ice lures and bait

[Norco]

Im from Saskatchewan Canada and have only been ice fishing for a couple of years. I can catch my limit on perch daily as well as Pike but I can never get walleye. I have all sorts of swimming jigs and hauger spoons, sweedish pimples but never get anything. What do you guys use to catch them in winter???

[Guest]

Usually you need to let the fish tell you ,but in clear water lakes I use a plain red hook with one red beed and the biggest fathead i can find (that will still fit on a #6 and get a good hookset). If the walleyes are there they will take it,coldfronts and neg walleyes use crappie minnows,use the smallest bobber possible.
If the walleyes are not there, fire up the auger,and I have caught 95% of them between 7pm and 2am but I am a night owl>
goodluck

[rmh2o]

I use a lot of jigging spoons and colored hooks with shiners or fatheads for walleyes here in MN.Souds to me like you are using the right stuff but maybe not in the right location.You can also check out the Canada forum for some information.Welcome aboard

[Norco]

Thanks for the info guys, I have never tried fishing for walleye after 7 P.M I may have to try it. The lake I fish in is just a dammed up river and the deepest part of the lake is 10 ft. The lake is very murky but in the summer I can catch my limit on walleye daily but when winter comes the same spots that hold walleye in the summer don't seem to produce.

[Guest]

Welcome to the forum Norco!

I always start with a medium sized jigging spoon tipped with either a fishhead or minnow. I like to use colors that provide a lot of flash when I start out. Also, I like to use rattle spoons which also add triggering power. Also try swimming lures like the jiggin rap and nils master. Don't look past the plain jig head either. Plain gold jig heads work real well when nothing else does. Almost everytime I fish in Canada gold jigs seem to work.

Keep trying new presentations until something works. The hardest part of catching walleyes isn't the presentation, its locating them. Find a school of walleyes and its just a matter of trial and error until you get them to bite.

Good Fishin, Matt.

[Norco]

What size of rapala or nils swimming lures does one use in mid winter?? also do you bait these hooks??

[Steve Foss]

With the jigging Raps and Nils, medium sized is fine. I tip them with a minnow head on the center treble. If there's a lot of current, they don't work as well as jigging spoons.

But it may not be what you're fishing with, or even how you're fishing, but where you're fishing. The lures you mentioned in your first post should be catching walleyes if any are around. Have you asked other fishermen there where they catch their walleyes? Do others ice fish for walleyes on the water you do? It's no surprise the fish might not be in the same place they were in summer. While they're creatures of habit, water that's 30 degrees colder than summer can change those warm-season habits.

I'd say punch a lot of holes and try places you haven't tried before. Sooner or later you'll find fish. If the water's murky, as I think you said it was, you might have a daytime bite, too, but of course the standard best walleye time is as the sun hits the horizon when it sets and the hour or so after that.

Also, you might try posting a copy of your question on the main ice fishing board. Lots of folks who really know their stuff with walleyes don't scroll this far down to look at the species-specific boards.

[This message has been edited by stfcatfish (edited 12-15-2002).]

[Norco]

Great thanks alot for the tips. I have spoke with many anglers and even the tackle shops and they all say this lake in particular is hard to catch walleye but I do know of some guyd who catch. I will just try punching more holes in different places.