Target Walleye/Ice email

Sunfish with two mouths, Santa got a new sleigh, Walters of the week


Only one Target Walleye/Ice email next week ‘cuz I’ll be up chasing BIG everything in Manitoba: greenbacks, goldbacks, pike, rainbows and brown trout. Lot more on that later….. Have a great weekend fish-heads!
 

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Today’s Top 5

Mondo walters of the week!

Here’s 1 of 2 walters breaking the 30-inch mark that morning [!] for Spenser Samplawski and Clayton Schick. Caught rip-jigging a Jackall TN60. Keep catchin’ bigguns like this and people’s feelings are gonna get hurt:

Already know what you’re thinking, but fact is that fish would still be 13.1 lbs and 30.75″ if he held it behind his back…. Really diggin’ that new lens though man (lol):

Cameron Dawson stuffed this 12.5-lb beef brisket running Rapala Down Deep Husky Jerks behind Off Shore Tackle Planer Boards. Purple was the hot color of the day and they also picked up fish on Scatter Rap Tail Dancers and Rapala Trolls-to-20s (discontinued?). #DialedIn

Dustin Monson snuck out on Mille Lacs last weekend and iced this near 28-incher on a Lindy Quiver Spoon tipped with a couple o’ crappie minnows. Now it makes sense why he needs a Vexan 32″ H Pike/Big Fish rod for walleyes…. Awesome fish dude!

Austin Gates stuffed this mammoth broom-tail on an “albino shiner” Rapala Shadow Rap — working it slow with a classic twitch-pause retrieve. #Money

Sunfish with TWO MOUTHS caught!!

Can’t make this stuff up. Aaron Luskey plucked — what looks like — a two-mouthed pumpkinseed outta Chisago Lake, MN on a Heavy Metal Pro Series Tungsten Jig. Does that make it a siamese sunfish? Check it out:

> Aaron: “We released it, but want to check the water now for chemicals. Gonna try for a 3-eyed sunnie next week.”

Lol! He’s out there somewhere dude! But would check around Springfield, OR:

Ice? Paul Mueller don’t need no stinking ice.

We feel for you guys still waiting on “good ice,” but sometimes you’ve just gotta take matters into your own hands…like big-fish junkie Paul Mueller:

Dude is a diehard! Mentioned in the vid he was using Garmin Panoptix to find those fish, which is something you NEED to see in action. Can actually see him drop down on — and pluck — a fish from a school that’s 15-30′ away from the boat:

Santa got a new sleigh.

And it runs off ponies instead of reindeer. #SorryRudolph

> “Alberta Marine representing Lund in the 31st Annual High River Santa Claus Parade. The float got voted 2nd place out of 82 eligible floats in the parade!”

Only one that didn’t vote for them:

Eskimo village spotted on ice.

Lindsey Krause took this shot of an Eskimo village she spotted in Alaska, Greenland, central Minnesota:

That’s when you’ve gotta invite your buddies to meet you out in the ice and then put your phone on silent:

News

1. MN: Ladies only fishin’ event…

…comin’ to Otter Tail County Feb 10th. All skill levels welcome. More deets here or click on the pic below:

Gotta warn you: My wife (left) will probably outfish you too lol. #EmbraceIt

2. MI: Saginaw bay walleyes are eating all the perch.Better than the other way around….

3. MN: Lake of the Woods is en fuego.

Get while the gettin’ is good! Though it seems to always be good up yonder.

4. Anyone else feel like…

…a little kid again while watchin’ an Aqua-Vu screen full o’ fish? Never gets old:

5. IDO smoked the ‘gills (video).

The In-Depth Outdoors crew laid the hammer down on a pile of bulls using VMC Flash Champ Spoons. Full episode over on the YoubusTubeus here.

6. ND: Devils Lake ice report (video).

Still makin’ ice on the main lake — cold temps are coming and hopefully that nasty wind will let down. Word is there’s 6-10″ of ice in most areas of Alice and Irvine (but make sure you check!), and the fish are cooperating.

7. Rattle-reel creativity level: Expert.

We’ve seen Catch Cover Rattlesnake Reels attached to walls, floors, hub houses (with this hack), and everything in-between…but this is a first:

Dust ’em off if they’re sitting lonely in your permanent house waiting on ice.

8. Big Rock distributors planning big announcements.

> …improvements to the shows, a major expansion in the company’s fundraising efforts and a new ‘cutting-edge’ tool to streamline customer ordering.

9. Did you enter the Rapala giveaway yet?

Just gotta enter your email addy…can share the link you get for more chances to win. Good luck!

10. FishUSA has Water Puppets in stock!

Made by Someday Isle Tackle. Gotta see it under water to really get it. Few of my favorite colors:

Tip of the Day

Lots of great info for you gator-chasers in the full Dave Csanda write-up here, few excerpts below:

> Large bays are good early-ice options because they tend to freeze first — well before mainlake areas — and offer the safest early ice, often just a short walk from shore.

> Avoid small weedbeds or areas of sparse cover at first ice. Prominent weedbeds at the mouths of bays, or in the deeper centers of bays, provide big pike with plenty of habitat and room to feed and roam.

> If you’ve fished open water there…and remember which areas offered the best weed growth, make those your starting points…. If the weeds are still healthy, pike are likely still using them under the ice.

> If you’re unfamiliar with the lake, note large underwater structures on your map offering broad areas, perhaps 6-18′, bordered by deeper water. Chances are these will have the most weed growth — typically broadleaf cabbage or coontail. More weeds typically equals more pike.

> Focus along or slightly inside the deep edges of weedbeds, and dangle a dead sucker, cisco, goldeye or other large baitfish below a tip-up, using a wire or fluorocarbon leader rig to prevent bite-offs.

> Some anglers question the use of deadbait for large pike, assuming that lively minnows would be better. The fact is, large pike are as much scavengers as they are predators, and regularly pick up and eat freshly-killed baitfish off the bottom.

> A 10-12″ dead sucker, cisco, alewife, shad, goldeye or other oily baitfish…you can obtain these baits in advance, keep them in your freezer, and pack up a sufficient amount for your next trip….

Dave breaks down the types of rigs he uses in the full write-up here.

Quote of the Day

This fall we caught more big perch by accident while walleye fishing than ever.

– What Zippy Dahl of the Perch Patrol said about Devils Lake, ND. Sounds like quite the problem to have, dude! Maybe change your name to “Walleye Patrol” and you’ll have the opposite problem?

When the rest of us catch accidental perch, they look more like these:

NOT like this paunchy buttah pig Chris Ulmer stuck outta Woodland Resort:

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

WI guide Troy Peterson snapped this canvas-worthy shot of his Eskimo F1 Rocket Auger takin’ a frosty siesta:

Sign up another ice-head!

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Who is Target Walleye/Ice?
Target Walleye/Ice — 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/Ice. 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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