Fish Of The U.P. > Walleye:
Early is definetely the best time for walleyes.. In Michigan's UP it's the month of December. It's the time of year when we bundle up the boat in the backyard and consider hauling the snowmobile in for a tuneup. It's between the end of the open-water season and the first 6 inches (15 cm) of new ice. It's time for first-ice lunker night walleye wherever the angling season remains open.
Long before crowds begin to head out with ATV's, snowmobiles, trucks, and cars, a handful of canny walleye anglers walk quietly to hot action under the cover of darkness. One week of sub-zero nights can quickly form two or three inches of firm, defect-free glare ice. Providing anglers stay over shallow water and travel in single file, this is safe enough to venture out on.
Immediately after the first inch of ice forms on a lake, water temperatures stabilize and deep-water walleye begin moving to shallow weedbeds that hold the most food. With little or no snow cover or open-water waves to reduce light penetration, first-ice walleye in clear lakes confine their weedbed movements to after dark. At dawn, they're gone. In darker stained and cloudy eutrophic lakes, the fish often stay shallow all day. They bury into thick weeds then, but move out at dusk to prowl the edges and holes.
To locate shallow weedbeds, check the lake you plan to fish well before ice-up. With a promising weedbed located, make mental notes of subtleties in it that might attract the largest number of feeding walleye. You'll be attempting to locate these spots once you're back on the ice, so use prominent shoreline features to triangulate position. A modern method is to use portable GPS (Global Positioning System) units. They eliminate much of the guesswork. If you're unable to fish a lake before freezeup and are uncertain as to the whereabouts of weedbeds, use hydrographic charts (lake maps) to narrow down your search. Look for large flats about five feet (1.5 m) deep adjacent to water 20 feet (6 m) or deeper. Cabbage, coontail, and milfoil are the most productive weeds, but sandgrass (chara) often produces as well. Look for healthy, leafy greens, not dying brown masses. Check clumps clinging to your auger, or simply look down your ice hole prior to darkness.
Head out on the lake a few hours before dark and drill holes. Attempt to keep them on the edge of weeds, not over heavy patches, where your bait becomes hidden and tangled. Avoid drilling more holes once the bite begins. Noise might spook shallow-water walleye.
Drill two to three extra holes, spaced no more than 20 feet apart, per angler in advance. Should a heavy bite occur in a localized area, a group can cluster together to take advantage of it. While 8-inch (20 cm) holes are acceptable for night fishing, 10-inchers (25 cm) result in fewer last-minute knockoffs and a better shot at fish over five pounds (2.27 kg).
Rig with tip-ups and jigging rods and reels. On tip-ups, I prefer a line test of 10 pounds or greater to reduce breakoffs when pulling in fish by hand. No matter which tip-up you use, make sure it has a sensitive free-spool mechanism that allows fish to run. With jigging rods, the reel's drag system helps fight the fish, so I rarely go beyond 6-pound-test line, although other anglers do okay with 8- or 10-pound test. Heavier lines mask light takes.
I prefer a medium-action jigging rod about 30 inches (76 cm) in length. This keeps me close enough to easily work the hole. The rod has enough power to win a long fight with a big walleye, and, coupled with a small spinning reel, also balances nicely on my homemade jigging-rod support.
Rig tip-ups with hooks, minnows, and sinkers. Use jigging rods with lead-heads, spoons, or horizontal jigging lures, tipped with minnows. As finesse is not the most important criterion for successful night fishing, oversize hooks (size 2) and trebles often increase hookup percentages without decreasing the number of strikes.
The critical component of night fishing for walleye is bait size and lively vibration on a near-stationary offering, but technique and tackle often give you an extra edge. It's a rare night indeed when fishing actively with a rod and reel outproduces a set line, but if you're like me and enjoy working a hole, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Almost any size or type of walleye jigging lure can work, provided it's tipped with a good bait, but a heavy lure restricts a walleye's ability to inhale it. Walleye approach baits cautiously and, when the stare-down is complete, bite. I find 1/16- to 1/8-ounce jigs produce best and allow you to feed line to a fish. Heavier jigs can be used to deaden a minnow's swimming ability on nights when walleye seem to be turned off by over-active baits.
Exaggerated jigging strokes often spook walleye at night. Jig slowly and smoothly, and leave plenty of time between strokes to allow walleye to strike. Some nights, simply jiggling a baited lure outproduces all other techniques.
As for lure colour, I feel it's usually unimportant. Most nights, walleye hit a variety of colours. At night, there's little reflected light, and I believe walleye see no colour then. I've yet to see them show a colour preference on my outings.
Minnows for first-ice walleye should be lively and at least three inches in length. At night, most walleye track prey by picking up vibrations with their lateral lines. In addition to creating more vibration, larger minnows are easier for walleye to see.
Of special interest to anglers are sucker minnows between four and six inches (10 and 15 cm) in length. Their ability to draw in walleye from a distance at night is almost legendary. Big suckers stay strong on a hook longer than any other baitfish. They account for the bulk of larger walleye taken by winter anglers in my neck of the woods. Even on nights when walleye are more in tune with smaller minnows, a group of anglers should still have a few suckers down for their incredible fish-attracting ability. Place them on lines in the centre of your ice-hole spread. This allows you to catch walleye on the outside edge as they move towards the suckers. While the continuous vibration of a sucker minnow is good, a free-swimming sucker is not. You have to anchor them down in the hole, to give walleye a reasonable chance of grabbing them. This requires large rubber-core, sliding, or split-shot sinkers within 10 inches (25 cm) of the sucker.
Regardless of the type of minnow you use, hook it lightly under the dorsal fin when fished off a straight hook and sinker on a set-line, and nose or tail when jigged. Set lines higher off bottom than you would when day fishing. Walleye tend to feed upward, rather than down, at night. I prefer 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) up.
Light plays a critical role in walleye fishing. Decreasing natural light at dusk triggers the bite. Usually, there's a flurry of activity in the half-hour or so before total darkness, then a complete lull for up to an hour, before the night bite commences. This lull is caused by a physical change within the walleye's eye. Light-collecting rods behind the walleye's eye move up to join the eye, enabling the walleye to feed in near-total blackness. This takes a bit of time. It's during the no-bite period that many daytime walleye anglers decide to leave the ice. Be patient and wait for that first important night bite.
Walleye can see well at night, but anglers can't. How you use artificial lights can make or break your catch. Gas lanterns are popular because of the quantity and quality of light and heat they generate, but they can also annihilate your catch rate if placed too close to holes. Keep in mind that you're fishing in shallow water, and walleye usually avoid bright light. Place lanterns far enough away so that your ice holes are on the outer reaches of the light. Another option is to sit in the centre of your holes and check your lines from time to time with a flashlight. Tie a piece of reflective tape on your lines above the ice. When the tape disappears, move as quietly as possible to the hole and set the hook. Another option is to use a battery-operated buzzer/light on your tip-up. When a fish strikes, you'll know. These gadgets are tremendous on those slow nights when you begin to doze off.
In fact, expect the first few night outings to be learning experiences, while you battle darkness, cold weather, and try to locate fish. You'll generally find that there's a strong bite at dusk, another from one to three hours after dark, and, for those who don't need to sleep, another two hours before dawn. Moon phase, temperature, and weather stability all play factors, though. Keep track of them to narrow down when to go on your favourite lakes. With experience, you'll find that first-ice night fishing is indeed the time for lunker winter walleye.