Target Walleye/Ice email

Best spring baits, Ice tourney pros are nuts, Crappies you can’t graph

This will be the only Target Walleye this week ‘cuz we’re Manitoba bound. Fingers crossed the camera also adds 10 lbs to each lake trout….

Gonna have cameras rolling the whole time to hopefully snag some more YouTube content for you fish-heads. Have a great rest of your week and thx much for reading!

Today’s Top 5

BIG shout-out to these dudes!

Post from Jacob Stephani and Travis Tank:

> “Check out these hogs [we] caught out on Gull Lake…. After only 2 hours of fishing we managed to fill 4 bags and pounded the big ones off the ice.”

 

Wow…huge props, fellas!!!

 

> Jacob: “All jokes aside it’s pretty disgusting having to pick up other people’s garbage and bags of human [poop emoji] off the ice. It’s honestly sad how much garbage there is on our MN lakes and how people that call themselves anglers can disrespect our greatest natural resource.

> “It’s not hard to pick up after ourselves, but apparently there’s a mentality that someone else will do it. I’m not going to drag this post on because I could go on and on…so our message to everyone is to be stewards of the land.”

BIG shout-out to those that not only pick up after themselves but also others.

Can’t believe I have to say this but…if you bring it out, bring it back with you! One lazy person can make all of us look bad:

Best spring walleye baits and techniques.

Got nothing against draggin’ around live bait if that’s your thing…what’s important is that you’re getting out fishing! That being said, there’s a pile of killer artificials out there today that can help step up your game and put bigger fish in the boat.

Here’s a breakdown of my go-to baits for spring walleye fishing. This vid’s primarily talking natural lakes right in your backyard — not Great Lakes, reservoirs, rivers — though some of the info applies to all. Check it:

How ice-tourney pros find the BIGGEST fish FAST.

Times they are a changin’! Big shout-out to Steve Hoffman for a first-hand look inside the world of tourney ice fishing:

Quick burbot gear breakdown.

The average walleye stick is typically gonna be a 28-36″ M or MH fast-action rod. No doubt that’ll put fish topside, but if you wanna step up your burbot game — and specifically target bigguns more than a couple times a year — look into getting yourself a whoopin’ stick with some extra ‘oomph!’

Oh, and have you ever heard of “Bait Buttons” before…? Check it:

 

That 42″ H fast-action Elliott Rods Greenback is soooo fish-sexxy. I’m all for dual-purpose rods…so while it is a killer burbot stick, it’s also just as good-er for chasing BIG walleyes…what it was actually designed for. Not a Target Walleye sponsor…but if it feels good, works good, is good = we’re gonna talk about it. [fist-bump emoji]

It’s prime time for slime!

We’re smack dab in the middle of the burbot spawn here in central MN — the magical window where you can catch ’em all-day long (not just after dark). Get to gettin’ before it passes you by!

Here’s a little teaser of what kinda mess we had goin’ on below us yesterday…

 

That insane footage ^ was captured by Nick Lindner on his Aqua-Vu HD10i Pro. Just one clip outta hours of spawn-ball madness. More on that soon-ish….

News

1. Are multiple walleye called walleyes?

Pretty funny Kim Fundingsland write-up tackling a topic I’ve spent more time thinking about than I’d like to admit lol:

> “Saying trouts, basses, pikes, deers and such is wrong when applied to a single species. So why is it okay to add an “s” when talking about more than one walleye?”

2. MN: Some reeeeally interesting Mille Lacs deets…

…from MLFAC’s (Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee) meeting with the DNR fisheries department last month. Too much Q&A to drop here, but if you’re from the area — or interested in all the Mille Lacs walleye reg controversy — it’s for sure worth a read.

3. WI: New walleye regz on Turtle Flambeau Flowage.

> …it’s still going to be a 3-fish daily bag limit. But instead of having no minimum size limit, it’s now going to be a 12″ minimum and only 1 can be over 15″.

4. ND: You don’t always need a boat to catch walleyes….

Many consider Devils Lake, ND to be the walleye shore-fishing capital of the world, and guess what? The season never closes. #Jackpot

DL is one of the few walleye factories (that’s not a river) where the walleye season is open during pre-spawn and spawn. Male walleyes are the first to show up shallow when the water begins to climb into the low- to mid-40s.

More info here if you’re looking for an early-spring road trip.

5. OH: Maumee River walleye run lookin’ right.

> “That magic number is 41, 42 degrees is when heavy numbers of walleye start coming in from Lake Erie.”

6. SIMMS dropped a nasty-good walleye vid.Man I’d love to watch this on the big screen [popcorn emoji]:

7. MN: West Metro Walleye League schedule out.

TargetWalleye.com Highlights

> Force ‘eyes to eat, Record laker caught, Pig fishing buddy

> Top 5 most insane walleye videos ever

> Special Issue: Greenback into March madness!

Note: The FishUSA links in this email are affiliate links, meaning if you go through them to make a purchase we might earn a commission…at no cost to you. Click here if you want to learn a little more about links in TW.

Tip of the Day

How to catch late-ice crappies you can’t graph.

Despite what the calendar says, “late ice” will be showing up sooner than expected. When the water starts to run back into the holes, panfish make a break for skinny water. Here’s how Jason Mitchell catches crappies you probably don’t even know are there:

> Often those fish will be suspended just under the ice where they won’t even show up on your electronics. Too often anglers get in the habit of dropping their bait right down to the bottom and right past these fish.

> Crappies may come in so high that they actually need to roll sideways to hit the bait to avoid bumping into the ice above. This is one of the best opportunities you’re going to get for aggressively feeding crappies each winter.

> Target these high-riders by fishing them from the top down — using a long rod to dip the bait just 1-2′ under the ice before you move on, never needing to touch the reel in-between holes.

> I like to fish horizontal jigs and longer-profile soft plastics this time of year so that they glide and swim like a small minnow vs quivering like an insect or invertebrate.

> Slide the palomar knot towards the jig — which goes against everything you’ve read. But causes the jig to really dart and slide out more on the stroke.

One of Jason’s favorites is the Clam Drop-Kick Jig. No matter which tungsten jig you’re using, it’s important to make sure they’re tuned, just like you would a crankbait in the open water.

Thanks for the info, Jason!

Meme of the Day

Fish a tournament, they said…it would be fun, they said….

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

Awesome snap from Bruce Gammon of a paunchy 28″ St Laurent River walldawg that whalloped his “hot tiger” color Yo-Zuri Rattl’N Vibe:

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Who is Target Walleye
Target Walleye — walleye during open water and all species during hardwater — is brought to you by Al and Ron Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-nuts like you! #fishheads
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 
To send us walleye pics, ice shots or whatever, just respond to this email or click here to email us. Or post it on the Target Walleye Facebook page.

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