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How’s that weekend honey-do list looking?
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Works for me! 😅 Now let's get into today's fishy goodness!
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“Golden” zander are a thing!
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I’ve seen a decent number of “golden walleyes” now over the years, but this is the first and only “golden zander” (close European cousin to the walleye that grows to stupid-big-dumb sizes) I’ve ever come across. From this Instagram reel – stunning!
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And no, it’s not dead/decaying 😅 can clearly see it moving in the short video clip.
I also thoroughly enjoy that it took down some sort of big Westin swimbait dealio in a similar color pattern to it:
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While we’re at it 😎 those big European perch can apparently get their Goldmember on too:
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Sam Sobi's early-ice hacks.
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If you don’t know Sobi (great dude!) he’s a fishing maniac who jumped full-time in the fishing YouTube’r world about 7-ish yrs ago now...been steady killing it ever since.
His #1 goal is to grow the sport of fishing, and IMO his ultra-positive attitude does just that. I always enjoy his content and can confirm that he’s the same genuine person both on and off the water.
His newest YouTube video talks some nice ice-fishing hacks that can help get you prepped for the season, including: How he attaches reels to rods using fiberglass tape and traditional hockey tape (4:37), uses the hot-bowl-of-water trick to spool 'em up with line (9:49), why ice anchor kits aren’t just for hub houses (14:04), and how he scouts new water using the onX Fish app (16:09).
Full vid here:
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Unlocking early-ice walleye opportunities with onX Fish
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If you’re a fish-head in MN or WI, you’re gonna want to add the onX Fish app (try it for free) to your phone’s home screen and put that puppy on speed dial! It’s literally a cheat code for finding your new favorite honey hole and so much more.
I’ve been using the app since earlier this summer and found multiple new lakes in my backyard holding walleyes – sometimes giants! – that I never knew existed. There’s so many things you can do with their different filtering options, and this new blog post hits a few of them:
> The first step in any successful ice fishing trip is identifying lakes with a healthy walleye population. onX Fish offers several features to guide your research. onX Fish provides species-specific data for countless lakes, enabling you to focus on those known for walleye. By selecting the fish species filter for walleye inside of onX Fish, and choosing from a variety of other characteristics, anglers can optimize their search for the criteria that best fit their fishing needs.
Locate New Lakes Near You: Whether you’re an angler exploring outside your usual spots or venturing into unfamiliar territory, onX Fish highlights lakes where walleye are present. Use the Walleye filter to scan for bodies of water near your location or in new regions and identify those with thriving populations.
Identify Lakes With Abundant Species: For anglers focused on action-packed fishing trips, use onX Fish to locate lakes with high-density walleye populations. Anglers can compare Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) values, and compare them to other lakes of similar class, all while looking for “outlier” lakes with much higher than average numbers of walleyes. These lakes are ideal for catching large numbers of fish, making them perfect for quick outings or teaching others how to fish.
Find Trophy Potential Lakes: Targeting trophy walleye? onX Fish provides insights into lakes with records of large fish. Look for state or local fish surveys within the App that highlight lakes where big fish have been documented. Trophy lakes may not always have high densities of fish, but they offer opportunities to land a personal best.
Locate Lakes With Keeper-Size Fish: If your goal is to catch perfect eater-size fish, onX Fish can guide you to lakes where walleye are abundant in the 15- to 20-inch range. Pairing fish species data with local regulations ensures you’re fishing within limits while maximizing your haul.
Another sneakily-awesome thing about the onX Fish app is the way it incorporates recent satellite imagery:
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Ice Up: See lakes that ice up first and completely for a better idea of where ice has hit across the Midwest.
Ice Roads: Clearly visible in satellite imagery, ice roads indicate where anglers are accessing lakes. These roads often lead to heavily trafficked areas, which can mean pressured fish.
Angler Traffic Patterns: Look for clusters of vehicles, shelters, or other signs of human activity. Avoiding high-traffic zones can increase your chances of finding less pressured, more aggressive walleye.
