Losing Most My Walleye

I have been struggling the past few years with keeping walleye hooked. If I had to guess, my percentage of walleye landed is less than 30%. I fish Lake Sakakawea almost exclusively weekly, clear water, and usually light biting fish.

1. Ive tried upgrading hooks replacing lures with VMC/Mustad/Trokar hooks and using quality octopus hooks on slip corks.

2. I started with very slow Haat ice rods to keep fish pinned. Later switched all my rods to faster Fenwick Elites lined with braid. Maybe the slower rods helped more but I remember still losing plenty.

3. Maybe I need to form new hook setting habits and give it more time before lifting? Youtubers seem to hook set immediately. Maybe my gentle fly fishing lift isn’t enough and I need to set the hook harder?

4. Walleye are severe head shakers and theres nothing I can do about it? The walleye on this lake are just light biters? Or maybe I just suck?

If you are not already, upsize your hooks on jigging spoons and set the hook harder.

If you are doing that already, go to mono.

How deep are you fishing?

Inside a heated shack or outside?

Running a mono or fluoro leader with the braid?

What pound test line are running?

Where are you losing your fish at immediately after the hookset? Half way up? Bottom of the hole?

Ill try more of those things. I fish in a heated shack usually in 20 to 25 feet of water. Most my rods are lined with 8/10 lb braid with 8lb flouro leader. Im losing my fish halfway usually after lots of shakes. Hook keeps pulling out. Maybe mono should be my next step for the line stretch.

Just a thought but are you keeping your line taught when bringing up the fish? If you ever catch yourself dropping the tip down and giving the line any slack when hooked up, that could be a possibility as well for losing fish.

bullcans wrote:

Just a thought but are you keeping your line taught when bringing up the fish? If you ever catch yourself dropping the tip down and giving the line any slack when hooked up, that could be a possibility as well for losing fish.

I could have mentioned my experience but yea, I keep it tight. I run Stratic 1000 vanfords and absolutely love the sound of a tuned drag.

I had a beginner out last weekend and saw some nice fish lost due to that reason.

If you describe your hook set style as a “lift,” you likely are not setting hard enough.

If you think about the distance the tip of a 7’ open water moves compared to the distance the tip moves on a 32” ice rod during a hook set, you should realize the need for an exaggerated set motion when ice fishing!

Obsession wrote:

If you describe your hook set style as a “lift,” you likely are not setting hard enough.

If you think about the distance the tip of a 7’ open water moves compared to the distance the tip moves on a 32” ice rod during a hook set, you should realize the need for an exaggerated set motion when ice fishing!

Never considered the amount of energy needed to transfer like that. I bet thats a big part of it. I came from the fly fishing world and light hooks sets became habit.

If your hookset isn’t hard enough to peel drag, than it needs to be harder! Walleye can hold a jig tight enough to not get hooked. I’ve done and seen it many times. Half way up they open up and shake the jig out because the hook wasn’t in anything. I run 8lb mono on rattle reels and I have found there really isn’t a way to break my line during a Hookset. I bet I couldn’t even break it using a 40″ rod in 30′ of water.

I think you guys figured it out. Ill try it this weekend.

You’re on the right track. Here in Manitoba, we are barbless. If you just do a lift set, the fish is just holding the lure. As soon as it opens its mouth and head shakes, it spits. Haat rods are way too soft to get a good hook set. I’ve seen them double over on greenbacks, then gone. Good hookset and sharp hooks are key.

You just said it(the problem) yourself. Don’t use a fly fishing hookset on walleyes with spinning/casting gear. Need to be a little more violent with it than that usually.

I think I’m one of the softer hook set myself only because it’s on a ML or L power rod 95% of the time. I don’t really lose hooked fish, unless I’m horsing them in and bumping into the bottom of the ice. I can’t remember the last time I lost one, cuz it’s very rare. About as rare as a walleye lodging itself perfectly bent into middle of ice hole.

So it goes with the kind of hook and size of hook. Since it’s ice fishing my hooks are on the fairly smaller size. Owner Mosquito hooks size 1, 2, or 4. Owner cutting point dropshot hooks size 2. Trebles on lures are like 12, 10, 8, maybe 6. Mixture of Owner, Gamakatsu, VMC.

When landing/icing the fish, I pay attention to how the fish is also hooked. Is the hook just on the outside of the lips? Is the hook just inside the lips. Is the hook inside and encompassed around the jaw bone of lower or upper mouth. Is hook or lure inside of mouth? Is lure down in the gully? Is hook in the gill rakers? The worst case scenario is hook point isn’t in anything and the fish had the lure mouth only or the hook bend merely is on a tooth/fang.

It just depends, and I feel for myself a somewhat finesse snug pull works for me. Maybe the fish still thinks the lure in it’s mouth isn’t going to get away. I am pretty sure that all it takes is an open mouth and one head shake and the whole lure would be spit out easy. Guess that’s just attributed to luck or the bait casting set up.

If one last thing, the harder the bite, the harder the hook set I tend to give. I can’t remember the last time winter fishing had I experience such hard biting as compared to spring fishing.

I mostly vertical jig for eyes. Just my preference. After using mono and cheap rods/reels for years, when I upgraded to better gear I had to adjust. When I switched to braid and a fluorocarbon leader I had to adjust again. With no stretch and a more sensitive rod, I was pulling jigs right out of their mouth. I had to stop snapping the hookset and instead used a fast upward pull, high up, and having the drag set correctly made me able to hear how heavy the fish was before I even started to turn the crank. Love that sound.

Go back to mono.

I love braid for a lot of my fishing, but absolutely hate it for ice fishing.

Only thing I can add that has helped me get more walleyes on top is after I set the hook (on jigging spoon), I reel up fairly fast and don’t hesitate at all. This usually results in less head shakes and less lost fish.

I usually do multiple hooksets to ensure a good hookset. Looks aggressive but it seems to work. I dont lose many fish.