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Walleyes In Transition: Early- to Mid-Ice Season

Following the walleyes from early ice to mid-season is the key to catching more of them as ice season progresses.

Walleyes In Transition: Early- to Mid-Ice Season
Bro says sometimes the fish are up on the structure, or just off the deep breaks.

In the upper Midwest, first ice and early ice has given way to mid-ice conditions, which puts walleyes in a different mood and locations.

First and early ice usually see walleyes still in fall mode, generally from Thanksgiving through January 1st or so. But after that, as ice gets thicker, the weather changes, and forage moves, fish start moving from fall/early ice locations. Walleyes that were once catchable on foot, ATVs, and snowmobiles, have moved from shoreline-related structure like river mouths, land connected points, shallow flats and weeds, etc. and out into main lake areas.

What kept walleyes shallow and near shore was forage availability like spawning whitefish and schools of young perch and spot tail shiners. Once they vacate, the walleyes go, too.

So, midwinter brings the main lake into play: outer structures, basin humps, steep edges around humps and bars, and all of the above in correlation to bottom hardness changes in basin areas.

00-winter-walleyes-transition-bro_1
Brian "Bro" Brosdahl follows the walleyes as they transition from fall to winter feeding patterns.

Veteran MN ice fishing guide, Brian “Bro” Brosdahl notes: “When everything dumps into the main lake, I go to the edges. I’ll work the top of structures, too, but I’m primarily hitting the sharpest break on whatever lake I’m fishing. There might be good vegetation on top of some of these structures and they’re be walleyes there, but there will also be suspended walleyes that go from hump to hump holding at same depth as those hump tops as they swim between them; they don’t swim to the bottom and come back up.”

Bro says a lot of these structure-dwelling walleyes will pull up to a hump and just kind of hold offsides during the day, suspended, then move up at night to feed, although you can jig for the suspended fish during the day with the help of forward-facing sonar, as well as employ dead-sticks or tip-ups with baits suspended far off the bottom—at the same depth edge as the structure over deeper water.

The other big thing to look for, he continues, is baitfish location besides common, textbook structure.

“This year in northern Minnesota, the fish are relating to spot-tail shiners on a lot of these lakes, and the shiners are moving around the mid-range basin flats. Even if these lakes have deeper 30-, 40-, and 50-foot water, the shiners are moving along in the deep 20s along the edges of the structure and the walleyes are staying on the outside of them,” notes Brosdahl.

But midwinter brings on more than a continued minnow feed for walleyes. They also take advantage of the critters that are rising out of soft-bottom basins like bloodworms. Walleyes—especially the “eater”-sized fish many of are chasing—take full advantage of swelling buffets of insect larvae, just like panfish do. That’s when sizing down and using panfish-sized tungsten jigs and Eurolarvae on light line can produce those highly sought-after 14- to 17-inch bucket fillers.

02-winter-walleyes-transitionbro_smile

Taking this all into account, Bro’s typical program involves highlighting all the features that look good on his LakeMaster map. While he was focused on 6-13 feet of water during early ice, during midwinter he’s probing 18 to 23, a lot of times the deep edges of basin flats.

“If you’re fishing the bottom of the edge, you can certainly catch walleyes during the day, and if you’re fishing the top of the edge, that’s where fish are going to be cruising come low light and night.”

While fishing day spots he can do a bit more experimentation and find out what the walleyes want, using a Thumper Spoon for its wide flutter and slow fall to call in fish from a distance. But come “power hour” Bro likes to have two or three rods rigged up, typically with fast-falling Northland Tungsten Buck-Shot Spoons.

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“When they’re going right before sundown, there’s not a lot of time to mess around. I’ll catch a fish on one rod, reel it up and not even unhook it, getting my next bait back in front of the roving wolf packs you’ll see on your screen. Fast gets you more bites and more fish. I’m making large swipes up until the fish are there then I jig halfway jig the water column which walleyes will notice from a distance, before finally getting closer to the bottom, pound bottom a few times, and then you might have to play a little cat and mouse or yo-yo with them, but a lot of times they just swoop up and inhale the spoon. Once you’ve got the fish on your screen, I like two- to four-inch strokes slowly up the water column until they grab it, or else drop it back down and repeat.”

Like it or not, though, there will be times when walleyes are finicky, which is when Bro just barely moves the spoon, so the minnow head is all that moves in the walleye’s face.

Walleye Travel Routes

Bro says finding these evening walleye wolf pack travel paths has gotten much easier with forward-facing sonar, dialing in his Mega Live 2 to see fish over 100 feet in the distance when scouting, just taking note of where he should drill a path of holes to intercept them when they move on the structure to feed.

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Tip-ups offer a consistent method to keep bait in the strike zone appealing to nomadic walleyes.

“The routes walleyes take from their day spots to evening locations is typically the shortest distance between the two spots to conserve energy. Once you figure out these trails, you can almost intercept them like deer, anticipating their movements, your holes already drilled, dead sticks down, and jigs ready to drop.”

Cool Minnow Hack

Fair to say that most walleye and perch spoon fishermen like using a minnow head to dress up their presentation. You get some scent and visual appeal. But if fish get finicky, don’t overlook using an entire fathead or rainbow on a spoon treble, hooked uniquely the Bro way—and that’s slightly piercing the meat behind the skull without injuring the spine.

“I like hooking minnows like this for the t-bone bulk and profile, plus you get lively action. And it really looks like an upright minnow getting attacked by something. This can drive otherwise finicky walleyes crazy.”

Colors

Does spoon color play a part in successful midwinter walleye fishing? Probably. I think we can all agree that certain lakes have their tried and true colors that just catch fish. Bro explains, “On lakes with rusty crawfish, walleyes can clue into orange and blue. And blue or variations of green are found everywhere: shiners, young-of-the-year bluegills, perch. And then you’ve got natural minnow metallics and glow for your more stained waters like Lake of the Woods and others. Look at the tackle pegs of the shop you’re visiting and see what people are buying. Wonderbread’s always good because minnows have white bellies. And red glow is a staple. Experiment. On dead sticks, too. A neon hook or glow bead can sometimes make a difference. But Have a few different spoon colors ready to go and let the walleyes tell you.”

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Spoons offer a highly productive and attention-grabbing vibrating flash that walleyes find hard to resist.



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