finding walleyes under the ice

[Jeremy airjer W]

I usually try to target crappies when I ice fish. I recently learned that one of the lakes I frequent has an excellent walleye year class coming up! Should I be looking for different structure / depths when fishing for walleys or should I be in the same places I fish for crappies and just change my bait and presentation?

[ducksnbucks]

Airjer,

I tend to fish for walleyes a bit shallower around 12-15 feet during the evening on humps, points, and drop offs. I target them mostly in the evening. I tend to catch most of my crappies deeper around 20-30 feet suspended off of the bottom. Try switching your presentation in the same spot you fish for crappies and if it doesn't work try other spots. Don't get me wrong I catch eye's while fishing for crappies I just tend to fish other spots and do better for them in the spots I said before. Godd luck, Ding

[Jeremy airjer W]

Thanks Tony!

I've also caght walley while crappie fishing. I usually fish the metro area on the east side and have never had any worth keeping, so I've never targeted them. Good advice!

[ducksnbucks]

No problem,

Just one other thing, I do really well on Vingala (spelling might be wrong) spoons. Tip them with a fathead minnow and jig them lightly 12-18 inches off the bottom and wait for the hit. Favorite color is white. Also can't go wrong with a smaller shiner under a tip up. Good luck, they are a blast when you find them.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Anybody else have some info/ideas they would like to share?

[PikeTipper]

I'm not much of a crappie fisherman so I don't know what spots you are fishing for them but for walleyes it really depends on what kind of stucture is in the lake. Fish the ends of points and inside turns. As a general rule I usually fish the bottom part of a drop off early then move to the top as it gets dark.

Any jigging spoon with a full minnow or minnow head should work then a shiner under a bobber for the 2nd line. For colors I usually stick with a perch color spoon or something glow.

[Sportland_Bait]

I like to fish mostly classic walleye structure. Points, flats, humps, or transition areas like sand to rock. If your lake has humps I wouldn't be surprised if you could connect with crappies and eyes in the same areas. We have some lakes like that here in the Nisswa area.

Jason Erlandson

[korn_fish]

I usually fish different structure when targeting eyes. I have often caught eyes when fishing strictly for crappies, but for the most part it's not a good ratio of eyes to craps, I think they relate to different structure at least until late ice when the O2 levels get down. That isn't to say that you can't find 'em stacked realy close to each other.

I usually focus tight to the structure and their breaks, i.e. points, humps, saddles, narrows for eyes. Very seldom do you see me fishing off of the structure for suspended fish (crappies) and eyes at the same time. A couple times last winter I did manage a mixed bag fishing some deep mid lake saddles, but it's not common for me.

Most people that I know that get mixed bags fairly often look for crappies that are suspended near walleye type structure and then set up over the crappies but then place tip ups on the structure and on it's breaks for the eyes.