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Bring beer .... If your gonna fish at night, you need a shanty or you'll freeze your butt, your wife will understand and allow you to buy the latest pop-up as "safety gear".
This is a copy of a post from a while ago, modified a little. I'm too poor of a typist to put something new together, hope this helps:Walleyes are mostly night feeders, the best bites are generally right at dusk and then for a few hours after full dark, reversed in the AM. They are normally right on the bottom or suspended a couple of feet, most times you should set tip-up lines within a foot or two of the bottom and/or jig the lower 4' of the water column. Rocky areas tend to be best, especially points and dropoffs, also the break at a weedline or sand/rock/mud bottom change. Look for an area with small yellow perch, or whatever the local forage is, the walleyes stay close to their favorite chow. Most days the fish are in 15'-30' or more of water, then they move into as little as 2' after dark. Try to pre-drill all your holes well before dark and don't walk around any more than you have to, walter doesn't like noise. They are also light sensitive at night, don't shine your headlamp down every hole. Put a flashing light like a "lil' shiner" on your tip-ups so you know when you get a flag without the use of a spotlight. Bring beer to help waste away the time so you don't walk around more than necessary, you will be lucky to get a half dozen flags in an evening. If your gonna fish at night, you need a shanty or you'll freeze your butt, your wife will understand and allow you to buy the latest pop-up as "safety gear".There are about a million jigs that produce, they tend to work best tipped with a piece of shiner, maybe a head or tail, other guys swear by a fillet. On the tip-ups I like medium shiners, other guys are loyal to the pike sizes. They are sometimes leader shy, I use around 3' long, 10 lb fluoro leaders, with a #4 hook on tip-ups. Light split shot on the tip-up is a must, they will drop the bait if they feel resistance. If you don't like to re-tie your hooks frequently bring a good hook disgorger, when the bite is on they inhale the shiners, no sense killing the little guys.You may also find good, or better, advice by searching other threads in the Iceshanty. Good luck.
Glad you guys liked the post. I have only been icefishing for walter for a few years but I go every night after work so I get a lot of on-ice time. Not sure if it was real clear, but in the lakes I have icefished for walleyes the fish come into shallow water at night. The key is to find where the fish are during the day, even if you can't catch them in daylight. They are very structure oriented and will many times move against the closest sharp drop/rise in bottom contour of only 3-5' in roughly 12-20' of water (maybe more, maybe less, it depends on your lake) and hang there for a while as daylight wanes. The predrilling allows you to fish that dropoff during daylight/twilight, then move the tipups in close about an hour after sundown. We set tipups in 2' of water, the inside line of tipups is set where you can touch bottom with the auger, the outside row at about 5' of water. If you have a good spot you will have a flurry at sundown in the deeper water, then it will slack off. Move the tipups in to the really shallow water as soon as the bite slacks off, but no later than an hour after sundown unless the bite stays hot! I can't stress enough how spooky the fish are in shallow water, it's like hunting-we keep the shanty at least 50', preferably more from the nearest tipup. If possible, put the shanty on shore to avoid creepers on the ice. Lights and creepers are a big no-no, except to tend the tipups of course.
Thanks for the info. We are not allowed to us a treble on its own here in MN (you are allowed to use trebles if its part of a jig like a rapala). If I am reading this thread right, if I am catching perch, I am in the right area for Walter and his buddies? One other question, the lake I have been fishing is starting to see quite a bit of snowmobile traffic, will this turn walleye off as well?