The Godfather of ice fishing, Dave Genz, breaks down his go-to presentation for walleye fishing on the ice.

Well I’m probably more known as a panfish fisherman with blue gills being my favorite species. But you know I fished for all the species across the ice belt and when it comes to walleyes I generally use smaller lures and lighter line.

I’m up here on lake of the woods right now late season and I’m out here looking for big walleyes. but you know big walleyes don’t eat very often especially this time of year. You know they’re thinking about spawning probably more than anything right now.

 So with my small presentation I’m more giving them a candy rather than a full meal. I try to use small spoons and I like to tip them with euro larvae instead of minnow heads. I do this for two reasons. One it is a smaller presentation and the second is it makes it a lot easier to be mobile. I don’t have to carry around a minnow bucket, I can just keep the euro larvae or waxies in my pocket. 

As far as a rod goes I like to run a 32” legacy medium lite graphite rod. I chose this because its lightweight and doesn’t over power your bait. I then spool up my reel with 4-6lb test. As long as you have a reel with good drag system you can run 4-6lb line and catch 28” Walleye no problem. The lighter line will give you a few more bites as well. 

At the end of the day I really think downsizing your bait in certain situations when the fish may be less inclined to eat is key. The light line and good drag system will play a big factor in landing these fish. If you keep these things in mid it will help you land more fish this ice season.