Where To Start’s The Hard Part

I’ve already temporarily misplaced my year-and-a-half-old Labrador, Chase, too many times. Oh, for a youngster, he minds fairly well—knows his fundamental commands like sit, stay, come, fetch, and give. He also watches me for hand signals to search left, right, in front, and behind. He’s got a good nose and the right attitude, too—full steam ahead into the water and brush, capable of darting left to right in an instant through cattails and timber. And when I whistle multiple times, he comes running back, circles around my right side to sit within inches of my left foot.

But the juvenile rascal-of-a-pooch knows when I’m not looking and tends to wander off on his own adventures. Which has left me to ponder: How do you find a young Lab roaming the dense woods of northern Minnesota? I just do what I’ve always done: Move from spot to spot until I find we cross paths; or sit and wait, hoping the scalawag comes back around, the same reasoning we’ve used for decades to find walleyes that roam in lakes.

Eliminating water is the key to finding these walleyes. Sometimes you drill a hole, get lucky, and locate them. But most times out, anglers have to drill lots of holes to find fish. The search, however, evolves into part of the fun. It’s like the chance at hitting the jackpot, and it’s the driving force behind drilling more holes.

Where to start’s the hard part. Roaming walleyes tend to live in structureless waters. So, if you’re used to keying on structure to find wintertime walleyes, initiating your search may seem overwhelming, at first. Don’t fret. Even veteran anglers who have been tracking down nomad walleyes for years feel some anxiety before they drill their first hole.

A good place to start is where you left off catching them just before the water froze. In fall, walleyes and baitfish generally make a seasonal movement to specific spots that can be great early-ice locations. Another obvious spot is where—year after year—anglers traditionally catch walleyes at first-ice. One of these two spots is as good as any place to start.

But there are lots of others. Bowl-shaped lakes—whether the maximum depth is 40 feet or 5—don’t have much bottom structure for anglers to key on to find fish, but all waters have edges that can attract and concentrate baitfish and walleyes. I call it microstructure.

The most obvious is the shoreline. Long stretches of shore also attract baitfish and walleyes into the shallows. During twilight and at night, walleyes can be found searching for baitfish in the shallows, using the short distance between the ice and lake bottom to corral and catch baitfish. And you can catch walleyes here if you’re stealthy.

Over the years we’ve found them cruising in a foot of water. Other times that the fish keyed on the zone about 25 to 50 yards from shore, they were still relating to shoreline. Stealth is critical in the shallows. Once or twice in the 30- odd years I’ve been ice fishing, the fish have been on such a chew that not even a carnival would have spooked them. In most instances, walleyes scatter if you don’t do whatever it takes to prevent them from detecting you.

When I’m fishing in 15 feet of water or less, I often pre-drill my holes several hours before I return to fish them. During the late season the holes may stay open for the remainder of safe ice. Try to cut down on making any noise or moving around much: Being cautiously quiet can make the difference between catching the motherlode and no fish at all.