Living in north-central Minnesota, where five months of ice cover is the norm, we don’t have the luxury of simply hunkering down all winter and waiting for spring to arrive.
Frankly, we can’t sit still that long, and we prefer to attack the situation rather than wait for it to improve on its own. That means ice fishing becomes part of our repertoire, replete with its own clothing, equipment and strategies for success. As soon as the ice becomes sufficiently thick to walk on, generally right after Thanksgiving, we’re out there making our first few tentative steps across the glassy surface.
“Pushing the envelope?” you might ask. Not really. Sure, we could wait for 5 to 8 inches of firm new ice to form, considered safe for supporting the weight of snowmobiles and ATVs. But treading lightly across 2 to 3 inches of clear ice, afoot rather than astride a mechanical transport, has major advantages.
First and foremost, you’re the first one to the prime spots. When it comes to ice fishing for walleyes, the early birds definitely get in on the best bite. Look at it this way – during the last few weeks of open water, blustery winds, cold weather and a rim of ice progressively thickening along shorelines complicates angler access, eventually making it near impossible to get your boat out to deep midlake structures. So the fish out there enjoy a two- or three-week reprieve from fishing pressure and become ripe for the plucking for the first few lures dangling below an ice hole. There’s nothing better than being first on the scene, even if you have to walk out to the spot to do it.
So, we toss a modest amount of equipment on a lightweight plastic sled. Necessities include a plastic foam minnow bucket with a few dozen minnows; a portable depth finder; an ice scoop; a spud bar (5-foot-long chisel) or 8-inch hand auger; a couple jigging rods and reels spooled with 8- to 10-pound-test thin, flexible monofilament; a small tackle box with an assortment of tackle; pliers and nail clippers; a thermos of coffee; a pocket-sized GPS, flashlight and a lantern for night fishing; a couple granola bars in your pocket; a cell phone, rope and ice picks for emergencies; and not much else.
With air temperatures still mild – 30s during the day, teens at night – lightweight portability is the name of the game. Insulated boots, gloves, hat or hood, and a moderate-weight snowsuit or jacket-and-bibs combo should be sufficient. Towing a lightweight sled oxen-like across clean, smooth ice isn’t difficult, but you’re bound to work up a little sweat, so you don’t want to be overdressed. Like the Special Forces, the first brave souls go in light and savvy with just the right amount of gear. A few weeks later, once the ice thickens, the heavy artillery can follow with portable shacks, gas augers, portable heaters, and some form of vehicle to ride on and tow it all. In the meantime, however, you can jerk jaws in relative solitude.
Stay close to shore
Our initial targets are the same areas we last contacted walleyes in the late stages of open water: prominent main-lake structures with steep drops to the basin; major points, deep humps or bends in a river channel; or where a creek channel brushes against a steep shoreline. Areas where deep water swings tight against a sharp drop-off, but within modest walking distance (a mile or so) of shore, are best. Don’t be overly tempted by the far-off potential of spots that require miles of walking to reach. They’ll firm up soon enough, and you can ride out to them in comfort and style when the time is right.
Until then, tiptoe out to a potential area, tap-tap-tapping the end of your spud bar atop the ice as you walk along, probing and testing the worthiness of the ice surface. If the bar pokes through, stop! Slowly back up and reconsider your plan of attack; better safe than sorry. Wait a day or two and try again. Or switch to an area with firmer and safer footing.
If 2 to 4 inches of clear, safe ice greets your progress, however, get ready to hoof it and fish. Head out in the right direction and, when you get close, use familiar rifle sights on shore – line up a tree and a house over this way, or perhaps a flag pole and a big tree over there – the same way you relocate your spots in open water if you don’t have a GPS. If you do have a GPS, lucky you. Those same waypoints you stored in your unit a month ago during late-fall fishing forays should be good places to start ice fishing now.
If you don’t have prelocated, preprogrammed hot spots, don’t despair. Looking at the GPS mapping screen, walk out to areas the lake map indicates as having twists and turns in the contour meeting the basin, steep slopes to deep water and other prominent changes in the underwater terrain that should concentrate walleyes. Don’t nitpick trying to locate small, secret spots at first ice. Instead, stick to big, obvious, classic spots that attract numbers of walleyes due to their sheer size. Look for walleyes near concentration points along their edges.
