Beginner's Luck?

[hanson]

By now, most of you ice fishing die hards have already hit the ice. I'm not one to test the supportive qualities of two inches of ice so I wait until there is a good 4-5 inches before venturing out on foot. By the time I did make it out, there was already 7" of the clearest, hardest ice I have seen in quite some time.

This clear, hard ice is really not the ice fisherman's friend when you are fishing walleyes up shallow, especially with no snow cover. You have to be quiet and work in the dark, to keep from spooking the eyes.

The game plan on this night was to auger a series of holes way ahead of "primetime" to cover the structure. The structure here is a breakline that drops off to a small flat. Deep water is available nearby as well. Almost sounds too perfect, right? The top of the break was about 5-6' deep which dropped quickly to a 10-11' deep flat.

My plan for the night was to give the walleyes the classic 1-2 punch. I set up my one rod with a JB Lures Gem-N-Eye & lively minnow combo under an Ice Buster Bobber about 6" off of the bottom. My other rod was my jigging rod, and the spoon of choice for the night was JB Lures Angel Eye in hammered gold. Traditional approach coupled with proven tackle would hopefully equal big results.

And on this night, it did. The bobber rod was the first rod to get bit. I landed a 15" eye and then an 18" eye on the jig & live minnow combo. This rod was in 10' of water right at the bottom of the break. Thinking that the fish might be telling me something, I moved to within 3' of this hole and started jigging with my Angel Eye spoon. A walleye moved onto the screen of my Marcum and I proceeded to play keep away with the spoon. The eye couldn't take it anymore and just slammed the Angel Eye. I immediately realized this fish was a wee bit larger than the other two I caught and played it out for a couple minutes.

The end result was this 24" beauty! Local lake on top of it!

What a way to start out the ice season! It must be beginner's luck.

[huntingislife]

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What a way to start out the ice season! It must be beginner's luck.

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Thats the only way I can explain it

[harvey lee]

Nice eye Chris. Boy if you are a beginner then what am I ???

[PierBridge]

Nice fish..

Good to see that 24'er fit through a 6" hole....

I'm assuming the spoon was tipped with a minnow head?

[Desperado]

I think them fancy duds ya got from that modlin' job must attract fish or somethin'.

[Maker Of Shoe]

Hey I have used angel eyes in the past with no sucess. Do you guys use a minnow head or maggots along with the lure. By the way a real beautiful fish which looks very healthy. Also are angel eyes pretty much a walleye lure or have you guys caught perch and crappie on them? Thanks for the help in advance.

[Northlander]

Angel eyes work well tipped with a full minnow, heads, tails and waxies as well as power baits. I catch everything on them. Eyes, pike, coho, rainbows, smallmouth, cats, perch, gills and crappies. Keep using them and you will start catching fish.

[CNY Tim]

Nice Job Chris were still aways off from the ice here but it's nice to see what I'm missing Went with the long rods tonight and nothing. But seeing that smile on your face is worth the waiting to get on top, well done...

[DTro]

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Nice eye Chris.

Boy if you are a beginner then what am I ???

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and what am I....LOL

[fishtrap3]

Very nice fish

[hanson]

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Good to see that 24'er fit through a 6" hole....

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Ha!Ha! I was a little bit concerned myself. With 7" of clear ice, I could see the walleye making its rounds under the hole. It would get close and then swim away which was so cool to see through that clear ice. 8" holes are so over rated.

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I'm assuming the spoon was tipped with a minnow head?

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Yep. I pinch the tail off with my thumb right behind the head and try to leave the guts dangling a little.

This walleye came up and looked at my spoon a couple times on my flasher while I was "shaking" the spoon. It was not interested at all. In a last ditch effort to get the fish to commit, I ripped the spoon up about 2' and she chased it and smacked it on the fall. Gotta love spoons!

[Dan Thiem]

Nice job Mister!!

[hanson]

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Hey I have used angel eyes in the past with no sucess. Do you guys use a minnow head or maggots along with the lure. By the way a real beautiful fish which looks very healthy. Also are angel eyes pretty much a walleye lure or have you guys caught perch and crappie on them? Thanks for the help in advance.

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Maker of Shoe-

One of the reasons I chose an Angel Eye that night over other spoon choices was because of the shallow water I was fishing. An Angel Eye, by design, is slower falling, fluttering type spoon. You can fish them in 30' of water but they take a lot longer to get to the bottom. If I was fishing deeper, I'd have probably tied on a JB Lures Varmint spoon or a Scenic Tackle Go-Devil.

There are many different techniques to fishing a spoon but with the AE, I like to basically "shake" the lure in place. Which means my jigging motion is about 1-2". What I'm trying to do is get the minnow head on the treble hook to kick around. The other way I'll fish a spoon is with larger jigging motions, say 1 to 2 feet. Then let the spoon flutter back down. Every now and then, you should let the spoon fall to the bottom and stir up some silt and debris. Seams to get the fish excited at times.

Spoons are not just a walleye lure, I use them for crappies as well and they are one of my go-to perch lures. Perch go nuts for spoons. I'll tip my spoon while perch fishing with either a minnow head or 4-5 maggots, depends on what the perch want.

Another spoon technique is to hook a lively minnow behind the dorsal or through the tail and suspend the bait about 6-8" off the bottom and leave it there. This is when I'll use my Thorne Bros deadstick rod. The tip of the rod will bounce a little as the minnow struggles but when a fish hits, he'll usually hook himself.

Spoons are very, very effective and you can fish them in many different ways for a variety of different fish.

Good Luck!

[Ebiz]

That brings up a good question I got to thinking about this weekend. With the lack of snow, does having a lantern on the ice affect the walleyes? I've was fishing between 10-12' this weekend from about 3:30 - 6:30. I didn't get a single bite either day after I fired up the Coleman lantern. I had just chalked it up to the "window" being over, but the more I think about it I'm wondering if the lantern was the reason. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Duffman]

Ebiz....

No doubt about it, the lantern can be a negative at times. Especially if you are fishing shallow for some 'eyes. With no snow, you bet you are lighting up quite the area under ya. Try some experimenting, see if things improve after you turn off the lantern.

[MNMAV93]

nice walleye i always like to get my hands on those, best of luck to you this season

[Tyler Holm]

Awesome Hanson. Congrats on the 24"er. She's a beauty