Redifining Rock Structure in the Winter

By Jason Mitchell
Look for hard bottom areas to catch more fish this winter. Bars, points and saddles that are covered with rock are a good bet if you are looking for perch or walleyes. At least that is what I have been told. Walleye anglers in particular are infatuated with this structural element. Watch an [...]

Midsize Baits and Sundry Traits of the Midday Walleye

By Noel Vick

 
Dave Genz, admittedly, dislikes morning bites. Well…in reality, that’s not completely fair. He digs a buttocks-over-teakettle morning feed as much as the next guy. What he despises, however, is a bombastic daybreak that evolves into an afternoon of nothingness. Genz, in fact, has devoted a lifetime to finding fish at high noon. No [...]

Mid-Winter Walleyes

By Dave Genz
When the going gets tough, the tough go offshore.
During a recent seminar, a fresh-faced, high-school aged kid asked me to summarize ice fishing in one piece of advice. That’s near impossible to do, of course, but in retrospect, I liked my off-the-cuff response: Avoid the crowds.
I’ve caught a lot of fish through the [...]

Ice Fishing Tactics

Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
More fun can be had on the ice this year than ever before, with a wide range of gadgets, rods, lures and electronics at your disposal, each trip can result in catches and a lot more fun. Here are some great ice fishing tactics I picked up on the learning curve the past [...]

Walleyes at First Ice – Clinging to the Current

By Captain Pat Kalmerton
You can take this one of two ways. Because I’m a fishing guide, you might think I’m all talk and keeping the good stuff to myself. Or, you might trust my experience and assume that you’re getting my A-game. Well, it’s some of both. I’ll be up front and offer honest, time-tested [...]

Approaching Late Ice

By Jason Mitchell
Late ice patterns can vary. People often preach about fishing shallow. Others stress the importance of finding moving water. Late ice is often hailed as the best fishing of the year. The fish are supposed to be biting as well as they have all winter. Anglers eagerly await the last hurrah. The reality, [...]

Finding More Walleyes Below the Ice

By Mark Strand
Conduct your own search for walleyes, one of the prized fish of the Ice Belt.
The conversation, for a brief time, sounds like we’re talking about the Internet.
“We’re such an information society,” says Brian Brosdahl.
Believe it or not, he’s talking about how to go out on the ice and find your own walleyes.
His point: [...]

Redefining Rock Structure in the Winter

By Jason Mitchell
Look for hard bottom areas to catch more fish this winter. Bars, points and saddles that are covered with rock are a good bet if you are looking for perch or walleyes. At least that is what I have been told. Walleye anglers in particular are infatuated with this structural element. Watch an [...]

Timing the Walleye Bite

By Jason Mitchell
Usually, ninety percent of the fish are caught during ten percent of the time we are actually on the ice. There are windows of opportunity. More often than not, the low sun of morning and or evening signal this opportunity. There is a prime time when everything happens so to speak. That time [...]

Early Ice Walleyes

By Jason Mitchell
If there is a mistake that many anglers make, including myself during the first ice period, we are guilty of fishing too deep when targeting walleye. Granted, there are a lot of options at first ice with some of these options being both shallow and deep but if anything, I tend to overlook [...]

Ice Fishing with Plastics

By the Ice Team

 
Many ice anglers of today understand that winter’s fish live in water at its clearest. In such conditions, fish tend to locate and choose prey based on visual evidence. That might sound like mumbo-jumbo, but it means that what your bait looks like is more important under the ice than at any [...]

When Winter Settles In – Post First Ice

By the Ice Team

 
In a perfect world, you drill one hole and can’t get the bait down there fast enough. Every time it gets anywhere near the fish zone, big fish race each other to grab it. You don’t even have time to talk to your friend, who is right next to you pulling up [...]

Icing Walleyes in April

By Mark Strand

 

 
Do you consider ice fishing in April crazy? Especially because a lot of people still regard ice fishing as a sport you reluctantly participate in while the ice covers your favorite lakes, people look at Dave Genz like he’s got to be nuts in April.
By then, many rivers are open, and many anglers [...]

Understanding Walleyes Under the Ice

Ice Team
If we could see the way walleyes do, we would know them, through and through.
There’s a reason we call ‘em ‘eyes.
Those eyes are amazing.
Positioned behind the walleye’s retina is a reflective membrane called the tapetum lucidum. This substance is exceptionally white, its purpose to gather, and reflect, light.
Its potential brought to full fruition in [...]

Catch More Walleyes During the Day

By Dave Genz

 

 
Walleyes, as if you didn’t already know this, possess these amazing eyes. They feature a reflective pigment that helps walleyes see well in dim light, giving them a vision advantage over most of their prey, especially in those minutes when light levels change rapidly.
So it is that walleye fishing stories are filled with [...]

Midsize Baits and Sundry Traits of the Midday Walleye

By Noel Vick

 
Dave Genz, admittedly, dislikes morning bites. Well…in reality, that’s not completely fair. He digs a buttocks-over-teakettle morning feed as much as the next guy. What he despises, however, is a bombastic daybreak that evolves into an afternoon of nothingness. Genz, in fact, has devoted a lifetime to finding fish at high noon. No [...]

Big Water Walleyes

By Dave Genz

 

 
He’s been everywhere, man…he’s been everywhere. Travel? He’s done his share, man, Dave’s been everywhere…Erie, Ontario, Michigan, Huron, Bay of Quinte, Bass Islands, Saginaw Bay, Bays de Noc, Green Bay…yeah, he’s been everywhere, man, he’s been everywhere…
It’s not one of those things they keep statistics on, so we really don’t know whether anybody [...]

Bluegill Ice Fishing Tips

By Mark Strand
Depending on where you live, ‘early ice’ can be a brief period right after the ice forms or an ongoing phenomenon as fishable ice comes and melts, comes and melts.
In general, bluegills are good biters during this time, but you must locate them to be successful. No matter what you might read or [...]