Hi Folks, I am enjoying the cold weather. Firming the ice up nicely and allowing access to all of the various lakes and ponds. I have been guiding and fishing for walleyes. Found 6 to 7” of solid black ice Friday night. Walleyes are low light feeders. There is a bit of snow on the ice. Makes walking around a little more challenging. However, snow pack on the ice does quiet things down a bit. I like spreading out my tip ups when fishing for walleye. I like varying the set ups from shallow to deep water. Good way to search out fish. Drilling extra holes next to the tips ups allows me to jig next to the spot where a walleye was landed. Walleyes can school together so focusing on a spot where a fish was caught can be productive. I like jigging brightly colored 1/4 to 1/8 oz. jigs in orange, chartreuse, and hot pink tipped with a minnow. All of our tip ups were rigged with medium sized golden shiners. The walleye appeared to be holding in deeper water. Depth over 15’ on a hard rubble lined bottom. Experienced a first on Friday, we landed a large bullhead on a tip up. It ate my 1 crawler rig set up on the bottom. Not a lot of perch on Friday, yet everyone we caught was over 10”. Fishing has been decent and lots of options currently. I will be trout and smelt fishing this week. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home. Have Fun, Willy