Undisturbed Areas: Conversely, imagery can highlight untouched
sections of a lake where fish may be more relaxed and easier to catch.
Once you start playing around in the onX Fish, you’ll realize there’s WAY more things you can do with it. And I’ll talk more of those here soon-ish.
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Side note: If you're not located in MN or WI and feeling a little salty (lol) just hang tight, because they have other states and provinces in the works.... 🤫
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1. NWT announces bigger payouts in 2025
But entry fees are increasing too:
> NWT is proud to announce deeper payouts for the upcoming season. Overall payout purse will increase and extend deeper into the field than in the 2024 season. Payouts will now be paid down to 31st place based on 125 boat field which will reflect a 1-in-4 payout. To mirror this new structure, entry fees will increase by 13% to $2,000 for Pro-Anglers and $650 for Co-Anglers, which will help support the expanded payout.
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> The 2025 NWT Championship will remain a free entry-fee to Pro-Anglers and $500 to Co-Anglers, and the 2025 NWT Championship payouts will remain the same with $30,000 cash going to the 2025 NWT Champion and a new Ranger 620FS powered by a Mercury 250 Pro XS.
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> Outdoor TeamWorks believes that these changes will help promote the prosperity of the NWT and encourage participation. NWT is proud to remain the top national walleye tournament fishing tour, devoted to deliver top payouts and competition opportunities to anglers across the US and Canada.
> 2025 NWT registration will begin on Mon, Jan 13. More details on registration will be released next week.
2. Outdoor rec = $1.2 trillion in economic output
Which is 2.3% of GDP, comprises 3.1% of U.S. employees and accounted for 5 million jobs in 2023.
3. ND: Tony Roach hit up Devils Lake...
...for some first-ice walleyes in the newest episode of Dialed In Angling. Some nice tippy nuggets sprinkled in from Tony and crew:
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4. UT: DWR stocked 12.8+ mil fish in 2024
And if my math is right (2024 fish stocking info) it looks like that’s made up of about 3,482,002 walleyes [!] that went into DMAD, Gunnison Bend, Red Fleet, Willard Bay, and Yuba Reservoirs.
5. B.A.S.S. announces Elite Angler Advisory Board
> In an effort to facilitate better communication and collaboration with Elite Series anglers, the Bassmaster Elite Angler Board of Professionals (ABP) has been created, B.A.S.S. announced today. The Advisory Board consists of six Elite anglers who were voted on by their peers and who will speak on behalf of the entire field in communicating with B.A.S.S. in order to provide a more direct and efficient way of discussing any current challenges and future opportunities.
Doesn’t that sound like the type of thing major walleye tournament platforms should incorporate, too? 🤔
6. Wisconsin Ice Fishing Expo happening THIS WEEKEND
The Dec 13-15 ice show moved to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) grounds in Oshkosh this year because it outgrew the previous facility. It’s “now nearly twice the size at more than 65,000 sq ft indoors while also gaining more parking area with easier access.”
7. MN: Arrowhead Ice Fishing & Winter Show THIS WEEKEND
At the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Dec 13-15.
8. MI: Ultimate Fishing Show - Detroit, Jan 9-12
9. NY: Greater Niagara Fishing Expo, Feb 13-16
10. MS: State-record longear sunfish caught
Eric Mayo caught the 8-3/8", 0.51-lb longear with a “red” Z-Man LarvaZ rigged on a homemade 1/16-oz jighead and 4-lb test. She’s purdy!
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As an avid pond manager, Eric’s bait selection has to check a lot more boxes than simply whether or not it catches ‘em:
> “Initially, I fished a lot of traditional soft plastics but eventually discovered that when fish bit the tails off or ate discarded baits that had sunk to the bottom, the PVC (polyvinyl chloride) material would make them swell up inside fish digestive tracts. That can become a big problem – on private or public water alike – as the ingested baits can block digestion and even starve the fish.
