For Big Winter Ice Walleyes, Get a Little Wierd

To get on insanely hot bites, you have to spend time fishing weird and away from the crowds and pressured fish. This weird technique has allowed me to catch numerous limits of pressured walleye as well as the big ones, year after year.

STRATEGY:

Go deep. Focus on structure in depths of 30 feet or more.

I use a longer rod that would be typically best used for panfish, but a little stiffer and not a complete noodle. Anything rod over 27" is fine. The reason for this is I can keep constant tension on the fish through their huge head shakes. This will help prevent them from spitting the hook.

Any spinning reel with a smooth drag is my reel of choice.

I use 6 pound monofilament line as my main line. Most guys want to fish braided line in deep water. Braid reduces stretch which is important when fishing deeper walleye or deeper water in general. However, with bigger walleyes (5 pounds or bigger), the near the hole vicious head shakes generates a lot of friction when it contacts  the sides of the drilled ice hole. I do not like the friction that is generated by braid on the edges of ice holes as it is always a struggle to get big walleye to turn their head up the hole regardless of line choice. I have found that monofilament line slides along the ice with much less friction. It also adds stealth which helps in high visibility that comes with clear water.

I then attach a small barrel swivel to reduce line twist and connect a 4 foot 8 LB test monofilament leader.

To offset the inevitable stretch of using mono in deep water (water over 25 feet), I reach for smaller crappie-sized hooks. I prefer small sharp Gamakatsu octopus hooks in the color of red. The smaller hooks will be much easier to bury in the fish mouth past the barb. I attach a smaller split shot or two about 18 inches above the hook.

Then, I primarily use shiner minnows or fatheads. Small sucker minnows can work too, especially on lakes such as Mille Lacs. The smallest shiner minnows can be the most productive with this setup. But it is nice to have a bigger bait set out on a setline or tipup to weed out the little ones. Chasing a flag every twenty minutes is also a nice way to stretch out the back. 

Remember to give it a good hookset. Reel down to the hole and give it a big hookset. The mono will stretch a good amount so a strong hookset is very important.

This technique is very low profile so it works on clear water and pressured fish. Older walleye are old for a reason, especially due how many are kept due to being phenomenal table fair. 

This lightweight and low profile setup is actually healthier for the fish as well as they are raised up slowly to the surface. There is nothing wrong with a longer fight...I actually prefer it that way.

I recently used this on Lake Minnetonka, Gull Lake, Lake of the Woods, and Leech, and Mille Lacs. The bite was so hot one solo mission morning that I did not have to think twice about only fishing one line. It felt like I was fighting fish for the whole 3 hour morning adventure, because I was. I landed 10 walleye all over 16" in 3 hours, on the same hook out of the same hole. 

When I head back out to that spot, I will probably throw a 6 inch sucker on an iFish Pro or a Beaver Dam about 20 yards away. However, time spent messing around with tipups when hungry schools are cruising through during hot bite windows has me thinking I might just stick with this weird one line one hole strategy.