February 28, 2025
By Ross Robertson
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Our good friend and longtime In-Fisherman contributor Ross Robertson shares a few tips that will help you stay stealthy and more successful when chasing walleyes through hard water. He talks about minimizing noise, keeping tackle handy and staying comfortable in the right shelter–regardless of the cold winter weather. These are excellent tips that will help you catch more fish through the ice.
Transcript:
00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:13.665: Hey, Ross Robertson, Big Water Fishing. We are walleye fishing. One of my favorite things to do, but also through the hard water probably makes it my most favorite thing to do.
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00:00:13.665 --> 00:00:26.220: And the big deal with walleyes is, is you get little bite windows. They're very finicky and we need to take advantage of those and stealth is really one of the keys to that. So we can extend that or get those little sniffers and make 'em bite those kind of bonus fishes.
00:00:26.220 --> 00:00:36.210: I like to say maybe it's midday fish, something like that. And things that you do in advance are really a big deal. Those are the things I like to key on. Things that I can take and and eliminate problems before they are a problem.
00:00:36.210 --> 00:00:53.520: And many of you guys have probably hit your shack with your rod. You know when nowadays we're using much longer rods than we used to. So if we are fishing inside, 'cause it's brutally cold, which to be honest, it's a lot more comfortable. Something like an insulated, I'm in a clam shack here. This is the X 200, the tall, it's a newer one here and it's got a lot higher.
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00:00:53.520 --> 00:01:19.050: So out for me right there, you're gonna be able to not hit the sidewall. How many times have you hit your shack on the hook set? And that's just a bad deal around the rod. Same thing. Maybe people don't think of this as being stealthy, but I really like a mono, or like in this case it's a copo because it's a fluorocarbon coating. This is 12 pound P-Line CX Premium. It's gonna gimme some extra give. It's high vis, but it's transparent down there.
00:01:19.050 --> 00:01:43.200: And I do put a little leader material on there. This says 12-pound Hinze key line and a little swivel and a very small BMC snap on that. But you'll notice like this G. Loomis rod, this is a 39 inch shiso. This IMX Pro 3 92. It's one of my favorite rods. I use it for a majority of my walleye fishing. And it's really a parabolic bend. It has tubular glass, or excuse me, graphite. And it's just really parabolic.
00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:59.550: And because of that tubular nature of that, it's gonna be a lot lighter, a lot better action in my opinion for what I like to do. And I pair that up with a little static or the new ones of banford. Both are very good reels, a thousand sides because it's a little slower. So I'm not reeling too fast.
00:01:59.550 --> 00:02:12.300: I don't, many of you guys realize like how much you are moving that lure. You know, in the ice time you gotta go slow most of the time. Slower is better almost all the time. So stealthy, things like that. But you maybe don't think about.
00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:29.880: Another one is kind of obvious to me, but maybe not to you. I like to use these little like gym mats or whatever you want to call 'em. Very inexpensive. Have a bunch of these, got one of these underneath my feet right now. I'll actually use 'em to cover the hole as well. So phones and lus and things don't go down them, but the deal with this is it makes me quieter.
00:02:29.880 --> 00:02:44.010: You guys have creepers on things like that. Again, watch this on cameras. Watch 'em on mega live. You'll see these fish spooking just simply by walking. So take a couple of these and line the bottom of your shock. You know, you start throwing thermos and things down. That noise absolutely spooks those fish.
00:02:44.010 --> 00:02:53.040: And it can take minutes if they ever do come back because of that noise that you're putting in there. And you know, getting around, thinking to dance. You know, things that you're always hunting for.
00:02:53.040 --> 00:03:10.870: I've got a little raffle, corded real, I don't even know what this is originally for, but I put a couple towels and a pair of nippers on this and that way I always know where it's at and I'm not digging around. Same thing goes for my lures. You know, I don't want these things stuck in my butt or broken up in my shack. So all of my working stuff, this is a Lakewood wallet, this is the medium size.
00:03:10.870 --> 00:03:29.050: Basically what I do is I put all my working stuff in there. And so I'm not looking on that digging through a hundred boxes. And because it's padded like this, your lures are gonna be secure. You're not gonna break off fins on jigging wraps, you're not gonna paint off on all of those spoons and other jig heads or whatever it may be. This is the medium size, they make one bigger. They also have a smaller one.
00:03:29.050 --> 00:03:41.950: They'll actually fit in your pockets or your bibs or your parka, and that's kind of nice because you can put stingers in there. Or if you're out hole hopping, something like that, you can have that same kind of protection or have all those things not stuck in you, but yet a really small box.
00:03:41.950 --> 00:03:51.700: So I'm sure there's a lot more things that you need to take into consideration when you're out fishing and being stealthy, but if you follow those, I can promise you're gonna put some more walleye on the ice this season.
