Walleye Tips!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I am heading to a lake tomorrow afternoon/evening to specifically target walleyes. I rarely target Walleyes, as I’m more of a pan fisherman. Three years ago we did really well, but the last two years we only had one flag in 15 hours of fishing. We usually go the Friday after Christmas every year. A little info about the lake is its very clear and the lake doesn’t really contain any points, but rather a lot of steep drop offs from shore, with many big bowls found throughout the lake that reach more than 60 feet, and a couple small humps that one tops out at 10 feet with deeper water close by and another at 30 feet. The little information I know about Walleye is you won’t find them out in 40 plus feet of water, so that eliminates a lot of the lake. So with limited info, I have a couple questions that any insight would be greatly appreciated. Even with the clear water should I still set the tip-ups 6-12 inches of bottom? Should I start with tips ups out deeper maybe 30 feet and have them staggered at different depths leading to the shoreline, till about 10 feet? I am planning on using fluorocarbon leaders with size 4 and 6 trebles or a single hook. The bait of choice will either be shiners or suckers. Any other insight would be great. Safe fishing!

You’re probably right that you won’t find them deep, and even if you do it will probably be a tough bite.
Target any humps, shallow flats and shoreline breaks until you locate fish.
If you are able to locate small Perch that might be a good place to fish as the sun sets. Walleye tend to come in to feed on Perch and other shad at dusk and into the evening. Daytime bite on high pressure lakes is pretty tough, so everything you do in daylight should be in preparation for the evening bite.
Setting up like this, drilling your holes well ahead of sunset, and staying as quiet as you can on the ice will give you the best chance of success.
Shiners, Fatheads, Crappie minnows, all will work but some say shiners work best.
For tip ups and set lines I like tying on a #6 Gamakatsu octopus hook in red to flouro or mono line. Hook a really wiggly minnow through the dorsal fin and make sure it still wiggles a lot after the hook is in. Set it about 6-12 inches off the bottom and wait for the bite.
Be prepared to fail. It’s really hard to catch walleyes. But that’s part of the fun.
Good luck!

On my favorite clear water lake I found it more productive to set 12 to 18 from the bottom.

usafcatm wrote:

On my favorite clear water lake I found it more productive to set 12 to 18 from the bottom.

What he said, I often experience the same. Also, if I’m fishing a hump or rock bar that’s adjacent to deeper water, often I’ll set a tip-up in deeper water as much as 3′ or from bottom. Gets bit more often than you’d think.
I’m late to the post, so hope you did well!