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Believe it or not, the iceman cometh! So it’s time to start trickling more and more ice-fishing content in these TW emails going forward.
Today's issue is full of some early-ice walleye fishing tips to help tide you over (and prepare a game plan) while we wait for temps to drop. 😎 Here we go:
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Find first-ice walleyes near current areas. 🎯
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Gotta say...as I was reading this Pat Kalmerton write-up on Virtual Angling, I realized that Pat was almost perfectly describing my 3 or 4 absolute favorite early-ice walleye spots around the Brainerd, MN area...even tho we live in different areas/states. Actually had me a little shook lol:
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But also had me realizing that these spots had a lot more in common than I realized. WAY more info in the full write-up here (check it out!) but a few excerpts below:
> Pat: “I begin by locating the water source. It can take the form of a feeder creek, river inlet, or spring. The common denominator is that fresh incoming water supports life. And often you’ll find thriving weeds near these sources.
> “My favorite scenario, by a long shot, is when a river tributary opens up into a flat that eventually breaks into the main lake – pigs in a blanket to me – and the fish. And conditions improve that much more when green weeds are involved.
> “A typical flat opens at the mouth of the tributary in a fan shape and features a hard bottom, gravel or rocks. From there it tapers deeper until hitting the break. Breaks can be gradual or abrupt; the steeper the better.
> “But wait, there’s more. The key to the kingdom is finding a shelf somewhere along the main break. Let’s say the flat begins at the mouth and works itself down to 8’, where it drops hard to 25’ or 30’. Midway down the slope a shelf protrudes, call it a ledge. Walleyes will stack on it like books. That’s a key contact point.
> “Not every flat breaks wildly, though. My favorite lakes at first ice are relatively shallow, murky, and weedy. A break on those bodies of water might only mean a few feet. That’s where the weeds come in. Weeds can compensate for lack of physical structure. Walleyes follow edges, and thick green weeds give them something to track along. Green coontail holds lots of forage, too, but they’re the first to wither. Broad-leaved cabbage is the next best thing.”
Keep learning here.
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How Jason Mitchell targets shallow-water walleyes.
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Some of the very best walleye patterns on many different systems across the Midwest – particularly at early-ice – are happening in less than 6’....
As always, there’s a lot more info in Jason’s full Virtual Angling write-up here, but gonna plop a few excerpts below to get you started:
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> Jason: Shallow is relative...10′ might be shallow on some bodies of water...other fisheries the basin or deepest water available might only be 10′. We often catch walleye in shallow water, but how shallow? A mistake I’ve made over and over in my own life is sometimes not fishing shallow enough.
> ...if you see extremely shallow patterns unfold on a fishery during the open water period, you better anticipate some of the same skinny water patterns under the ice.
> The toughest conditions seem to line up with a little bit of clear ice in clear water. These fish seem to be the most sensitive. Catching fish in shallow water during these conditions is often a low light affair and you must make a conscious effort to be quiet. Drill your holes ahead of time and keep your lights limited to head lamps that you can turn on and off. Take your ice cleats off and try not to make a lot of noise, settle down into an area and let the fish come to you. Tip-ups and extra lines set remotely can be important. The bite will often occur in the dark.
> Stained water, cloudy ice and simply more ice however can make these fish much more tolerant of noise and what you can get away with. Not all shallow walleye patterns require stealth mode but universally, a lot of big vehicle traffic seems to shut down every shallow walleye bite we have ever seen. Therefore it is so important to be the angler that finds the fish first. With shallow walleye, you won’t get there in time if you are waiting for reports.
> ...these fish are often simply aggressive. You’re not working with much water so when these fish come in and punch a spoon or glide bait 3′ from the end of your rod, the hits feel electric. The fish fight hard and are still full of energy when you bring them topside.
> A challenge when fishing for walleye in such shallow water is simply dumping fish at the bottom of the hole when they hit the ice. Can also be a challenge navigating big fish up a hole when dealing with less than 6” of ice. These fish can back up and leverage their tails against the bottom of the ice. Almost must just plan to get your hands wet for big fish where you reach down below the ice and simply pin them to the side of the hole or get ahold of the gill plate.
Couple of Jason’s favorite skinny-water baits are the Clam Tikka Mino (top/right) and the Leech Flutter Spoon (bottom/left). Would love to know how many fish he’s caught on these specific ones! #ChewedUp
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> ...upsize those treble hooks on your lures [when fishing skinny water]. Take about any spoon or glide bait and double the treble hook size. Seems like overkill but that larger hook and wider gap will keep fish pinned up much better when they hit the bottom of the ice. When dealing with a few feet of water, these fish will often hit the bottom of the ice basically when you set the hook. This isn’t a situation necessarily for finesse unless you are using live minnows below tip-ups and are simply letting the fish swallow the minnow.
Full Virtual Angling write-up here.
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Brian ‘Bro’ Brosdahl's set-line juice. 🧃
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Can’t talk ice fishing for walleyes without talking about those bonus setlines and Bro spills the beans in this In-Fisherman write-up, few excerpts below:
> How long should you wait to set the hook on a tip-up? Old-timers will tell you to smoke an entire cigarette after the flag trips, then set the hook. Of course, this can lead to gut-hooked fish, making release difficult. But there is a kernel of wisdom in this old-school approach.
> “Bro: When a walleye hits, you need to give it a little time, especially if you’re using large shiners, suckers, or rainbows. Walleyes kill their prey, but they don’t have crusher pads in their throats like bass or catfish. Their throats are just a soft membrane, so they take their time killing prey before they swallow it. Often, during the killing process they squeeze the minnow until it stops moving, turn it in their mouth, then swallow it.”
