A 10-pound walleye is the perfect start to an ice fishing day

I was out on Lake Winnipeg this past week researching an ice fishing feature I am working on for the Winter 2010 edition of Outdoor Canada Magazine.  I was also filming two walleye segments for the 2010 In-Fisherman Ice Guide television season. I had the good fortune to fish with friends Mike Schamber and Tom Van Leeuwen from Winnipeg and a new friend, Roger Sterns, who is the Vice President of the Walleye Anglers Association of Manitoba (WAAM) fishing club.  No one knows where, when or how to catch walleye on the big lake better than Roger.  And what a super nice guy!

We were caught in a snowstorm out on the lake on Thursday but with reliable Lowrance GPS units in our 4×4 trucks there was no worry about getting back to shore safely.  Even in the dark.

Mike and Roger fishing in white out conditions

Speaking of the weather, we needed extensions on our ice augers to get through the almost 5-feet of ice that has built up this winter. Even then we barely hit water.  And get this, we probably drilled 100 or more holes in several different locations each of the days that we fished.  Talk about running and gunning on the ice!

Mike's auger is almost as tall as he is

We drove our 1/2 ton 4×4s everywhere on the lake and got stuck two or three times every day and had to pull each other out of snow drifts with tow ropes.

Then, Thursday night coming off the lake in the darkness, we were following our GPS trail in our trucks and discovered that a huge ice ridge about a mile or so offshore that we had crossed the day before, had moved on us and had opened up 50 feet or so of wide open steaming water.

We wended our way along the side of the ridge in our trucks looking for a place to cross and get back to shore.  We finally found a spot to get over the ridge, but it was hairy to say the least, with a sheer drop down of at least 3 to 4 feet from one side of the ice ridge to the bottom.  But we made it over unscathed and none the worst for wear.

As always it was an adventure!

The first fish of Day 1 was an 11-pound walleye that Mike caught even before we had the television camera set up to record. We caught a couple of others in the 10-pound plus class and lots of 23 - 27 inch fish ranging between 4 and 7 pounds.  In fact, I’d say the average walleye was between 21- and 24-inches.

Mike's 11-pound walleye was big fish of the trip

We caught the fish on spoons (Lindy Rattling Flyer Spoon, Northland Buckshot Rattle Spoon, HT Hawger Spoon and William’s Ice Spoon) baited with salted emerald shiners, Rapala Jigging Shads, Puppet Minnows and Storm Walleye Jigging Minnows. We also caught some fish on Northland Whistler jigs, Lindy X-Change Jigs and HT Hawger 2000 Laser jigs.

I was using Rapala Ice rods fitted with 2000 series Shimano Stradic reels loaded with 8- and 10-pound test Fireline to which I’d attached a 2- to 3 foot long 8-pound test Maxima fluorocarbon leader.

Roger also showed me a trick I’d never before seen. He drilled two holes side by side and set a deadstick rod baited with an HT Hawger Laser 2000 jig and a salted minnow across a pail. In the neighbouring hole he ripped a large, noisy, LIVETARGET Golden Shiner lipless crankbait. This is the same kind of lure you’d use in open water for bass, pike and lake trout.

Roger with one of his pet LIVETarget Golden Shiner lures

Roger ripped the lure aggressively and I was amazed how many walleye he coaxed to chase the bait. About 20-percent of the time, the walleye clobbered the aggressive presentation. The other 80-percent of the time, the fish chased the rattling bait and then swung over and nailed the shiner under the deadstick rod. It was a deadly presentation and one I’ve never before seen practised for walleye.

All in all, it was a marvellous three days of catching and releasing trophy size walleye with good friends, on perhaps the finest winter walleye lake in the world.