Chasing Walleye through the Ice

Fishing Time: 1 pm – 7 pm

Weather: sunny, clear, windy (constant 20-25 mph with gust up to 30)

Moon Phase: 85% Moon

Location: Starvation Reservoir

Best Baits: buckshot jigs

Who Went: Casey Davies, Dunc

It’s February and the walleye bug is starting to hit me.  Not sure why as I still can’t consistently catch them, but a little research says that people have been catching them through the ice at Starvation, which got me a little excited.  I have never caught a walleye through the ice.

Casey was dumb enough to fall into my walleye delusion and committed to going with me.  The idea was to arrive to Starvation early afternoon and hike to our spot then prep for the last hour of daylight during walleye prime time.

We did find a few rainbow trout that wanted to play in the afternoon that kept us happy, but the wind was a consistent 20-25 mph and that wasn’t fun. 

My research said the walleye will show up just before dark cruising the bottom, and the crazy part is, that is exactly what happened.  We didn’t see a fish on the bottom all afternoon, but about 30-min before dark the bottom came alive.  

Now for the annoying part… we couldn’t buy a bite!  The wind didn’t help because it was tough to detect bites, but either way we could not hook one.  This frustrates me so much because everything went as planned and I just want to know if they really were walleye!  Unfortunately, I will never know…