Well, this weekend was just what I needed. Good fishing, good friends, and the weather was enjoyable too. The ice was in great shape, so it was finally time to hit some of the areas I’ve been waiting to fish. There was about 6-7” of solid clear ice under our feet with a couple inches of fluffy snow on top. The plan was to target areas that held walleye only a couple weeks ago when I was fishing open water. These areas usually have two things in common; they have standing vegetation and they’re near deep water.
If the weather is permitting I will drill a series of holes running up and down these breaks. Then I will fish each hole for about 5 minutes. If I don’t see anything on the locator I’ll move on to the next hole. This will allow me to virtually troll up and down the break. Being the weather was great, this was our exact plan of attack.
I always have two rods rigged and ready for this presentation. One rod with a spoon tipped with a half a minnow and the other with a more aggressive bait like a blade or jigging lure. Due to the large number of small perch in these lakes I decided to go with a perch colored Lindy Darter. I hadn’t used this bait before but I was hoping it was going to live up to my expectations.
As usual the bite was pretty slow during the daylight hours, but once the sun neared the horizon it was like someone started ringing the dinner bell. The Marcum almost immediately lit up with fish. I started out jigging the Darter and I had a few lookers, but no takers. I switched to my Frostee jigging spoon and almost immediately iced a nice eye. I used the spoon for another 10 minutes with nothing, so I switched back to the Darter. On my second jig and drop I got crushed by a fat 19” eye. Over the next half hour we iced around a dozen eyes. We didn’t get any real big fish, with the biggest hitting the tape at just under 20″.
With so many great lakes to choose from my biggest issue is always deciding where to go. There are lakes where I go for eater sized fish and action, and there are lakes I go to for the chance at a true trophy. This past weekend a friend of mine iced a 27” and a guy he knew caught a 32” monster. It all comes down to what you’re after. One thing is for sure, you’ll have no shortage of great lakes to fish when coming to Alexandria!
Here’s a couple more pics!
Some very good tips and nice photo’s Joe!
Looks like “fish on!” in the Alex area!
Looks like some pretty good ice fishing for walleyes there Joe.
Nice report & pictures!
Thanks for the update Joe. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Alex area, you can’t swing a dead cat without hittin’ a quality fishery around here. So if you’re lookin’ to get off the beaten path, make sure you check the Alexadria Area out. And if you’re looking for a quality guide, make sure to give Joe a call. He’s one of those guys who’s always got his fingers on the pulse on whats goin on.
Thanks Again,
Erik Osberg
218-251-8306
Very nice walleyes Joe, looks like a blast
Never seeing a Lindy Darter myself, how would the Darter work in current? Would it be something I could use below the dam on the river? If so, I may just have to check them out.
Those are some nice fish Joe. That Darter in the perch pattern looks great. Might have to try a couple of those out next week when I head to the Brainerd area.
Thanks, guys! I love watching those big red lines fly up on the locator and SMACK fish on. There’s nothing quite like almost losing a fish by the hole about six times before you get your hands on em. Fishing with a landing net in the summer is almost like cheating compared to this
Bret, I’d say they are too light for fishing in current. What sets these apart from every other jigging lure I have is, these fall pretty slow. I just think they’d drift on you too much.
I do think you’d like the 1/8oz model for hunting down those big crappie!
Great fish Joe!! Kudos for keeping your boys on top of the best bites. As Erik mentioned Joe has a lot of great fishing areas close by!! Not only Walleyes, but some nice pannies and pike as well!!