A Winter Walleye Experience
By Adam Johnson
The ice was
12-inches thick. Thick enough to drive on for some anglers whose
cars were parked next to their stationary shelters. I wasn’t yet
comfortable knowing that I would be heading to a spot about a
hundred yards farther out, that just a month earlier had been open
water. When I drilled my holes I realized my caution had paid
off. The ice was only eight-inches where I set up in my portable
shelter.
Some red
lines showed up immediately on the sonar, just a few feet off the
bottom. I was actually reaching for my crappie rig that sports a
tiny jig on two-pound test line when my gut told me to set it down
and pick up the walleye rod. The walleye rod has eight pound test
line with about two feet of fluorocarbon line tied to the end. To
the fluorocarbon line is tied a rattling jigging spoon connected
to a treble hook. To the treble hooked I attached a fathead
minnow and sent it down.
Right when I
positioned the lure about two feet off the bottom another couple
of red lines appeared on the sonar, a sign that more fish came
over to the bait. I jiggled and twitched and then held the bait
steady. No bites. I quivered and pumped and then held the bait
steady. Still no bites. Time to send down the camera.
The walleyes
were on this sand-bottomed hole and they could be seen plainly
staring at my bait. There were at least a dozen walleyes on the
screen of the underwater viewing system, some meandering around,
some looking at the bait. A couple of times, as the bait was just
sitting there, a fish would nose the bait and then back off. I
decided to pull up the minnow and just send down the head.
Sometimes an entire minnow won’t do the job, but a minnow head
will.
Just like
the squirming minnow, the walleyes just stared at the minnow head
and would not hit it. Fish were moving in and out, and when I
would twitch or jig the bait it would bring in a few more fish,
but none would have anything to do with the bait.
To say this
was frustrating would be putting it lightly. It’s amazing what
those sonars and underwater cameras can do to an angler when you
just know there are fish there and they won’t bite.
I laid the
rod on the ice next to the hole and reached down for the tackle
box. The thought process is that if the fish aren’t biting it
must be the lure. When I found what I just knew would be the
hottest lure for the situation I picked up the rod and the rod
pulled back. It was a nice two-pounder.
I rigged
another minnow and sent it down and for five minutes I had
walleyes looking at it, but no takers, so I set the rod on the
hole by the ice. It was because of the camera I noticed the lure
and bait drop into the sand. I reached down to grab the rod to
reel in a little line when I saw the walleye suck the bait off the
bottom. I set the hook and had another.
So this was
the trigger. The walleyes wouldn’t hit a bait that was suspended
in front of them, but they would hit the lure if it was resting on
the bottom.
I quickly
rebaited the hook with a whole minnow and sent it down the hole,
this time resting the jigging spoon on the bottom. It worked
again. I switched lures over to a flutter spoon, which was much
lighter. It took longer to get to the bottom, but I figured it
would be easier for the walleyes to inhale it.
Three drops
and three more fish. I now had a limit of keepers. The trick was
to rest the bait on the bottom, which I discovered plainly by
accident. I wasn’t ready to quit fishing so I decided to find
some deep weeds and set some tip-ups for pike. I looked in the
minnow bucket and the shiners were still hearty. It was time to
chase pike.
For more of
Adam Johnson’s fishing insights visit,
www.adamjohnsonoutdoors.com .
