Winter Walleye- How much line do you give?

Just wondering how much line you generally give for winter walleyes? Talking about set lines using a bobber, for example

For me depends on bait. Fat heads & small jigs a lot less time than a sucker/shiner on plain hook.
For me it goes like this:
1) rattle goes off, feed line
2) wait for line/bobber to stop
3) once line starts going again, slowly start feeling for fish
4) SET THE HOOK!

They don’t always stop, but 90% of the walleyes I catch do.

No matter the time of year I err on the side of less line, would rather miss a fish than gut hook one.

Exactly what IceNEyes said. I wait for them to stop, and set hook when they starting moving again.

Bob Ford wrote:

Exactly what IceNEyes said. I wait for them to stop, and set hook when they starting moving again.

X3

1 sec + rule…

If missed…plus 1 sec…

If missed…plus 1 sec…

If missed…plus 1 sec…

something like that. But if that bobber dives fast…I set the hook or reel fast so hook is caught in their lip.

zooks wrote:

No matter the time of year I err on the side of less line, would rather miss a fish than gut hook one.

No matter time of year so much, but for me certainly more a matter of what lake.

I mostly ice fish for walleyes on Mille Lacs and with the narrow slot and one fish limit, I try to set the hook pretty quick since most likely it will have to be released and gut hooked with a clipped line is not a good way to send them back down the hole.

I just had to put one back that was 1/2 inch under the slot the other day with a swallowed hook and it does take some of the fun out of it. Thankfully it was just that one, and all the other’s went back without a hook in their throat.

On another lake without slot limit and allows you to keep more walleyes I might give them more time to take the line, and if they are deeply hooked I can still legally keep it.

As my dad always told me, “They don’t have hands!”
If the bobber isn’t coming up, it’s in their mouth.

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

For me depends on bait. Fat heads & small jigs a lot less time than a sucker/shiner on plain hook.
For me it goes like this:
1) rattle goes off, feed line
2) wait for line/bobber to stop
3) once line starts going again, slowly start feeling for fish
4) SET THE HOOK!

They don’t always stop, but 90% of the walleyes I catch do.

Pretty much what I do as well.
Bigger minnows get more time. I use treble hooks a lot and if I’m using a treble and a smaller minnow I hit them pretty much right away.

Had this issue this past weekend on Lake of the Woods, I swung and missed on at least 15 fish in 2 days. Followed the same rules others have shared, up to waiting over a minute with the bobber down, just to swing and miss again. Our guide came in, watched me do it 3 times in a row in a few minutes, asked to see my hook, put about a twist in the jig hook so the point was not in line with the jig itself. I put it back down, 5 minutes later as the bobber went down, when it stopped he told me to set the hook, fish on.

So there are more factors than how long to wait.

When fishing a small bobber on LOTW, I’d set as soon as the bobber was consistently getting pulled down (less than 5 seconds from the first sign of a bite). I’d wager that out of the 60 or so fish I caught in two days back in December, I didn’t miss more than a handful at most. A lot of the fish were shorts, so it was a no-brainer to be pretty quick on the trigger. We were also using fatheads which fish could chomp fairly quickly as opposed to suckers or shiners.

I’m not a big fan of waiting or feeding line in any application whether it be ice or open water. I rarely lindy rig on open water anymore other than a couple times a year. It’s far too likely to have fish swallow the hook. Not to mention, I’d rather cover water more aggressively casting jigs, cranks, or trolling to find the most active bite.

Open water I rarely miss a hookset and even more rare to let a hook get too deep.

I don’t fish winter walleye nearly as often, but I have way more misses. I usually let the bobber go down 6-12 inches only, but thinking I need to let them take it a little longer.

slipperybob wrote:

1 sec + rule…

If missed…plus 1 sec…

If missed…plus 1 sec…

If missed…plus 1 sec…

something like that. But if that bobber dives fast…I set the hook or reel fast so hook is caught in their lip.

Nailed it

lindyrig79 wrote:

Open water I rarely miss a hookset and even more rare to let a hook get too deep.

I don’t fish winter walleye nearly as often, but I have way more misses. I usually let the bobber go down 6-12 inches only, but thinking I need to let them take it a little longer.

It can be tricky. They will “light bite” and you touch the line or make any movement and they’ll drop the bait and you missed. Wait a little longer and you might have better chance of a hookup once it moves the bait down it’s mouth, but then the chance of gut hooked increases.

Depends on the water you’re fishing. If you can keep a deeply hooked fish, let ’em take it for a bit. If you’re fishing a lake with limited legal harvest opportunity, best set as fast as you can…otherwise you’re likely killing fish you cannot even make a nice sandwich with.