Slow down for cold-front walleyes đ„¶
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If it were summertime and temps dropped 40 degrees, youâre probably not going to rip crankbaits...youâre going to fish slow. Same type of deal in winter, but need to think vertically instead of horizontally.
Jon Thelen says cold weather can shut the bite off on the first day, but if you have 3 or 4 days of stable cold weather in a row, you can still catch âem. Fish are still gonna eat, but theyâre gonna eat differently...just gotta adapt to the bite.
Thatâs when Jon likes to bust out baits like the Lindy Quiver Spoon because itâs made out of tin! đ
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It has a slow, fluttery drop that looks natural to âem, like a minnow...gives the fish more time to look at it and to react to the easy meal.
> âOne side is either metallic silver or metallic gold. So youâve got [BOTH] the flash of a natural minnow, but also a little bit of color youâre adding on the other side.â
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Same spoon Jon likes using anytime heâs dealing with pressured fish or on lakes with clear water.
Also the same spoon that Dustin Monson of Hawg Hunterz Guide Service likes using to fool those stubborn Mille Lacs fish that are already chock full and have no reason to eat:
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Jason Mitchellâs favorite early-ice walleye spots đŻ
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From his "Early Ice Walleye Guide" thatâs posted on Virtual Angling, which is packed with a TON of info. Pulling a few fishy nuggets below to get you started....
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> In many ways, the early-ice period is a continuation of fall fishing. For simply connecting the dots and landing on walleye right away at early-ice, one of the very best strategies is simply focusing on some of the best locations or lakes that were productive in the fall. Breaking down location even further, some of our favorite early-ice locations fall into a handful of characteristics.
> Ice safety and ice thickness has a huge bearing on early-ice locations. Many of our favorite honey holes are simple logistics â locations that we can safely reach particularly when required to walk out and pull gear on foot. Because of logistics, many of these spots are simply shoreline related that we can reach on foot.
Breaklines in front of light current
> On many natural lakes, one of the very best locations is in front of an incoming small creek or inflow.
> ...there is often a large sand flat in front of these small creeks or inflow that connects to another lake. The first sharp break in front of this flat adjacent to this trickle of current is a prime location at early-ice.
Biggest points and shoreline flats
> There's usually no shortage of flats or points that protrude off of a typical shoreline.
> At early-ice, look for the big pieces of obvious structure. The most prominent point or largest flat is often prime before the crowds....
> On large shallow flats, look for the first mid-depth stair step or break line that drops off into deeper water.
> After dark, donât be afraid to look shallow on the flat itself in closer proximity to the deeper water. Large prominent points offer a lot of options as you can follow fish from deep to shallow as the day progresses.
Hard edges
> On lakes that are prominently a soft bottom or sand, rock locations in the shallow to mid-depth range can hold a lot of walleye at early-ice.
> On many lakes we fish, these rocks might be in 5â to 22â of water. Sometimes these rocks might coincide with a piece of structure like a small hump connected to the shoreline via a saddle. Could be a point. Might be a patch of rock on a flat.
> When rocks are relatively scarce, look for these rock locations at early-ice. Fine tuning these locations even further, the edges or transitions are often the spot-on-the-spot. The outside edge or deep edge of rocks are often the sweet spot.
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To be continued...NOW! đ
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Jason Mitchellâs early-ice baits and tactics đ
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Some more juice from his "Early Ice Walleye Guide" thatâs posted on Virtual Angling:
> ...these fish havenât been touched by fishing pressure for a significant period of time and the fish are fresh. These early-ice walleye are typically much more aggressive. Aggressively jigging glide baits and spoons often becomes extremely productive.
> On many fisheries, there is a natural progression where fish respond well to jigging hard baits and spoons particularly at low light or during prime-time windows. As the winter progresses, we often have to tone down the progression into midwinter where we have to fish with more subtle presentations by using more dead sticks and downsizing.
> Favorite lures include classic glide baits like Jigging Raps, Tikka Minnows or Psycho Shads or Rippinâ Raps [clockwise from the top left]:
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> While aggressively working lures is important, what can also be extremely important is additional set-lines. Factors include the simple fact that we might not be able to hit several spots in a short amount of time because we are often walking out on the ice.
