First-Ice Walleyes
by Adam Johnson

All it takes is a bucketful of shiners, a six-inch hand auger, a stout ice-fishing rod and a three-eighths ounce jigging spoon and you’re ready for those first-ice walleyes.  Later you can add an ATV or snowmobile to the program and a gas-powered ice auger is nice when the ice gets thicker, and there’s nothing like a portable shelter when the wind is blowing.  But come first ice all I take out is the minimum amount of gear so I can stay light and mobile.

Most of the lakes I fish in the upper midwest for first-ice walleyes are what I would term weed-walleye lakes.  These lakes have some points and mid-lake humps, and most of the walleyes are stocked.  One thing these lakes have in common is plenty of cabbage, coontail or milfoil.  During open water, catching walleyes in a lake with these characteristics can often be tough, but come winter those suspending schools of fish once again relate to the deep weedlines and weed-topped sunken islands. 

One of my favorite first-ice lakes is near my home in Brainerd, Minnesota.  It’s about 650 acres, relatively clear and the weedline extends out to about 16 feet.  Much of the shoreline vegetation is a mixture of coontail and cabbage and where the weeds grow sparse in that 16-foot range you can find some short grass and spindly coontail.  I drill most of my holes in 17 to 19 feet of water.

There’s a small sunken island near the center of the lake and a narrow, horseshoe reef on the south end.  Both pieces of this mid-lake structure are covered with vegetation and on one side of the reef it drops off sharply into a sandy bottom covered with cobblestone.  This transition area is often the best spot to drill holes, but the points coming off the shoreline and the tight inside turns on a couple of weedlines are also high-potential zones.

I hate to take to the first-ice of the season without shiner minnows.  Most of my fishing buddies hate shiners because they’re so hard to keep alive.  Here’s my trick.  I took a plastic five-gallon bucket and inserted a styrofoam liner that holds about three-and-a-half gallons of water and secured an Oxygentor to the bottom.  It’s called The Bait Keeper by Aqua Innovations and it creates pure oxygen from the water.  Simply put, it keeps the minnows alive.  I also like it because it’s totally silent.  The bubblers I tried in the past to keep shiners alive never worked.  The Oxygenator does.

The jigging spoons I use have treble hooks.  I use one of the three barbs to secure the shiner through the back so it will struggle under the spoon.  You don’t need much jigging action when the minnow is trying to swim.  If you’re wondering why I just don’t use a plain hook, it’s because I like the attraction a brightly colored spoon creates when you are jigging the rod tip.

From watching with the aid of an underwater viewing camera as the walleyes hit the shiner it’s obvious that these fish can be aggressive when you feed them what they want.  When a few walleyes move up to the shiner it becomes a competition as to which one gets there first and without hesitation the first fish there will inhale the bait, spoon and all.  Without a camera you can easily feel this bite.  With a camera you set the hook before the rod feels the pressure.

First ice is a pretty short window of opportunity.  Then the walleyes move deeper as the water temperatures drop and you start fishing deep structure and holes.  Be safe and watch for thin ice, and enjoy what is without a doubt some of the best hard-water fishing of the season.

Adam Johnson is a professional outdoorsman who holds a degree in Aquatics Biology.  You can enjoy more of Adam’s insights at his web site:  www.adamjohnsonoutdoors.com.