Pro Page > Jason Mitchell > Articles

Skipping Supper for Winter Walleye

Walleye angling through the ice can often be a lonely pursuit where the only way to really catch fish is to simply invest the time. Unlike some other ice fishing opportunities, success can be limited to a very narrow window of opportunity. On many lakes, the fish might only bite for an hour or less in the evening. If you are right where you need to be, you cash in. If you are ten feet off, you have to wait until the next night. How does a person know where to drill holes? It can become difficult to find and look for fish that are active for a short period of time.

How does a person know when is the best time of the day to be fishing for walleye? The truth is, we don’t know when the best time is until we’re actually sitting on the ice. Obviously, that hour around sun set is considered prime time on walleye lakes across the ice belt. Every lake is different, however, and no two winters are exactly the same. I can remember some nights where we had our best fishing at three in the morning. The only way you will really be "in the know" is to be "on the ice." Traditionally, however, some of the best walleye fishing on many lakes happens "after work" so this puts many of you into the game.

What is the best way to find walleye through the ice? What works best for me is to set up on probable spots and let the walleye find me. I have said this before but I will say it again, "the spot on the spot becomes even more important through an eight-inch hole." What makes finding fish difficult at times, however is the fact that the spot on the spot might not be obvious or make any sense. We have all seen this happen. One hole will produce every fish. Pay attention to your Vexilar and study the bottom of the lake.

The basic game plan for many winter walleye fanatics is to drill holes from deep to shallow in an attempt to intercept fish as they move from deep to shallow. Typically, the action starts in the deep water at the bottom of the structure and the movement ends at the top of the structure. The bite can last five hours or ten minutes. Generally, we can find where the walleye are staging during the day and we can determine where they end up on top of the structure. The "in between" is where we can really get burned. Finding the definite route fish take from deep to shallow water can be difficult. From my experiences on the lakes I fish, it often seems as though all of the fish took the same route (an underwater trail if you can imagine). If you were off the mark, you missed the fish when they were on the move. Catch the first fish in twenty feet of water only to catch another fish in eleven feet of water a half hour later. How did they get that shallow when the tip ups in the intermediate depths didn’t get touched?

This in between gray zone can be feast or famine. Figure out the route fish are using as they move up the structure and an angler can really cash in. The action can be fast. The only way to find the route, however, is to fish the structure hard and try to absorb enough information from your electronics that you have a good mental picture of the bottom. Mark hot spots on a hand held and mark hot holes so you can find them again.

More dependable action can sometimes be found on top of the bar, reef or point you are fishing on, providing the fish are moving shallow enough. When fish are on top of a point, they are on top for one reason, to eat. I can remember many nights where it seemed like the fish came across the top like vacuum cleaners. The minnow that I had worried about hooking too deep was hit, every rod was hit. Life was good.

No secret that some of the best walleye fishing can start out shallow and progressively move deeper as winter progresses. What I look for is that "comfort zone" when choosing structure to fish. When fish will no longer move up into five feet of water, I am not as likely to key on structure that tops out at that depth even though there may be fish holding in deeper water. Shallow can be a relative term. When shallow becomes twenty feet, I often have the best luck on structure that tops out in that range instead of fishing the twenty feet of water on the base of a shallow bar or point. There are always exceptions however, especially when the structure you are fishing is large and complex.

From my experiences, I see many misconceptions in the regard to using flashers when fishing for walleye. In a manual, target separation and sensitivity determine how many walleye you see that slide along the bottom through your cone angle. In the real world, you don’t get the inch and a half or three and a half inch target separations. Don’t compensate by lifting your lure out of the zone so you can see the lure separate from the bottom if you are sitting on top of a break line or rock pile that would give you a poor target separation. The key is to watch the bottom itself and watch the mark that indicates your lure. The truth is, many fish that are tucked tight to the bottom show up within the bottom, regardless of whether you use a Vexilar or a Zercom.

The key to monitoring fish is to be able to pick out fish from within the bottom reading. The bottom will actually move and flicker, the signal will become stronger as the fish moves through. I have used both units extensively and they will both show you fish. My personal choice, however, is the Vexilar FL8. I give the Vexilar the nod because it is simply easier to fish with. The "bottom movement" I described earlier is extremely easy to notice on a Vexilar and the settings and interference elimination make the unit more fishable.

Equipping the Vexilar with its nine-degree transducer gives the unit even better accuracy when fishing in water deeper than twenty feet. The twenty-degree transducer that comes standard on Zercom and Vexilar units can be too much for some fishing applications. Vexilar’s switch box enables an angler to switch from a nine-degree cone angle to a nineteen-degree cone angle enabling an angler to adapt to any situation a walleye can deal. Use the narrow cone angle when probing deeper water or when fishing over structure that throws a change in depth within your cone angle. The nine-degree transducer also excels for getting the pin point accuracy sometimes needed for finding "the spot on the spot."

Catching walleye through the ice often seems like a two step process. Find structure and learn the structure well with the aid of your electronics. The next step is simply fishing. Change depths and techniques until something happens. If nothing happens, try something different the next night. I don’t know of anybody that does well on walleye every night for the duration of the whole winter, but if you keep the wheels turning and get out on the ice at every chance, you get enough slime on your hands to keep you coming back for more. This hunger to figure out walleye in your favorite lake keeps you on ice and we both know that you have to be on ice in order to start the snout of a nice walleye up through a hole in the ice.

Jason Mitchell is a licensed guide on North Dakota’s Devils Lake. For more information, contact the Perch Patrol Guide Service by calling (701) DL1-FISH.