Rivers produce some of the most overlooked ice fishing opportunities. Walleyes seek areas where ice usually forms, near the main flow. Key areas are generally within a mile or so below a dam. They include:

• Eddy pools off to the side of the dam. These become focal points of walleye activity. Look for ice covering slack water over shallow to middepth areas where baitfish collect adjacent to the deepest water, usually just downstream of or astride a plunge pool.

• Deep pools adjacent to the main flow. When these are far enough downstream of a dam to freeze, they offer prime spots.

• Where wing dams or rocky fingers and projections slow current. These allow ice to form and are key areas.

Don’t venture onto areas of a river that iced over for the first time in ten years. But areas where ice forms every year, or at least most years, should be probed for safe ice.

Walleyes tend to migrate upstream to dams in fall and winter, and dams provide some classic ice fishing situations.

Plunge Pool Hole A—Obviously, this is open water and can’t be ice fished, but walleyes often stack in the tail of the pool. If the tailout is farther than a cast from the retaining wall or the edge of the ice, sometimes a car-top boat can be pushed in along the shoreline or over an ice shelf. Be careful.

Side Channel Pool B—Walleyes often move into still water near a dam because it’s a baitfish magnet and also to avoid the stress of freezing currents. Fish cruise these areas. It’s a good place to jig in conjunction with tip-ups.

Backwater Eddy C—Current is reduced here but still circles through. Walleyes face into the current, waiting for the river to serve brunch. The downcurrent side of rockpiles, depressions, logs, boulders, and broken slabs concentrate fish. Flash lures that cut the current often excel here, but if current is slow enough, work a jig tipped with a minnow.

Shoreline Projection D—Areas like this may be hundreds of yards or miles below a dam. The steeper the grade in the area, the less likely that these spots will occur. Current is too strong. A dam situated in flat country where the river current is slow offers the best chances for ice fishing below a dam. Walleyes stack behind a current break, in this case a hard bottom bar (possibly a wing dam). Current still moves through these areas, so caution should be observed. Flash lures like the Kastmaster typically work best.