Put me on first Ice walleyes (maps inside)

guys, I just picked up ice fishing again after years of dropping it. it consisted of mostly bluegill and crappie fishing. last year I got all my gear and me and a buddy eased back into it and had an absolute blast fishing for crappie and finding a lot of success.

This year we are wanted to tackle walleye. We are going to focus on these 2 reservoir that have decent populations of walleye in them.

Where do I start? what lures should I use. I’m a blank slate. bath me in knowledge!

Thanks guys I really appreciate it.

Stars are stake beds and Dots are stumps.

For early ice I look for shallow weeds in 4/5 feet of water. green weeds with access to deep water and hopefully reefs in deeper water nearby. I put out tipups with the shiner just below the spool with a light that turns on when the flag goes up. be quiet.

on the first map there is that arm that heads south, i know there are weeds in 5-6 feet of water right at the mouth of that arm. will see what i can do.

anyone got any other ideas?

stick to 10 th 15ft of water on the outside of the weed line on any part of the lake and you should do good. P.S make sure the lake has a good supply of walleyes if thats what you are after.You do not want to waste a day chasing ghosts

i would look for weeds too. probably in those same ranges 5-15 ft. or if there is a river i would try and find the channel edge and fish up and down the breaks.

hey key in on the weeds edges (5 to 15) Set up tip ups or better yet set out some tip downs!! Drill lots of holes along the break line and flat when u first get there. Holes should be 20 to 30′ apart then it quiet time for the rest of the night. Use a jigging stick with a spoon, jigging rap, chubby darter or a plain hook with a minnow.

hope this helps good luck

All great advice gentlemen. Lots of good tips here that I won’t be able to rehash as well as what’s already been done, but I’d also look into doing some re-con work of the area.

Reservoirs are alot of fun because of the variability, but depending on when they were flooded, many times aerial photography exists, giving you an incredible advantage even if there’s no way to orthorectify (line-up) these maps with known locations. Simply knowing that road-beds, old meanders in the river channel, etc. exist offers you a reason to go out there and find them. They’ll also help you find the most mature and well developed timber, as well as points/turns in the timber to focus on.

As for where to fish, if you’ve got good flow in that system, first/foremost be careful. The main river channel area is always dangerous. Also, don’t be afraid of the depths in such a system, esp. mid-day. Low-light feeding times will bring them out of the river channels and their edges, and hopefully your scouting work will have found a natural pathway or corridor up to these shallower feeding areas.

As another poster pointed out, make sure to have your holes drilled so you can follow the movements of the fish as the morning/night progresses. They’ll still be feeding often, esp. at first ice, but you might have to give chase.

Good luck!

Joel