Ice-out Walleyes vis-a-vis the spawn

[huskminn]

I'll be fishing a lake in Northern MN on opener that will probably have ice until 5/7 or 5/8. Someone mentioned that the walleyes would be in post-spawn mode on 5/10. I figured that the walleyes would still be in pre-spawn mode, assuming it would be about a week after ice-out before they would spawn.

Obviously, a lot of this depends upon the water temp, my memory says walleyes begin to spawn when water hits the low to mid 40's.

Am I wrong about this? Comments?

[fiskyknut]

Hmmmm, last year, the sunday of opening weekend on LOTW we got into large Wallys on the mainlake. These fish were squirting eggs all over the boat and the males were milting all over the boat. water temp was 42-43 or so, fish were piled thick in 3 to 6 foot of water. Gonna hit the same spot this year!

Fisky

[Aquaman01]

Cut & paste from a UMN site -

Walleye spawn in April and early-May soon after ice-out and water temperatures in the shallows reach 4-7° C (40-45° F). Walleye migrate from large lakes and rivers into small streams where they look for shallow gravel beds or areas of flooded vegetation. In lakes without good inlet streams, they move into shallow, rocky areas near shore.

Hope that helps.

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Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[huskminn]

Thanks for the replies, folks.

So, the main body of the lake could easily be very cold while the shallow rocky areas could be warm enough to trigger spawning.

Fisky, how many days after ice-out were you on LOW last year?

[fiskyknut]

I assume you mean how long after mainlake ice out was opener? If I remember right there was still plenty of ice on the lake during the Pike tourney which is held on the last weekend of April, so I'd guess the ice was completly off of Traverse/Muskeg bays 10 or 12 days or so before the opener, maybe a bit less. Conditions up here this year are simular, but the ice is probably gonna go a bit sooner....perhaps by the end of the week? If you asking how soon after ice out I do any type of fishing on the mainlake I got to wet a line for the first time last Monday at Warroad Pike fishing. Barring any really warm weather I think the Eyes will pattern simular to last year up this way. So I'm gonna do the same thing as I did the day after opener last year, complete different locations than what I usually do every opener up here. We'll see?!?!

What lake are you gonna be fishing? here?

Regards....Fisky

[This message has been edited by fiskyknut (edited 04-28-2003).]

[huskminn]

We'll be on Snowbank. The resort owner predicts total ice-out late next week. I asked how soon after ice-out you fished last year because I was hoping to identify a relationship between total ice-out and walleye location.

The general consensus seems to be that most of the spawning will have finished within just a few days after ice-out. If that's the case, I assume that fishing will be tough, but perhaps one can still find some smaller males hanging out in the shallow spawn areas.

Thanks for your input and good luck!