Saving the
best for last
by Ron Anlauf
Just
when you thought it was safe to winterize your rig and put it
away for the season something comes along and changes things,
like the urge to get on the water and give late fall walleyes
one more try. It would be easier to write the whole thing off if
it wasn’t so darn good and if you were less than a serious
walleye angler. Serious anglers simply can’t ignore the
tremendous opportunity of working the very last of the late
season.
The two
to three week period before freeze up is what we’re really
talking about, and it will be here and gone before you know it.
In fact, the best action often occurs when shallower bays are
starting to ice over and getting on the lake may become more of
a challenge.
Accesses
can be frozen in and you may have to be a little creative to get
a boat launched. An option is to break up the ice with your
boat, if it’s not too thick. If you try backing your boat onto
the ice and the trailer doesn’t break through, it’s too thick.
The author proves it’s never too late to find nice walleyes like
this.
Breaking a little ice for a chance at some late season angling
can be well worth the effort, and is a situation to look out
for. The period leading up to the last few days can provide
plenty of action, but that last of the last can be absolutely
phenomenal. For whatever reason, walleyes seem to turn it up a
notch or two when the first layers of ice is start to
develop.Ice anglers know that the action surrounding the first
ice period can be the hottest of the entire frozen water season,
and they wouldn’t miss it for anything. The key to cashing in on
the hottest action is getting there before the masses show up
with all of their noise and commotion.
Too
many anglers can spoil the broth, and is a situation to try and
avoid. Open water anglers can beat all of them to the punch, by
keying on the “ last few days”.
Another
advantage of working late is the ability to get dialed in on
walleye location which can be a huge advantage at first ice.
With a good graph and a GPS like the Garmin GPSMap 178C you can
quickly scan over potential hangouts and lock in the high
percentage spots. Spots like little underwater points, or hard
bottom areas like a little patch of gravel or rock, or even an
inside turn in a weed line can be scoped out and entered into
the memory of the 178C. That information can then be entered
into a handheld unit like the Garmin 60C which can get you back
to the exact spot and save you valuable time when you return at
first ice.
Spending a little time with you’re eyes glued to the screen of
an underwater camera like the Marcum VS560 can be another great
idea and will help you identify those areas that have a slight
variation which may make them more productive than the rest. The
Marcum VS560 has a slick new rotating camera that pans 360
degrees inside of a stationary housing. By dropping the camera
to the desired level you can pan back and forth and take in a
full view of everything there is to see, like bottom makeup and
fish.
Finding
late season walleyes can be a snap, especially if you know where
to look. Classic late fall walleye location usually includes
“classic” structure like fast breaks and hard bottom. Quick
break lines near shallower flats area a good bet as well as fast
drops along deeper offshore structure. Weed lines don’t really
fall into the classic category but they too can be red hot late
in the season.
Weed
lines can attract plenty of walleyes, and are often overlooked.
Look for the deepest growing green weeds you find, nearest the
deepest water available. Good weed line areas to key on are
points, inside turns, and rock or gravel spines that extend into
the weed flat. Those are the secret high percentage spots that
aren’t that easy to find and something you might want to keep to
yourself, once located.
Regardless of where you’re fishing how you do it remains the
same. Top late season presentations include live bait rigging
and jigging, heavy on the minnows. Minnows like rainbow chubs,
fatheads and shiners, are all readily available, and about all
you need to put a few chunky late season ‘eyes in the boat.
Rainbows and larger shiners work well with a live bait rig,
while smaller shiners and fatheads are more suitable for tipping
a jig. Red tail chubs are another excellent rigging option, but
aren’t always that easy to find.
A
variation on the standard lift and drop jigging technique is to
replace the jig with a bait usually associated with ice fishing
like The Northland Tackle Mini Airplane Jig. When you think
about it you’re as close to ice fishing as you’re going to get
at this time; So what are the hottest baits at first ice? The
answer is jigging spoons and baits like the Northland Airplane
Jig.
While
the standard technique for late fall jigging is a simple lift
and drop of the bait, the Airplane Jig requires more of sweep,
and slow fall. This is accomplished by dropping the bait to the
bottom, picking it up a few inches or so, and then sweeping it
up with about a two foot stroke, followed by allowing the bait
to fall on a slack line. As it falls you can see the line pull
off the surface. If it stops short of what you think is the
bottom, set the hook. If you see it twitch before you think it
hit the bottom, again, set the hook.
Whether
it’s a jig, rig, or an Airplane Jig, it would be a good idea to
work as slowly and thoroughly as you can. Even though late
season walleyes can be expected to be on the bite, that doesn’t
mean they’ll chase down a bait moving at warp speed. The key is
keeping your bait in front of potential customers as long as
possible and give them give plenty of time to take the bait. See
you on the water, one more time.