> “When I first started using Z-Man Micro Finesse baits this year, I quickly discovered that the ElaZtech material is just completely different than the PVC used in regular soft plastics....
> “What surprised me was the ElaZtech baits’ durability and the fact they didn’t balloon up inside fish stomachs. And if a sunfish or other species did bite the tail off a LarvaZ, the bait could be eaten and passed through their system without swelling up or harming the fish. Catching dozens of fish on just one bait is an awesome bonus advantage. But it also gives me peace of mind that these soft plastics are the best for fish health in my pond.”
Pretty dang cool!
Btw here’s a look at the fish-sexxy little Z-Man LarvaZ he was using:
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Yup, this is real life.... 🤯 We've teamed-up with Garmin to giveaway their NEW Panoptix PS22-IF Ice Fishing Bundle! A compact, portable, touchscreen live sonar unit for hole-hopping.
Takes 10 seconds to enter below and can share the link you get for bonus entries. 👊 Good luck!
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Generator tips for ice fishing with a wheelhouse
Some great info in this Catch Cover blog post to keep you running smoothly:
> Advanced lithium batteries and solar power are on the cusp of changing how we power our fish houses. But we’re not quite there yet and the vast majority of wheelhouse ice fishing is done with generators. Here are 5 tips to keep your generator running smoothly during the ice fishing season.
The Right Setup
> Getting the generator set up away from your fish house can help in several different ways. First, it’s more stealthy. Even quiet generators create noise and vibration that can be heard and felt by both fish and the people in the fish house. I like to keep my generator sitting on the tailgate of my truck, 25 feet or more from the fish house on the downwind side of the house. I don’t want to breathe in the fumes from the generator and I can position my truck to provide a bit of a windbreak for the generator. If I need to make any kind of adjustment in the dark, it’s easy to pop on the truck bed lights to see what I’m doing. A rubber mat under the generator eliminates even more vibration.
Remove The Air Filter
> The dust, dirt, and debris that could find their way into your generator during the summer months on a camping trip are virtually non-existent in an ice fishing scenario. Removing the air filter prevents that area from freezing up and causing sensors in the generator to trigger a stall. Keep the air filter in an air-tight bag during the winter and be sure to reinstall it before summer use.
Change The Oil
> The oil in generators should be changed at the start of every ice fishing season. New generators should have the oil changed after 30 hours of run time. After that, every 100 hours. So if you’re running your generator from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, you should probably change the oil every 2 trips. The good news is, changing the oil is easy and generators don’t use a lot of oil.
Change The Plug
> Installing an NGK Spark Plug or any other spark plug that runs a little hotter can help when using a generator during winter months. Regularly changing the spark plug will keep your generator running at peak performance. Spark plugs should be changed every 200 hours. If you do a lot of ice fishing, it doesn’t take long to hit 200 hours. The best way to keep an eye on this is to change the spark plug every other time you change the oil.
Off Season Care
> If you don’t use the generator during the summer months, be sure to run the gas low before storing the generator. Storing a generator or any other engine with a full tank of gas is a bad idea. It’s also smart to start the generator once a month. You don’t have to run it long. Just fire it up to keep the parts moving regularly.
> These are great tips to help you get the most from your generator during the ice fishing season. But as always, follow your manufacturer’s owner’s manual.
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Don’t be “that guy” 😂 get yourself a spud bar already lol
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Another incredible snap from Drew Aspinwall – might just be my favorite yet! 😅 Amazing:
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Hope you get to chase some tail around this weekend too!
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Sign up another fish-head!
If you're forwarding Target Walleye to a friend who loves to walleye fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we'll take care of it! (We won't sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.)
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FRIENDS OF TARGET WALLEYE
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Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jay Kumar, Chris Philen, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
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Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He's in it now, but still can't answer that question.... Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a "fishing degree" at the time.... Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com
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