At that point, splash a little water from your minnow bucket atop the ice, rest your transducer on the surface, and see if you can send a signal through to get a good depth reading of the bottom – which you should be able to do at early ice (brush away light snow cover if necessary). If so, keep repeating the process in 20-foot increments in all directions, reading the depths and establishing the contour below. Next, drill some holes in likely places and get ready to fish.
If you can’t get a good bottom reading through the ice, start drilling or chopping holes in a “Swiss cheese” pattern. One or two people can use the augers or spud bars while a third scoops the remnant ice out of the holes and lowers the transducer into the water to establish a depth reading. Walk hole-to-hole, remembering how deep each is and yelling it out to your buddies. If there is light snow cover atop the ice, reach down with your gloved finger and draw the number of feet in the snow crust for reference: 23, 18, 21, 37 – there’s the drop-off. Now drill more adjacent holes to establish the contour and prepare for action.
For fishing without a portable shelter or windbreak, you can use a fairly long, 32- to 40-inch, medium-action ice spinning rod. If you’re inside the confines of a lightweight portable shelter, a shorter 28- to 32-inch rod will be more feasible (when you lift to set the hook, you won’t bash the ceiling). A small, light or ultralight spinning reel spooled with limp 8- or 10-pound-test Trilene XL is on the money.
Fishing at early ice is focused on probing, testing, moving and scouting, rather than sitting in one spot for hours on end in the comfort of a permanent fish house. You drop your lure for a minute or two in one hole, work it, and if nothing bites, move on to the next. You may have to scout several areas to locate active biters. Just try to be in prime areas shortly before sundown with your holes predrilled. Just like fishing in open water, changing light levels usually activate walleyes, and you want to be in place fishing, rather than spooking them with a drill, as the sun dips below the horizon.
Insert your transducer into the water at the first hole and rest your depth finder atop the ice. Floating transducers are popular for quickly moving between holes, getting a good reading of the bottom, and establishing the presence and depth of baitfish and walleyes. Transducers attached to a post on the side of a portable unit, or to a stick that rests across the top of the hole, also do the trick, dangling just deep enough into the water to get a good reading. The ice market was once dominated by flasher units, but color TFT screens are quickly coming onto the scene with several manufacturers offering portable TFT units with ice-fishing features.
Jigs and minnows
Lure choices are relatively simple and rely heavily upon several levels of jigging aggressiveness. First off, a simple jighead tipped with a 2 1/2- to 3 1/2-inch minnow is a subtle presentation. Try a 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jighead in colors ranging from subtle white or yellow to bright fluorescent orange or chartreuse. Either hook the minnow up through the lips or insert the hook through the tail, midway between the dorsal and tail fins. Tail-hooking usually increases minnow activity while nose-hooking restrains it.
Lower your lure to bottom, engage the reel, and slowly lift it up and down a few inches; then pause. Simultaneously, watch your depth finder to reveal the lure’s distance off bottom and for the approach of any fish into the area. If a fish comes in to examine the offering – indicated by the sudden appearance of a prominent mark on your screen – lift-drop a couple more times, then pause, suspending your lure in place. Motion tends to attract fish, but lack of motion tends to trigger strikes – an important element of ice fishing.
For a more aggressive jigging motion, switch to a small 1/4- to 1/3-ounce ice-jigging spoon (nearly 2 inches long), and tip a minnow head (pinch it off between thumb and forefinger) on one tine of the 
treble hook. Lower the lure to bottom, watching for the line to stop or jump if a fish strikes during the fall. Upon reaching bottom, engage the reel, take up slack and give the rod tip a more aggressive, foot-long upward surge. Then let the spoon flutter back down, following it down with the rod tip to retain a taut line without stifling lure action. Repeat a few times before instilling the all-important pause to turn a looker into a biter. Suspend the lure a couple inches off bottom, allowing any twist in the line to slowly spin it before the fish’s eyes, giving it the illusion of life.
If that doesn’t work, try using a whole, live, 2-inch minnow nicked lightly under the dorsal fin to provide a bigger target and a struggling action when the spoon hangs at rest just off bottom. For deeper water, upsize to a 1/2-ounce spoon about 2 1/4 inches in length. Ideal colors include silver, silver blue-back, chartreuse, pink, orange, perch pattern and anything with phosphorescent glow paint. Charge the paint by exposing it for a few seconds to a small Lindy Tazer light to make it glow brightly amidst the deep murk.
