Tackle and Line

I”ve been trying hard to prepare for this year’s ice fishing season. My favorite fish to catch is the yellow perch but this year I’m trying to add walleye to that mix. I’m still in high school and I don’t have hundreds and hundreds of dollars to devote to fishing tackle so I was wondering what types of tackle to stock my box with that would get me started. I already have a fair selection of spoons that kill the perch for me, but I’m not quite sure about walleye tackle preferences. Secondly, right now I have mono on all of my rods 2-6 pound, but I was toying with the idea about switching to a fused line and then connecting a fluoro/mono leader with a barrel swivel. What are the pros/cons to this setup?

Most of your perch spoons will work for walleye, I like braid, but it freezes up more. Where do you primarily fish? Never hurts to have some 1/4 oz buckshot rattling spoons.

Them buckshots will work for perch too, might need to go to 1/8 oz but they work! I have a good selection of slender spoons (mainly 1/8 oz) for eyes as well as perch. Macho minnows are a good choice as well. A deadstick with live bait will do the trick for them finicky eyes as well.

As far as line goes i’d say your set with the line your currently using. Unless your always fishing inside a house id stay away from braid, as DG ^ said it tends to freeze up which isnt fun when hole hopping.

I like running 100% fluorocarbon. P-line is my favorite! I’ve had great results and haven’t had any issues with it at all

More walleyed have been caught on jigs then any other type of lure I would bet.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

Most of your perch spoons will work for walleye, I like braid, but it freezes up more..

X2

The good news is there’s quite a bit of overlap from perch baits/rod/line to walleye. My main spoon size is 1/8th in the winter and rarely go bigger.

Line wise, I switched to 4-5lb P-Line copolymer and haven’t looked back. Enough much of my walleye fishing is outside the house. So I stay away from braid for that application. Nothing wrong with mono either and that’s on my bobber rod.

My ice tackle box has stayed relatively simple given my lure addiction. Couple slender spoons, couple lightning spoons, couple buckshots that I can’t seem to get to work, and a couple macho minnows. More importantly beads, hooks, and split shot for bobber/dead stick presentation. Demon jigs when I want to spruce it up a bit.

x2 on where do you fish? ex. If Lake of the Woods you’ll hear the response to make sure you have gold in your color choices. Somewhere else might be a different recommendation.

Oh yeah, most importantly Welcome to IDO!

Can’t forget the ultra light rippin raps

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

Most of your perch spoons will work for walleye, I like braid, but it freezes up more. Where do you primarily fish? Never hurts to have some 1/4 oz buckshot rattling spoons.

patk wrote:

x2 on where do you fish? ex. If Lake of the Woods you’ll hear the response to make sure you have gold in your color choices. Somewhere else might be a different recommendation.

I fish on medium to small lakes in the Detroit Lakes and eastern North Dakota areas.