Missing fish on the hook set...

[fishingguy]

Yesterday and today I went to a local lake to catch some walleyes. The lake has hundreds of 10" to 13" fish in the lake. I didn't keep any that small, but wanted to improve my skills a bit more. Since I have just recently re-taken up ice fishing after about a 10 year absence. I caught several, 15 to 20 in the 2 days, but missed several more. I tried to give it to them longer, open up the hook more, sharpening the hooks, even off setting the hook point from the eye some. But I still missed a few after all that. Was I using the wrong lure? (A #8 tear drop, and #6 horizontal). They would not look at plane hooks or any other color but flor. green or chartruse, and that was all I had in those colors. Any one have any ideas?

[Guest]

I can tell you that I have spent countless hours chasing walleyes through the ice. In that amount of time, I have found out quite alot about them. If you are using off the shelf jigs, make sure you hone the hooks before you use them. A dull or painted hook tip is a loser every time. Walleyes have a very tough mouth and a sharp hook goes a long ways in getting a positive hook set. Next, give them lots of rope. Once they take the bait, release the bail and give them a good two to three feet of line before you even try to set that hook. I am pretty sure that it takes that long before they get the whole works into their mouth. If you don't wait long enough, you're gonna miss them. As long as that line is going down the hole, they're still mulling it over whether or not to take it all the way in. Lastly, don't let them feel any resistence. They'll spit it in a heartbeat if they do.....Good Luck.......T

[Lunker]

I had the same problems on a lake I fished quite a bit last year. I could always find numbers, but they were smaller fish. I had a lot of trouble with the hooksets at first. I was using a jig/minnow, and I am assuming you are using minnows as well? I found, and find everywhere that they will lip the minnow. Just grabbing half of it. I realized sometimes they would take it by the head, and I'd get a hookset, or sometimes by the tail, so I'd lose 3 minnows before I flipped the minnow around aand hooked it behind the dorsal and catch the fish, which would proceed to cough up my minnows.