I would like to take a second and give a few tips to those of you who fish shallow water walleyes in through the ice. The past few days i have found myself fishing extremely shallow water, i mean shallow, as these fish have 2.5 to 3 feet of water to swim in from the bottom of the ice. Set the hook and these fish are at the bottom of the hole. There are a few important things you should take note of in these situations.
How you set your drag is probably one of the most important aspects in this situation. When you hook a 24 plus inch eye in this depth, they are powerful, active and full of energy. If you are one to have your drag set extremely tight, you will set the hook and there the fish will be, sideways at the bottom of the hole, with its head hitting the ice and your lure grinding loose in its mouth. I have seen this all too many times as these bigger fish get off due to the fact that they are just so full of energy yet, and not ready to come up the hole, and with a tight drag you are forcing them up and they pop off.
I keep my drag extremely light, light enough that when i hook these fish, i cant even tell if I’m gaining ground on them because my drag is constantly going out. This is a good thing, as you somewhat need to lose ground to gain ground with these fish. Tire them out, and i can guarantee that your catch rate will go up drastically.
A second thing is the ability to be quiet. Have your holes drilled 45 minutes before you expect these fish to start feeding. Remember you are in shallow water and any noise will spook these fish. I tend to look at it like deer hunting, as you are sitting above these fish and plucking them off. I only have a small amount of light from my headlight in my house, and no noise at all.
In my mind these are two critical things that need to be done in order to successfully land and release these bigger walleyes in shallow water. Give them a try next time you fish shallow water walleyes.