For a wider-moving approach, switch to jigging a swimming minnow – like a Jigging Rap or Jigging Shad Rap – and add a minnow head to the bottom treble hook. Lower it as with other lures and lift it up a few inches when it reaches bottom. Then give it an upward pump, followed by lowering your rod tip at the same speed the lure descends. The lure will shoot out to the side and descend in a circular swimming pattern, ever-decreasing in diameter until it comes to rest. Added or stronger pumps increase side-to-side coverage and swimming activity, while smaller pumps decrease motion.
If you wish, you can also opt for a slip-bobber presentation, much like you would use in open water. Assemble the slip bobber and bobber-stop rig, tie on a jighead or a single hook and split shot, and set your depth. Prior to baiting up, clip a heavy “depth finder” – a 1-ounce weight with an alligator clip – onto your hook and send it down to touch bottom. Now adjust the position of the bobber stop so when the weight is on bottom, your bobber is a foot under the surface. That means when you reel up and remove the weight, your hook and bait will be positioned a foot off bottom on the next drop.
Let’s say you selected a small 1/16-ounce jighead to anchor your minnow, although the principle is the same with a split shot clipped to the line about a foot above a hook. Insert the hook just under the dorsal fin or slightly back through the top of the tail section. Send it down and the minnow will wiggle, struggle and swim below the hole. Jigs add color and reduce activity; hook-and-split-shot rigs allow more minnow motion. Sometimes, it makes a difference.
Watch your depth finder at all times – it indicates the presence and depth of fish. You don’t want to be fishing below them if they’re 3 feet off bottom. Raise your bait to their level and suspend it there.
Watch and learn
In recent years, underwater cameras like the Aqua-Vu have revolutionized ice fishing, revealing the presence and depth of fish, as well as their attitude. You can literally watch fish study your lure and see how they react to changes in lure motion, style, color, pauses, etc. Fine-tuning presentations can make a huge difference between catching and not. So, when you’re in a good spot, drill another hole 3 or 4 feet from your fishing hole and lower a camera lens. Twist the cable between forefinger and thumb to rotate it for a 360-degree view and evaluation of the surroundings before letting it settle, pointed at your lure.
When it comes to fishing with a camera, angling from a still platform atop the ice is by far the easiest way to fish and view at the same time. You’re not moving in a boat; the camera’s fixed on target; and all you need to do is watch and learn. It will revolutionize the way you fish through the ice and likely spur you to explore the use of an underwater camera in open water as well.
As mentioned earlier, the bite at first ice can be furious and well worth the effort of a hike. You’ll be fishing in silence, and suddenly one member of your small group gets a bite. As the active fish move across the structure, different holes produce and fade, and you can literally watch and predict walleye movement. If need be, move ahead of them, drill more holes and set up an ambush for the passing school.
Share or move on
In more southerly latitudes, ice fishing is but a brief flurry spanning a few weeks, and foot patrol is about the only opportunity for hardcore anglers to fish hard water. In our frigid northern climate, however, once the ice thickens, you can expect some company as people hear about good catches and begin venturing out in snowmobiles and ATVs. When this occurs, you either share your existing spots or venture out to discover newer, more distant ones.
At some point, the whole lake solidifies enough to be easily reached by snow machine. In far-north climates like ours, 12 inches and more of good ice encourages people to drive pickup trucks and SUVs across the ice, towing large, deluxe ice houses complete with satellite dishes, sleeping bunks and cooking facilities. This is why ice fishing is often stereotyped as being more about socializing than fishing!
This is perhaps true for some, but not for those who lead the charge. The foot patrol always blazes the trail for those who follow. Pioneering is never easy, but it sure is exciting and rewarding – even in winter – with fish swimming directly below your toes. Once the time comes that the ice thickens sufficiently for everyone to easily reach prime spots, it’s time to shift gears and start searching out smaller, subtler areas most other people miss. Even though the early ice bite is over, it doesn’t mean you have to head for Florida to get bit.
Although, along about February – which in this neck of the woods can mean occasional midwinter temperatures of 30 to 40 degrees below zero – even an early bird may consider turning snowbird for a little fun in the sun.