Winter walleyes hangouts

[lostfisher1]

Where do you think a walleyes favorite place to hang out during the winter? Weeds, flats, channels, other. and please explain your reason.

[icontact]

I fish mid lake humps the most, usually off the side through the day and up on top in the morning and evening. I find them to hard to find on the flats in the winter, I am sure they are there but its not so easy to find them in the winter, while the humps really concentrate the fish. Usually find all four species on or around the humps, walleye, pike, perch and whites. I do fish some of the reefs as well but the deep breaks are a mile or so off shore and I find them much slower as the fish can spread out all along the reefs.

[brokenline]

where would you look in a 400 acre lake with tons of point?

[icontact]

The majority of lakes around here with walleye will have about a 35-50 maximum depth, with sand, rock reefs, humps and shoreline weeds etc. My guesstimate assumes your lake has similar features. If you have no lake maps and have never fished the lake before, I would start with the points that extend the farthest into the lake. If you have never fished the lake your work is going to be cut out for you, as you will have to drill quite a few holes, trying to find some kind of structure that may hold fish. The logic behind starting with the longest point is that as fish migrate around the lake, they will have to pass by this point and hopefully there is some kind of flat at the top or bottom of this point that will hold fish.
In the fall walleye will usually congregate around the sharpest breaks going into the main basin of the lake, so at first ice this is a good place to start (if you have a map with lake depths). Drill holes up and down the drop, fish the deep break during the day and the shallow one in the morning and evening. Don't know if this helps or not but that is where I would start. Good Luck

[iluvcrappie]

I am to the point of finding all the walleyes are up on the sunken islands where I fish........nothing but crappies in 15-16 fow and walleyes in 12-14 or less depending on how shallow that island gets they may come up to 9fow........

[walleye tattoo]

Mid lake humps is a late season place to find waleye here in wi it would be late Jan or mid Feb.

[walleye tattoo]

Rite now I will be on transition line if it is the main basin going up to a shallow flat. That is where you will find me set up . You all know tha point on a point thing .

[iluvcrappie]

how about a lake that is fairly large with many rock piles, sunken islands, flats, sand, muck, points, underwater trees..........I have to take into affect all of these things while fishing my area lake................I have noticed that most of the guys that have houses around me are on the opposite side of the island than I am but the spot I fish drops to 16-18 fow fairly fast on my side and last night I got 3 eyes and a lot of fish to show up on my flasher but no bites.......should I move to the other side of the drop or stick it out and stay put???

[big Monkey]

Usually in the shallows by some kind of structure, i drill lots of holes anywhere from 2.5 to 10 ft, i never
limit my self to a basic depth, or drill holes in a straight line. I fish random cause fish can be in random
places. When iam looking for fish i wouldn't even spend 2 minutes in one hole unless i find a fish.

[Adam Bomb]

Most of my walleye fishing throughout the winter is done on Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay. For a large portion of our ice season our fish are usually located in deeper basins(18'-23') during the daylight hours and move to shallower flats(12'-15'), points, humps, bars or weed lines in the evening to feed. They remain there until the early morning when they begin their migration back towards deeper waters.

Using sonar in conjuction with gps mapping units to hit the breaks allow your to cover allot of water fast to figure out what stage of transition the fish are in that particular day because of factors such has sun or clouds. On cloudier days they may hang out shallower a bit longer or on a sunny day they usually bug out a bit quicker....These tools help us nail em down quickly and effieciently. These however arent hard and fast rules as walleye will stay put out deep if theres bait. Ive had allot of phenominal bites in deep water during the peak periods. And most times when this happens we're marking bait of some sort throughout the day...Why go out if you can stay in right?


As we get later in the year when we start getting thaws with run off the fish begin to make a seasonal movement shallower to stage for the spawning run. They can be generally found in 15' of water or less. Fishing shallow flats and breaks leading to river mouths are dynamite during the pre spawn period. Use caution near ditches, rivermouths or anywhere else runoff is entering. Chances are it has deteriorate the ice considerably. You can generally get out, just use common sense and stay away from problem areas.