What Depth for Late Season LOTW Walleye?

I haven’t been to LOTW this year, but planning to head up this weekend with my Ice Castle. My understanding is the resorts/roads go deeper and deeper throughout the season chasing fish. But, at some point the walleye mass starts heading back towards the river for spring spawning. Since we’ll be staying on the ice, and not subject to the guides drop-off and pick-up times, I’m thinking I might try shallower on the south end. My question would be what everyone considers shallow? What depth should be my starting point? We can always move if totally unproductive, but the weather forecast is more like January than March. I’d rather catch six good quality fish than 30 10-12″ saugers.

Anytime of the year up there we always start and end shallow…my guess is most people will be out in 30+’ right now, especially with a cold front.

I don’t have experience moving an ice castle but I’d start in 16-20′ and maybe even stay there. The day bite can get slow anywhere up there…most of our big fish have come between 6-8am or right at sunset in shallower water.

I agree….a few nice slot fish beats dinkfest anyday.

Hope you have better luck than we did. We just got back from zipple bay tonight and it was very slow the last 3 days. We talked to at least 8-10 different people at zipple and other resorts with the same report. We were in 26’

Zipple bay has been plowing new roads in 12-14’ the last couple days for guys chasing pike. 36” of ice where we were so make sure you have at least one extension on your auger if your in a wheelhouse.

I was up Feb 14-18 out of Zippel Bay. Sat house on new road in 12’ they punched for the pike fisherman. We fished pike during the day, and switched over to walleyes in the evening/overnight. Caught 3-4 nice pike each day, smallest was 34”, biggest was 40”. 5 or so walleyes each night. Smallest was 14”, several slots. I will probably never go deep again. 10” sauger in 30+ FOW don’t trip my trigger.

I fish shallow. Pretty much most of the season up there. A few locals taught me that trick many moons ago

MNdrifter wrote:

I was up Feb 14-18 out of Zippel Bay. Sat house on new road in 12’ they punched for the pike fisherman. We fished <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>pike during the day, and switched over to walleyes in the evening/overnight. Caught 3-4 nice <em class=”ido-tag-em”>pike each day, smallest was 34”, biggest was 40”. 5 or so <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes each night. Smallest was 14”, several slots. I will probably never go deep again. 10” sauger in 30+ FOW don’t trip my trigger.

I’m glad to hear the shallow bite worked for you. Way better then 20 12 inch fish in 30 ft of water

I was fishing in 26′ as well this last weekend. Fishing was slow, but we got probably 50 fish in 3 days. Very few people were out deeper than 26-27′. Biggest was 18″, most were 11-13″…

I would go shallower than that. Seemed like the guys I talked to at Cyrus and Bugsy’s that fished in 10-15′ did better.

404 ERROR wrote:

I was fishing in 26′ as well this last weekend. Fishing was slow, but we got probably 50 fish in 3 days. Very few people were out deeper than 26-27′. Biggest was 18″, most were 11-13″…

I would go shallower than that. Seemed like the guys I talked to at Cyrus and Bugsy’s that fished in 10-15′ did better.

We must of been close to each other. We ate dinner at Cyrus Sunday night

Coletrain27 wrote:

We must of been close to each other. We ate dinner at Cyrus Sunday night

So did we! Sat in the back room. 5 guys.

404 ERROR wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Coletrain27 wrote:</div>
We must of been close to each other. We ate dinner at Cyrus Sunday night

So did we! Sat in the back room. 5 guys.

We sat at the bar. Me, my son and my dad. I have a long beard. We’re you sitting in the north east corner around dark?

Coletrain27 wrote:

We sat at the bar. Me, my son and my dad. I have a long beard. We’re you sitting in the north east corner around dark?

In the back by the bathroom.

I might of walked right by you. Small world!