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Hunting Down Mid
Season Walleyes
by Ron Anlauf
The first ice period may have already come and gone
but what’s up next is nothing to sneeze at. The next stage of hard water can
actually produce some of the most consistent walleye action of the entire
season. Instead of waiting impatiently for hungry ‘eyes that may or may not
show up just before dark on the shallow bar or reef that you bet the house on
you can take it to ‘em and hunt them down. Steady action over deeper structure
is what anglers have to look forward to and best of all it can happen during the
middle of the day!
The key is finding the next hot spot after the old one
burns out which usually happens all too fast. Hordes of anglers and all of the
commotion that goes with them can shut things down in a hurry and is a condition
you’ll want to avoid if at all possible. You can avoid it by staying ahead of
the crowd and reacting to what is happening right now instead of what you might
have heard. By the time most anglers hear about a hot bite the action has
already cooled off and can be chalked up to the “you should have been here
yesterday” factor.
To stay ahead of the crowd and put yourself in position to
be in the right place at the right time you’ll have to be wiling to do a little
exploring. That means giving up the comfort of relying on other anglers to find
the fish and spending time in areas where no man has gone before, at least this
season. Finding the next hot spot starts by taking a hard look at a good map
and looking for potential fish holding areas like a deeper hump, an underwater
point, or maybe a simple break line where a deeper shelve drops into even deeper
water. There are some incredible maps available today for most of the larger
and more popular lakes that show unbelievable detail combined with dead on
accuracy. Some are available in a hard copy form while most have been loaded
onto a chip like the Navionics Hotmaps that can be plugged in and viewed on a
G.P.S. plotter. It’s also why my sled is sporting a Humminbird 997c on the
dash which has the plotter and ability to display the maps. What used to take a
lifetime or more to learn is now available on these very maps, and is to the
applause of some and chagrin of others. Those that earned all of that
information the hard way aren’t too excited about seeing it exposed, but it’s
hear to stay and you might as well use it to your advantage.
Attacking a smaller body of water without the aid of an
accurate electronic map starts out by taking a look at the best map you can find
and then actually getting on the ice and taking a look for yourself and seeing
if there is anything that might have been missing. For example; there may be
smaller humps or points that aren’t included, or there may be a deeper patch of
rock or gravel that doesn’t show up on the typical map. To find the
aforementioned you’ll have to be willing to spend and even waste some time
looking for what may or may not be there.
The quickest way to get the job done is to employ the use
of an electronic depth finder like the Marcum handheld LX-i and survey likely
looking areas thoroughly. You can do so without ever drilling a hole and
is done by pouring a little water on the ice and then holding the face of the
LX-i tight to the surface. That will allow you to shoot right through two,
three, and even four feet or ice as long as it isn’t busted up and
layered. In that case you’ll probably be forced to drill a lot of holes and
there really aren’t any shortcuts.
If you can shoot through the ice you can even mark fish,
and is something to keep in mind when you’re looking at structure. The LX-i
will reveal the presence of fish with an audible alarm and then will flash the
exact depth of the fish on the digital readout. On the other hand if you aren’t
marking fish don’t write a spot off immediately as fish holding tight to a break
or belly to the bottom are extremely difficult to read.
It usually takes a little investigative angling with a
jigging spoon to get ol’ marble eyes to show himself. Another consideration is
the spooking factor and you may have to give a spot a half hour or so before
walleyes turn on again, especially after being chased off by the noise and
commotion created by turning a spot into Swiss cheese with a gas powered auger.
Handheld depth finders that look like a flashlight and
display a digital depth reading can really speed the structure hunt up,
especially if you combine it with a self lighting torch. With a torch you can
melt enough ice to get a reading in a couple of seconds, and eliminates the need
to drag along a pail of water. The combo allows you to melt check and move
quickly, and a lot of melt check and moving will likely be required to find the
next mother of all hot spots. See you on the ice. |
