When Do Walleyes Move Deep?

On the lake I fish most often its commonly understood that during early ice the walleyes will move in shallow at night to feed and you will have the most success targeting them shallow. Later in winter they will move deep and you will want to focus on mid-lake humps and rock piles. I believe this is a common pattern for many lakes around the north. When do you know to start moving to deep water to target the fish? What indicators do you use to determine they have made that transition? Obviously you can say “if you stop catching fish” but just wondering if there are other indicators people use

There will always be fish both places they will follow the food. A lot of lakes will have bug hatches which will attract baitfish and predators will follow. Not all lakes have deep water movements for walleyes. Many will stay shallow which is relative to the body of water.

There are fish that don’t migrate and are always one or the other, some may get pushed deeper from pressure, good rule of thumb is when people start driving, go where there isn’t pressure, might be deep or an out of the way shallow spot.

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

good rule of thumb is when people start driving, go where there isn’t pressure, might be deep or an out of the way shallow spot

Always had good luck with virgin ice

crappie:

Most of the lakes in our area generally have the strong shallow bite during early ice… either we blew them out or the cold winter snap around the 1st of the year was enought to push our fish deep. I just always assumed that our fish did that, not thinking that I was enough pressure to move them.

Mark

I believe a factor is when the weeds begin to die in the shallows from the lack of light or exposure to the sun, the amount of oxygen available becomes less. also, the amount of cover from predators become less as the weeds lay down. Deeper water and the pressure that comes with the deeper water contains more oxygen. This can be a contributing factor to fish moving deeper as winter draws on

gvmn41 wrote:

I believe a factor is when the weeds begin to die in the shallows from the lack of light or exposure to the sun, the amount of oxygen available becomes less. also, the amount of cover from predators become less as the weeds lay down. Deeper water and the pressure that comes with the deeper water contains more oxygen. This can be a contributing factor to fish moving deeper as winter draws on

thanks. that makes sense

gvmn41 wrote:

I believe a factor is when the weeds begin to die in the shallows from the lack of light or exposure to the sun, the amount of oxygen available becomes less. also, the amount of cover from predators become less as the weeds lay down. Deeper water and the pressure that comes with the deeper water contains more oxygen. This can be a contributing factor to fish moving deeper as winter draws on

This makes sense to me too and is something I’ve held theory also. But this assessment Mike Klien is perhaps the most accurate…

Mike Klein wrote:

There will always be fish both places they will follow the food. A lot of lakes will have bug hatches which will attract baitfish and predators will follow. Not all lakes have deep water movements for walleyes. Many will stay shallow which is relative to the body of water.

As the walleyestudent, I am forever studying (as we all seem to be) everything about the walleye. Obviously I focus a lot of attention on Mille Lacs. Currently now approaching mid winter, anglers are pushing out to the deep reefs and mud flats. Contrary to the common sense, the best reports are still coming from shallow water. This is from Lyback’s report…“One angler in 14′ seen over 30 Walleyes on his camera during the afternoon, but only caught one. It seems that there is more baitfish in close and the Walleye are coming up to feed in the evening.”

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gvmn41 wrote:</div>
I believe a factor is when the weeds begin to die in the shallows from the lack of light or exposure to the sun, the amount of oxygen available becomes less. also, the amount of cover from predators become less as the weeds lay down. Deeper water and the pressure that comes with the deeper water contains more oxygen. This can be a contributing factor to fish moving deeper as winter draws on

This makes sense to me too and is something I’ve held theory also. But this assessment Mike Klien is perhaps the most accurate…

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mike Klein wrote:</div>
There will always be fish both places they will follow the food. A lot of lakes will have bug hatches which will attract baitfish and predators will follow. Not all lakes have deep water movements for walleyes. Many will stay shallow which is relative to the body of water.

As the walleyestudent, I am forever studying (as we all seem to be) everything about the walleye. Obviously I focus a lot of attention on Mille Lacs. Currently now approaching mid winter, anglers are pushing out to the deep reefs and mud flats. Contrary to the common sense, the best reports are still coming from shallow water. This is from Lyback’s report…“One angler in 14′ seen over 30 <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Walleyes on his camera during the afternoon, but only caught one. It seems that there is more baitfish in close and the Walleye are coming up to feed in the evening.”

good observations Andy. Thanks to all that posted. tight lines!

I caught some eyes in 25′ at night early ice on tonka last year.

Nother piece of the puzzle.

Now what if you’re on a lake with no rocks?? Sand and some weed lines on the edges?

nhamm wrote:

I caught some eyes in 25′ at night early ice on tonka last year.

Nother piece of the puzzle.

Yup…that it is