wallee13. Good comprehensive overview. It's as much as where and when to fish this set-up as it is to know how I should go about putting one together.

Wally13 wrote on Feb 9^th, 2018 at 7:46pm:


I can attest to Wally13's expertise re walleye.  But I have to ask you, Mike....you showed me the technique of using the Mack Lure Super Slow Death Rig last summer and I actually used in last fall with great success....it seems similar to the Lindy rig, but for me, who used the Lindy while growing up in southern Minnesota, that the death rig seemed much more productive.  Care to comment/enlighten us neophytes?

HighnDry wrote on Feb 14^th, 2018 at 6:32pm:


Kind of like the old adage, ‘I provide free information. Good information costs extra.’ 

Pine_knot,

Sorry to take so long to respond to your post a few weeks ago asking me for more info on how I fish  a Mack Slow Death Rig. I was on vacation for 2 weeks and when I got back to viewing QJ ... I must have missed your post. No worries ... I am back and vacation has recharged my battery and I will certainly give you my insight into this fishing tactic. No BEERS needed. LOL.

Slow Death Fishing is really nothing new but is really an adaptation to Spinner Nightcrawler harness fishing that has been around since the late 80's and early90's.  Instead of pulling a spinner blade and a double hook worm harness or spinner blade with single hook and minnow or leech, someone ( I think it was Bob Probst) took a 45 degree bent Aberdeen hook to the market with a trailing crawler and "Slow Death" was born.

This crazy "Bent Hook" madkes the crawler attached to the hook spin in a wide circle and  drive walleye to hit especially when they are neutral to negative. What makes this rig so effective is its ability to be fished at variable speeds ... sometimes as slow as .3 mph and still getting real good movement/action from the spinning crawler.

I like to pull spinner blade crawler rigs to cover lots of water when walleye are fairly active and aggressive. I often switch to the bent hook Slow death approach when walleye are more finicky and less active where I slow down and try to TRIGGER them to bite on the wide turning slow death rig threaded with 1/2 a crawler.

Mustad came out with a Slow Death Light Wire Long Shanked Hook several years ago and I like to thread a #2 slow death hook with 1/2 a live crawler and when in Quetico I use Gulp 3 inch  natural colored Killer Crawlers.

Mustad has since introduced a SUPER SLOW DEATH hook (Model #33863NP-BN) which is a heavier guage wire and its aggressive bend in the shank allows one to spin now even full length crawlers with deadly effectiveness. The bigger heavier guage hook will stand up to bigger 25+ inch females that I try to catch. A 4inch Gulp Crawler will spin very nicely on the Super Slow Death hook. The CORKSCREW spin is what triggers neutral to negative fish to bite. In fact, I have even caught walleye with slow death even when the dreaded MAY FLY Hatch causes poor fish catching using conventional methods like jigging and trolling crank baits and even pulling crawler spinner rigs.

You can pull Slow Death rigs behind a 2 oz. Bottom Bouncer weight or a 1/2 to 3/4 oz. Lindly slip weight.

When using a bottom bouncer weight I usually use braided line (Suffix 832  10 lb.) to the weight and then tie on  30 inches of  fluorocarbon leader to my Super Slow Death Hooks.

You can use a Lindy Slip weight  ahead of a #10 barrel swivel and tie on a fluro leader to your Super Slow Death Hook and crawler.

I use longer 30 - 40 inch  leaders in clear water and shorter 18 to 20 inch  leaders in stained water.

Mack Lures took the Super Slow Death Hook a step further and has a Super Slow Death Hook pre rigged setup with a Mylar blade in front with a bead , float, bead and Super Slow Death Hook. I really like this Mack Blade in front of a Super Death Hook as the mylar blade adds flash, color and vibration that seems to call in more walleye to the rig setup. .

There are a lots of slow death hook variations and I haven't tried them all. Matzuo's Rip N Roll 1/0 hook with a 5 mm bead in front of the hook with a 1/2 a Gulp Crawler  appears to be working with some walleye pro's.

Berkley has Fusion 19 Slow Death hook and may be a winner but I haven't tried it yet.

Ok ... my post has gone a bit long. Bottom line ... Slow Death is a proven winner. However,  I fished last June with Pineknot and found walleye fishing to be tough in the unstable and low pressure fronts that we encountered during our 10 day trip. Slow Death even couldn't bring in the walleyes on that trip. But more often than not,  I find Slow Death to be quite effective. 

Tight Lines