December Walleyes

[lungdeflator]

I might have an oppurtunity to fish walleyes on a lake by Kenora mid-December for a couple days. I usually only ice fish Upper Red Lake and the MN portion of LOTW. Both those lakes (areas on the lake) have minimal structure.

Just curious, what would be good structure to focus on this time of year? Shoreline or midlake reefs?

Any depths that would be better?

It'll probably come down to searching around, but I would really appreciate a few tips to narrow it down some.

Thanks guys, any input is appreciated!

[Meilertson]

Lungdeflator,

I used to do some guiding on Rainy Lake in International Falls, MN. Rainy resembles most of your Canadian shield lakes in many ways. That being said, on Rainy at least, I would key in on deeper structure, especially if the lake has lots of deeper water available. And when I say deeper structure I mean 30-45 feet. Not saying you can't catch fish shallower and every lake is different, but the deeper water has been better in my experience on Rainy. My guess is finding structure wont be hard. Just a matter of finding them. I wouldn't be afraid to fish shoreline structure or offshore structure. I like reefs that don't necessarily come up real shallow. I like the ones that top out at around the depth range I expect to see fish in, say 20'-45'. Current areas are key too. Any structure near pinch points where current flows through is a good bet. But do be very careful near these areas as they are dangerous. 32-34ft is probably my favorite depth in winter on Rainy. Use your electronics to your advantage. Drill lots of holes, move and keep doing so until you see activity. P.S. any "shelf" type areas where breaks go from say 10fow sharply to 30fow and then plateau for 10-20 yards before dropping sharply into even deeper water are my best producing structure types. Good luck, hope you get a few!