> Brosdahl believes too many ice anglers set the hook when the walleye is still in the killing stage and then the fish swims away unhooked, leading to frustration. While the walleye fully intended on eating the bait, it was just going through its feeding routine, and the hook was set prematurely. “Give the walleye anywhere from 30 seconds to over a minute, depending on the size of the minnow.”
> He uses 50-lb braid so it doesn’t burn fingers when retrieving hand-over-hand. To the braid he attaches a barrel swivel, a 6- to 8-ft, 5- or 6-lb Sunline fluoro leader, and a neon-colored slipbobber knot to mark his depth positioning. He also uses a medium-sized split-shot to pin the minnow in place.
> At the business end, he snells a Gamakatsu Octopus Hook for smaller- to medium-sized minnows...with bigger bait, he uses a Gamakatsu Walleye Wide Gap hook. “I like fluorescent and red hooks,” he says. “Sometimes I add a little bead above the hook for added attraction. You’re fishing vertically so you don’t have to tie the bead in. It just sinks down to the hook. Dorsal-hook a minnow and set it 6 inches off bottom. In gin-clear, zebra mussel-infested waters, I might run the minnow a foot and a half off bottom.”
> But walleyes don’t always feed near bottom. Especially if you’re using forward-facing sonar like Humminbird MEGA Live, you might notice that walleyes are cruising 4-5’ off the bottom, so you need to set your bait accordingly. “You don’t want to fish under the walleyes,” Brosdahl advises. “You want your bait at their level or slightly above.
> “And here’s the kicker tip. If you’re fishing an 8-10’ flat, don’t be afraid to set one of your tip-ups just off the nearest drop-off over the 30-40’ water at the same depth as the shallower, adjacent flat. You’d be surprised how many walleyes don’t run along the bottom of the break into the basin. Instead, they suspend high in the water column at the same depth as the nearby flat.
> If Brosdahl is fishing a clear lake where walleyes are fussy, he’ll rig a deadstick with a red #4 Gamakatsu Octopus Hook, often sizing down to a #6 or #8 if the fish are spooky.
> For his deadsticking routine, he’s been using the same simple and economical technique for over 30 yrs. “While deadstick-assisting devices and baitfeeder reels have become all the rage, I prefer to deadstick the cheap and old-fashioned way. I put a rubber band on the handle of my St. Croix Dead Eye rod, flip the bail open, take a little bit of the line out, and tuck it under the rubber band – then, when the fish hits, it pulls the line out from under the rubber band and can run freely with the minnow.”
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Ever try oversized panfish jigs for walleyes? 🤔
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Maybe accidentally....
Like Dylan Foui who was busy whacking crappies when this golden bruiser (they’re not all greenbacks in Manitoba 😉) inhaled his panfish jig. Was able to wrassle’er in on 4-lb test with his Elliott Rods Inhaler:
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But how about on purpose?
If you’re fishing on pressured waters or stuck in a brutal negative bite...try tying on an oversized panfish jig with a minnow head or finesse plastic. Sounds goofy, but it’s a little trick a handful of #dialed guides have been using the last few years on crowded lakes or in clear water.
The biggest 1/16-oz Clam Drop Jig XL (left) has just enough hook gap on that little #8 to fish with the pinched-off head from a fathead minnow. If you wanna bump things up to a full minnow – yet still have a super compact presentation – try the 1/8-oz Clam Drop Jig XXL (middle) which comes with a #4 hook.
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ˆI've busted-out that XXL with a small fathead during tough bites around here and it can legit be a trip-saver. The types of days where you can see fish spook (on your electronics) just from moving a jigging spoon. And I'm too stubborn to setup 2 deadsticks – I need to be working one haha.
Bonus points: Also helps keep the “dinky” panfish away. Nothing wrong with stumbling across a 14” crappie or 10” bluegill while chasing walleyes!
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Ice fishing: How much moving is too much?
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Wish I was tech-savvy enough to plop Jason Mitchell’s face on that GIF but you’ll just have to use your imagination. Bunch of great info in this J-Mitch write-up over on Virtual Angling talking making moves...or not.... 👀
> “Should I stay or should I go? That is the biggest question we probably ask ourselves each day on the water. Should I sit in a spot or should I keep moving, keep looking? There are plenty of adages like never leave fish to find fish. Over the past few decades, mobility has been a mantra preached in ice fishing. People brag about drilling a hundred holes per day. People talk about the importance of moving to find fish. If you’re not catching fish, it must be because you are not moving enough to find the active fish.
> “Here is what I can also tell you. The worst days I have ever had fishing were indeed days where I drilled well over a few hundred holes. The toughest days on the ice are often the days where all you do is drill holes and move. Some of the very best or most memorable days were days where I drilled a few holes and sat in those same holes all day catching fish.”
There’s a ton of arguments for laying low, including:
> “One of the most difficult situations for catching fish regardless of species is shallow clear water with thin, clear ice. Every time you move, every time you drill a hole, you just push these fish further away.”
And of course just as many for running and gunning:
> “What are factors when sitting doesn’t work so well? Realistically when you are not on fish. When the fish are not moving and if you have a lot of people around you.
> “...big moves find fish whereas small moves catch fish. Catching fish is often about sampling water...create bites by simply working hard and dropping a line down as many different holes as we can. Drill grids of holes and move until you contact fish.”
Of course there’s a ton of variables...and in typical Jason Mitchell fashion, he does a great job of breaking down his approach for different scenarios here.
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I about spit out my coffee the first time I saw this one:
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I guess it’d still be a monster 12-pointer if he held it behind his back...? 😂
Btw - Good luck if you're hitting the stand this weekend!
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Thanks SO much for taking time out of your day to read these Target Walleye emails! Hope you have a great + safe weekend! 👊
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Sign up another fish-head!
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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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