Fishing guide Captain Jarrid Houston shares a great early ice bite for St. Louis River walleyes while offering up some helpful early ice tips.
Ice Fishing St. Louis River Walleyes
One of the best and most consistent bites I can count on each winter is for St. Louis river walleyes. From around the middle of December to the mid of January there is a shallow water walleye bite in the Twin Ports area. You can catch a lot of eaters, and you have the chance at a big one.
On the St. Louis river these walleyes cruising around on the flats searching for baitfish.
This isn’t really a bite where you want to do a lot of hole hopping. If you do that, you’ll spook the fish and move a lot of them around.
It is usually better if you sit and wait for the fish to come to you.
Because you are waiting on the fish to come to you, utilizing your set lines is key. With my jigging rod, I like to use a flashy spoon or rattle bait tipped with a minnow and I will work it aggressively. Then you’ll want to have a dead stick with a live minnow set up next to you.
A lot of the times you’ll bring the fish in with your jigging rod and the walleyes will end up biting on the deadstick.
The St. Louis River walleye bite is a really consistent shallow water that happens ever year.