> The other factor is that walleye are often much spookier at early-ice. Walking and noise scatters fish. Setting up tip-ups or set-lines like a Clam Predator or iFish Pro enable more lines in the water and can become extremely productive when walleyes are simply spooky.
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> In states and provinces where we can use multiple lines particularly when we are fishing with multiple anglers, these extra rods spread out in an area are beneficial because our activity above the ice will often move fish around us and away from us which often means these remote extra lines encounter more fish.
> For smaller minnows like fatheads, rainbow dace and [schmedium] shiners, Iâm a big fan of a remote set line like a Clam Predator as they are the most rugged and durable platform I have used. These set line platforms, however, do take up room especially when you consider the need for additional rods. This can be an issue at early-ice when you are dragging a small sled. Because of logistics at early-ice, I often lean more on tip-ups.
> For big shiners or [schmedium] sucker minnows (which are extremely deadly) I always lean towards tip-ups. Typically, I like a tip-up with an indicator light when fishing after dark and also like to use hole covers to prohibit freeze up. Finicky Fooler makes a great hole cover for tip-ups.
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> We also developed a premium high-end tip designed specifically for walleye fishing called the Clam Watch Tower which has a large built-in light which you can change colors to color code bait size or assign to an angler.
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> ...also has a molded hole cover. We designed this tip-up to assimilate all the pieces we needed into one contained unit to save room and additional pieces to lose. Four of these tip-ups will fit in a 5-gal bucket where before...we needed more space to haul tip-ups and hole covers not to mention we were always losing clip-on tip-up lights.
> Spreading out tip-ups across shallow shoreline structure after dark is one of the deadliest ways to simply catch walleye on many fisheries after dark at early-ice.
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Tj Erickson cracked 'em in crazy-shallow water đł
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Talking just 5â or less! Heâs hitting up shallow, little, pond-style lakes in northern MN âcuz they get good ice way before the bigger water.
Doing his research: Word of mouth, putting miles on the truck, combing thru DNR data, creeping the onX Fish app đ€« to find high-abundance lakes and sneaky ways to access them by foot. You'll strike out more often than not, but you could also land on one that's loaded with walleyes that haven't seen a jigging spoon before!
Also have to say that the âPerspective Modeâ clip he had of a zillion walleyes cruising around him up shallow is one of the nastiest ice-fishing shots Iâve seen on FFS. And made me realize I seriously need to play with âPerspective Modeâ more when snooping around shallow water.
Hereâs the full video. đż
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Keep doing your things, brotha! đ
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4. WI: 19th-annual âBattle On Bagoâ is happening Feb 20-21
Over $475K in cash + prizes up for grabs!
> Battle on Bago was created in 2007 by a group of five Oshkosh Southwest Rotarians in order to support area youth and conservation efforts throughout the state of WI.
> Beneficiaries receiving funds from Battle on Bago embody the mission statement of the event âFor Kids & Conservationâ and serve as just the beginning of a long list of organizations and youth Battle on Bago will benefit in the future.
> Battle on Bago has generated net proceeds of nearly $2.6 million!
5. ND: 42nd-annual DLVFD Ice Fishing Tournament is Jan 31
Over $350K in prizes. Proceeds from the tourney are used to buy equipment for the Devils Lake Volunteer Fire Dept = awesome.
Heads up: Tickets for this event sell out FAST.
6. If you have an 8â or 10â StrikeMaster Lite-Flite...
...these Magnetic Snap Covers are the deal! Iâve yet to have one fall of â even when running âhighway speedsâ đ
on the snowmobile. Easy on, easy off. No more broken bands or glove-less hands. Very slick:
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We'll be making some serious ice these next few days! đ„¶
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This is a straight-up glorious shot from In-Fisherman's JVK of Pelican Lake (Breezy Point, MN) guide Joe Gonska, who said this night they had plenty of fish rolling thru (under 7" of solid, clear ice) but that they were negative and "wanted nothing unless it was a lively minnow on a deadstick." đ„
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I mean a shot like that would be my profile pic for the next 3-5 years lol.
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Literally everything I see and hear somehow automatically gets some kind of fishing correlation â itâs just how my brain works â and this IG story from BassBlaster proves that Iâm not alone lol:
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Thank YOU so much for reading! đ Back atcha next week...
Oh, and pls be safe out there this weekend!
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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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