need advice locating walleye?

[Ironeagle]

never targeted walleye before, what should i look for to locate fish? stream channels? roadbeds? points? the average water depth here is 20-22ft.. with most the deepest places being 32ft or a little over.

[boblee]

Look for the bait fish.  Walleyes will always be where their food is be it pearch, ciscos, shad stuff like that.  if you can locat their food source you will locate them.  I like to find deeper weed flats  or check around breaks and points.  currently I am fishing a lake that is 40 plus feet of water but the heavy weedline around shore is holdin pearch and those walleys are there too in 6 to 12 feet

[IceMan08]

Find a drop off with deep water access.

[Ironeagle]

so they are not always holding in deep water?
when you say fish a drop off, you mean fish the bottom of the drop off in deep water or you mean at the top where it breaks off goin down to the deeper water?

[walleyemagic]

I usually target the deep side  drop in the am and the shallow side of drop in the pm. Locate the bait and you will find them. Deadsticking seems to work alot.

[IceMan08]

so they are not always holding in deep water?
when you say fish a drop off, you mean fish the bottom of the drop off in deep water or you mean at the top where it breaks off goin down to the deeper water?

I drill a line of holes from the top of the drop off to the bottom of the drop off and then hole hop until I contact fish.  Generally I will drill 3 or 4 strings like this to start and then go from there.  I may drill more holes depending on what depth I am catching fish or what depth my flasher tells me the fish are at.  But for a good general principle I start on the top side of the drop off when its morming and then move deeper for the afternoon then back to the top for the evening.  I'm not a fan of waiting for the walleyes to come to me and generally drill a ton of holes all relating to a peice of structure(drop-off) and only fish each hole for a few minutes without a fish before moving on.  Mind you I stricktly go for a reaction bite in the winter with spoons as I find it the most productive method in the lake I fish.  Hope this helps.

[Ironeagle]

thanks 

[slipperybob]

I still learning and I'm a little more laid back when it comes to fishing on ice.  I will fish the shallower zone of 10-15' depth in the twilight hours.  I will fish the deeper water of 25 plus feet during daytime.

I've had walleyes from 35' on the bottom come up to smack a spoon I'm jigging about 10-15' below the ice.  Thought those were crappies until I pulled them up the holes.

[fishstalker]

Gravel to sandy bottoms, weed beds, sunken island (shallow reefs), points, mouth of river 

[Ironeagle]

do they cruise around through the lake following these areas or do they stay anround and linger on specific spots? like at nite when fishing crappie they get stacked up at dark and the longer into dark they come through in groups and its an on then off bite.

[Ironeagle]

also this lake dont have much deep water rising up to shallow out in the main lake, its very narrow lake. and the only places where the deep water comes up to ledges/ dropoffs to 15ft and under is up along the banks. can you get them rite out from the bank? that would mean they are cruising the banks.... at these depths?

[Kim]

Also if the eyes are on the bottom lift your hook off the bottom a foot or two as they have there eyes on the top of there head and generally look up.  Early morning or late evening the rest of the day target something else.

[Ironeagle]

thanks, i was fishing the other nite and while jiggin had a few big fish come up off the bottom slowly stared down my jig and minnow, follow it up a bit but then just go back down happened a few times, and were larger sized fish. wonder if they were eyes...?

[Moose-51]

I fish a lake with big eyes in it and I had this happen 4-5 times this year.

Wish I would have had a big 5-6" sucker on a bare hook instead of the jigging spoon and minnow i had...

I have a feeling it is a 10+lb walleye scooting off the bottom and then snubbing my offering....