There are always exceptions to every general rule of thumb, but prime time on so many walleye fisheries occurs during low light conditions, particularly on fisheries that have good water clarity. The witching hour is always that coveted time when the sun is low on the horizon. Sunset and sunrise are prime periods of time for winter walleye anglers — especially on water that features walleye patterns on shallow structure. Even fisheries that traditionally see a strong midday bite, places like Lake of the Woods, have shallow inshore locations that pop off when the sun gets low.
These sunset- and sunrise-orientated windows are often short lived. You might realistically have a half hour to an hour window when you mark aggressive fish. Where this magic window occurs can vary from water to water and even day to day. It might be that magic hour before sunset, or the half hour after sunset. Some patterns light up in the dark on some fisheries with excellent water visibility. As a rule of thumb, the bite turns on in clearer water when the sun gets low.
Winter walleye fishing is so often all about planting on key pieces of structure and waiting for this window. When these windows are short, however, we simply run out of time. If we are dealing with a half hour bite window, we must literally mark a fish every six minutes in order to catch five fish in an evening. That means no swinging and missing, and it gives little time for adjustments. If you want to catch more walleyes through the ice this winter, the trick is not necessarily learning how to catch more fish during the prime-time window, but rather learn how to catch fish the rest of the day. By adjusting the presentation and altering your strategy, you can widen the walleye window dramatically on many fisheries.
Start from the Top
We often see these prime-time windows occur on top of structure when fish roam with a heightened level of aggressiveness. These fish might be moving up on top of a reef at low light. These fish might move through a shallow 7-foot shoreline contour or weed edge. Aggressive fish might move up on top of points. The common variable is that these fish are cruising and looking for something to eat. The classic strategy is to drill holes on this piece of structure and wait for the fish. The sun gets low in the evening and the walleyes show up.
You might be using chubs or suckers below tip-ups. You might be jigging traditional spoons or swim lures. Maybe you have a dead rod next to you. You are essentially creating an ambush. The hope is that the fish move onto the structure and then contact your baits. In order to contact fish, you need fish to move. This is that classic prime-time pattern.
On classic structure where there is deeper water just a cast length away, you can sometimes expand this prime-time period by simply contacting fish by targeting the deeper water before or after the shallower movement at low light. The deeper edge or basin adjacent to the shallower structure is a classic location to find walleyes before they move up onto structure at low light. There are many situations where we can pick fish off earlier in the day and monitor their movement as they march up from deep to shallow. In order to catch these fish, either before or after the coveted low-light window, we need to change our approach.
Passive Aggressiveness
When the sun gets high and walleyes are no longer on top of structure and actively looking for a meal, we often see a couple of general patterns. These fish will often simply slide back down the break into deeper water, or in some cases not slide deeper at all and simply lay on the bottom. When the sun gets higher, we need to make a few adjustments in order catch those fish.
The first step is simply drilling more holes and fishing through the location. Catching walleyes outside of the prime-time window takes much more effort. You can’t just sit and hope that fish will swim underneath you. As they slide down or up the break or structure, the movement is usually brief. If they simply quit roaming and lay on the bottom, you must fish through enough holes so that you put a lure in front of their faces. I can often catch a lot more fish each day by simply drilling dozens of holes in a grid pattern so that I can simply cover more water.
If you are catching fish on top of a point in 20 feet of water right at sunrise, when the bite slows down, drill a grid of 20 to 30 holes right down the break and try to follow the fish as they move deeper. You can also pick off more fish across the edge of the basin or slightly off of the structure by drilling more holes in a grid away from the structure. The reality is that you can still catch walleyes at any time of the day if you put your lure in front of them. The challenge is that you must move to the fish. When the fish quit moving up onto the tops of structure, you must make some moves to keep contacting them.
The other reality is that fish are not as aggressive when the sun gets higher in many clear water environments that see this distinct sunrise and sunset feeding window. Move aggressively to find and contact fish, but fish more passively with your presentation. You can catch a lot more walleyes through the ice by simply downsizing as you get farther away from the peak windows. If you are having success aggressively jigging a 3/8-ounce spoon during prime time, scale back to a 1/8-ounce when the sun gets higher.
