Walleye Words of Wisdom
Mitchell, wrestles up a beautiful
shallow water walleye.
Photo by Mark Strand.
- click to enlarge -
Walleye are remarkable in how adaptable they are in a variety of environments. From the stained, featureless and often shallow prairie lakes to Canadian Shield lakes, the water where walleye flourish is extremely varied. Good walleye water can be a small natural lake in Northern Minnesota, one of the many bays located off of the Great Lakes, fertile prairie lakes and just about any aquatic environment in between.
Do all lakes have great or even good walleye fishing? No. But with such extremes in environments and lake types, there is no wonder why angling techniques and strategies vary across so much of the frozen North. With so many contrasting types of water, so many different forage bases and other variables like visibility, available structure and population densities, there is no one size fits all secret to locating and catching these popular fish. Despite such drastic differences however, there are some general rules of thumb that do seem to play over and over. We picked the brains of some of the top winter walleye sticks for many of the tactics and strategies in this article. What we found interesting is just how similar walleye often act and how similar ideas where concerning walleye movements, presentations and locations, often hundreds of miles apart on bodies of water that might be drastically different.
Shallow Walleye
Many great winter walleye anglers we interviewed for this story agree that shallow water (less than seven feet) is much more productive than the masses of anglers imagine. Many anglers have a difficult time fishing shallow water wrongly assuming that walleye usually relate to deeper structure. According to Devils Lake guide, Jason Mitchell who has been one of the key members of Devils Lake’s famed Perch Patrol Guide Service for many years and designer of a high quality line up of application specific ice rods that are getting rave reviews (Jason Mitchell Elite Series Ice Rods) shallow water walleyes are often overlooked and admits that deeper structure and more traditional locations might hold more fish but the fish they find up shallow are often bigger. “We often find larger fish on shallow sand flats. If these shallow shoreline flats have relatively close access to deeper water and perhaps some green weeds, that seems to make these spots better, explains Mitchell. Often, fish movements on these shallow spots revolve around sunrise and sunset but there might be some fish that move through these spots towards the middle of the day, especially with cloud cover. You could actually sight fish if you want to. What surprises me is just how late in the morning you can still sometimes catch these fish.”
Mitchell believes that these fish are much more sensitive to angling pressure. “These fish usually turn off when a crowd gathers and you almost need a milk run of spots to check so that you can keep resting spots because these fish don’t seem to withstand angling pressure very well.” Jason adds that water clarity doesn’t always make sense. “I used to believe that stained water was better for these shallow patterns but I have found that these patterns still persist even when we can see down ten feet or more. This isn’t just a first and last ice pattern either; we often find fish shallow during the middle of winter.”
Shallow walleye are generally aggressive walleye that call for aggressive presentations at least usually, according to Mitchell. “The fish do seem more aggressive at either first light or last light and yes aggressively jigging spoons like Lindy Rattling Flyers or swim lures like Chubby Darters, Jigging Shads and Nils Masters trigger some pretty veracious strikes but these fish can be temperamental just like any other walleye. Good visibility in clear water later in the day can demand switching to more subtle approaches. We can sometimes watch these fish and that can teach you a lot about how to adapt.” Guide: Jason Mitchell, Perch Patrol, www.perchpatrol.com
Get Off the Bottom
According to Northern Wisconsin guide, Jim Hudson who has a knack for catching beastly walleyes from Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior, many anglers make the mistake of fishing too close to the bottom. “As a general rule of thumb, walleye will relate closer to the bottom when relating to structure or shallow water, adds Hudson. On the Great Lakes, many larger walleye however will often suspend or roam the basins relating to baitfish that are usually suspended.” These fish can see a lure from a distance in this often clear water and are used to moving up to feed on fleeing baitfish.
Hudson stresses the importance of using a Vexilar to determine where there is baitfish activity in the water column. “Often, we see bait on the screen before we actually see larger marks indicating walleye. If we aren’t seeing clutters of bait off the bottom, chances are there are no walleye either.” Lures show up better when presented above the fish and fish that come up to chase the lure are more likely to hit. “I imagine that the profile is easy to find when silhouetted above the fish and the water is so clear that I think these fish can find a lure from quite some distance. Whenever you can get a fish to commit to the lure by shooting up, you also have a much better chance with that fish,” adds Hudson. Jim relies on an aggressive snap jigging method incorporating Chubby Darters to land several walleye over ten pounds each winter. If the current is too strong for the Chubby Darter, Hudson will switch to large spoons. On the Great Lakes, chrome or silver is tough to beat for color. Guide: Jim Hudson, Hudson’s on the Spot Guide Service, www.fishchequamegonbay.com
Structure Subtleties
As winter progresses, fish house communities spring up across the walleye belt. As a general rule of thumb, these on ice homesteads will often mark out all of the popular structure that is available. On many popular lakes, you can almost map out humps and reefs by where the masses of permanent fish houses are located. Areas that see significant fishing pressure often cool off fast. With GPS and map chips, there seems to be few secrets anymore. According to Mille Lacs guide, Cory Studer who also works at Vexilar Marine (highly regarded as manufacturers of leading ice fishing sonar) the best walleye fishing often occurs away from the crowds on subtle structure that doesn’t often attract attention. “The mud flats on Mille Lacs are usually productive as soon as the ice is safe enough to reach these areas but the fishing can last all winter, explains Studer. The mistake many anglers make however when trying to pin point structure is looking for too much. Walleyes will often hold, relate or funnel through dips and bumps on the mud that might vary by less than two feet. These spots don’t show up on map chips. Often on flats and on basins, good structure is often subtle, nothing dramatic, just some small variance to stop or stall wondering walleye. Forage determines the details of the presentation. Tullibee or young of the year perch might cause walleye to suspend over the mud but again, we often find fish suspended above or off some type of subtle form of structure. Insect larvae might pull the entire food chain right into the mud where the fish become bottom orientated so use your Vexilar to determine where to fish in the water column.” Guide: Cory Studer, Walleyes Plus Guide Service, www.walleyesplus.com
Bits and Pieces
All three of these anglers are seasoned guides and highly regarded by their peers in the ice fishing community. All three anglers are also Ice Team Power Sticks, a distinction given to some of the most influential ice anglers in the Ice Team organization, www.iceteam.com. While the water that walleyes swim can vary, anglers on any frozen body of water can take bits and pieces of this shared wisdom and apply it to their home water. Chances are some of the information regarding presentations, patterns and locations revealed by these top ice pros will work on walleye under the ice near you.
Carl Madson