Early Ice Walleyes

I am just starting to cut my teeth on the whole ice walleyes thing and a lake here in town is supposed to have a decent number of quality sized walleyes. My trouble is finding them. I’ve always been of the understanding that they come up relatively shallow toward dawn and dusk to feed, so I’ve been targeting flats as best as I can find them with the crude maps for the lake with about 8-15′ of water adjacent to the dredge holes in the lake with out much luck. (I actually caught some decent crappies today, which was fun!) I was wondering if there is something I am missing? How close to the deep water do I want to be? I am sure I am using the right baits, but I’m not even marking fish outside of the crappies. Any tips would be great walleye guys, as I seem to be a small fish in a very large pond!

One of the best ways to find walleyes is to find their food, most often perch. If you find an area near deep water that is holding perch, then there is a good chance that the walleyes will show up there to eat right before it gets dark.

There is no set depth that you have to be fishing. If you have been fishing 8-15 without any luck try moving out just a little bit and try that 17-20 foot range.

I like to be on an edge. If there is a steep drop I will sit right on top of it or on the bottom. I usually avoid sitting in the middle of a steep break. Try sitting right at the top edge of this deep water in an area where you can find some type of bait fish.

A lot of times on early ice these walleyes can move up in the weeds and look for bigger meals and may be eating sunfish. Then you are going to want to find some healthy looking weeds.

If you are on a clear lake with clear ice and no snow you do have to pay attention to how much light you are using and how much noise you are making. Sometimes you can’t use a big bright lantern, may have to step it down to just a head light.

Good Luck, Hope you find some of them early ice eyes! It is a thrill when you find them!

you mentioned dredge hole…… does this lake have current? if so find it and fish in it. just make sure the ice is good first….

Roosters and Eyes & Drew hit the nail on the head about finding where they are feeding and finding current if available.

The first thing that I would look for in a lake that I am completely unfamiliar with are shallow areas that look like a weed flat (preferably areas with a harder bottom such as sand/rubble vs mud resulting in cabbage type weeds) with access to deeper water where eyes can slide back off into the depths while not feeding. I would focus on fishing the deeper edges of drop offs in areas like this during daylight hours and the top edges around dawn dusk.

The next areas I would look for are structural irregularities such as rock humps, points, and inside turns (maybe just outside the mouth of a bay) Often these areas can be found in deeper water and can be much more effective places to target during daylight hours whereas the weedlines are primarily a morning/evening location to target.

Good luck and please report back to let us know how you do

Also you can do some research on the DNR website to find out about water clarity and the resulting weedline depth… The 8-12′ number is a general rule of thumb for where an outside weedline would be, but there are very clear lakes that I fish where the weedline is at 17-19′ or when James and I were up in Ely this past week we were looking at stained water lakes with weedlines as shallow as 6′. You should be able to find this type of lake info on the DNR website

This is all great quality info all of the guys have provided and remember for the most part especially in clear water lakes Walleyes will retreat to deeper water during daylight hours and usually will remain inactive. While flats or points close to deep water are definately areas to check and spend time on around sunrise and sunset but also during the early ice period dont hesitate to spend time around shallower inside weed lines that will still be holding good green weeds that will usually have perch and panfish in them until the ice pack thickens and weeds begin to die. Most importantly keep exploring your lake and looking for fish and bait fish and it will soon become less difficult.

Paul Delaney
http://www.lateeyessportfishing.com

Thanks for all of the info guys! The lake is relatively clear at this time of the year but gets a little green in the summer months due to algae. I think what you guys have all suggested is that I should look for the sharper drops as opposed to tapering drops? Also would a blade bait or something similar be more beneficial to finding fish because of the “calling” aspect of it than say a slender spoon tipped with a minnow head?

I like to start big to attract fish in, and then down size if they show interest but won’t commit. If you rip either a slender spoon or a blade you can often get the fish to come in but sometimes they will back away. Then I go with more of a vertical spoon that doesn’t have as much action. Sometimes they like aggressive, and others they just want a real subtle approach. I start aggressive and back off.

Also a good idea to have a setline with a minnow nearby when you are ripping a bait because you can call fish in and they will take the easy snack just hanging there.

Good Luck!

Thanks again for the tips guys! I’m going to try and implement some of this tomorrow morning. Hoping that the rain and cold weather hasn’t shaken the ice conditions too much to get back out there!

Best of luck, how deep of lake are you dealing with. In certain clear lakes in cental Minnesota that I grew up fishing we caught walleys in up to 35 foot of water during daylight hours and the very bottom of the break or in a deep hole. The fish basically laid down there till it was time to go play during the low light hours. Fish were not super aggressive so a sublte jigging action with a mid sized spoon or jigging rap always worked for me. – QB

It was slow again this morning and deteriorating ice conditions hindered us from moving a lot. The lake about 30-35′ at it’s deepest points in the dredge holes. No current and it’s a small lake.