One of my favorite tools for catching walleyes during the midday doldrums is a simple Clam Pro Tackle XL Drop Jig with an oversize hook, like what you would use for crappies. Tip the jig with a soft plastic or a minnow head. Move aggressively and fish aggressively to keep contacting fish, but experiment with more passive presentations.
Getting in the Flow
These adjustments often must be fluid to be successful. Close your eyes and imagine a sunrise on your favorite walleye spot. Maybe you are set up on the end of your favorite rock reef. Perhaps a point that cuts way out toward an old river channel on a reservoir. You are on a relatively high contour or perhaps on the very top of the reef or point. You are aggressively jigging your favorite lure and you mark a handful of fish and catch a few. The fish are rising off of the bottom and are chasing your lure. The strikes are distinct. As the sun clears the trees on a distant horizon and begins to climb higher in the sky, you have an additional 45 minutes when you still mark fish, but they’re not coming through with the same intensity and these they are much tougher to catch.
This shoulder time when you are still marking fish is an opportunity to make your first adjustment. Scale down and use smaller presentations. Match up the smaller presentations with lighter line and rod actions. You can still fish these downsized presentations with the same aggressiveness that worked so well earlier in the morning, but these adjustments allow you to catch a few of these fish as they become more difficult, while you still have a traffic of fish below you.
When the traffic stops, the fish are no longer moving underneath you, and this is the time when you must get aggressive and move to them. If they are sliding down the break, drill your grid and try to follow them. The fish will come in spurts when you often crack a few fish at a time as you contact groups. As the fish slide deeper yet, you can find a few more by expanding your grid of holes. The bites may come sporadically, but they can really add up.
On many of the shallow natural lakes in the Dakotas where I spend a lot of time fishing, there are no deep breaks for the fish to follow as the sun gets high. We might find walleyes on a rocky contour in 7 feet of water during low light, but the deepest water within 50 yards might only be 12 feet. These fish might slide to the nearest, deepest water and that depth might only be 5 feet deeper. They don’t often move far but simply quit cruising, and often just seem to lay on the bottom until the next low-light window.
You can still catch these fish by drilling an extensive grid and fishing throughout the location. What we often find is that simply drilling a lot of holes over shallow water will sometimes move them around and they seem to be easier to catch when they are moving. Not only does drilling an expansive grid of holes enable you to cover the area, but the activity will often stir fish up enough to the point that they roam around for a short period of time. We find that we simply knock off a few fish each time that we drill a series of holes.
Finding Walleyes
I am a big advocate of being the hunter, looking for fish. If you chase reports or settle into a spot because of last week’s fishing rumors, you are chasing ghosts. If you can get in the habit of looking for fish on locations that haven’t seen much for pressure and make your own fishing report, you will catch more walleyes this winter, because good walleye bites in the winter are short lived. The first people to find the fish catch most of the fish, then the spot goes downhill quickly.
You can find walleyes regardless of the time of day if you are fishing fresh ice where there are no tracks or old holes drilled. If anything, the prime-time windows of sunrise and sunset are terrible times to look for fish because you just can’t cover enough water during that time. Use the entire day to find fish. If there are 50 walleyes using a piece of structure and they haven’t been beat up by other anglers, you can find a few aggressive ones regardless of the time of day. During the day, you might have time to check 10 different spots for fish. Then the reality is that the top of a reef where you caught a couple of fish during the middle of the day is usually going to be lights out by that evening.
Work to improve at finding walleyes during the entire day to not only find fish, but to catch more fish by being able to adapt your presentation and mentality as the sun gets high and low. These small adjustments can make you a much more effective ice angler this season.
— Jason Mitchell is a hunting and fishing guide on North Dakota’s Devils Lake. Check out his television show, “Jason Mitchell Outdoors.”
