Hard water Walleyes...at night

[GTZ]

Hi all, I've never tried ice fishing for Walleyes at night but I'm gonna give it a shot at Lac La Biche next weekend. Just looking for some insight from those of you who fish Walleyes at night. Do you typically move shallow? Does your presentation, lures or bait change from daytime? Thanks in advance

[RavYak]

Good luck... Tried night fishing twice now, once at Wab and once at St Anne and between two of us both nights we combined for 1 bite...

[ineptflux]

Fished roughly 17- 18' of water at LLB and had great luck. Burbs and walleye! Once morning hit the pike came in, too. At LLB the walleye are pigs, they were smashing everything we put down the hole.

Just find a drop off, and you'll be good.

[Gboe8]

Had good luck moving in to shallow water as the night went on. It was 8:30 and we were still nailing them at south buck a few weeks ago. Had to pull tip ups because we couldn't see them anymore lots of fun. We were just using minnows.

[Mike_W]

Glow jigs and move shallow on the top of drop offs is your best bet.....I typically dont fish too aggressive at night.

[kaleh01]

In winter with my experience at south Buck was I would move my shack and gear up on top of a shelf in 4-8' an hour before last light on holes I had already drilled. Nighttime has no better tool in my opinion than the Vexilar flasher. Glow jigs with a minnow basically dead still and wait for a line to
Show on the flasher. I added an LED light to mine so when a fish was on I could light up the shack a bit and also to charge my glow jigs. I've never stayed all night usually the first 2 hours of pitch dark and we had our fish and were heading home cause the bite was slowing down.

[GTZ]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll update after the trip :fishing:

[waterninja]

I am always amassed at how fish can see so well at night. I have had great success with a jighead tipped with a minnow on the darkest of nights. Walleye, burbot and pike can be very active after sun goes down. I don't know how much smell is involved, but they can still find your hook at night.

[Deep]

Check out Neil Waughs column as he was night fishing on Pigeon recently.

[Marlin07]

Up at Slave we have better luck at night than during the day. Glow jigs or whistler jigs and a flasher and your off to the races.

[DOGFISH]

I found the Walleye to bite until about 1 AM, Burton until 4 AM then they would start up at 9 in the morning. This was our experience overnight fishing.

[RavYak]

Interesting that other people have success at night. I know we were in good spots at wab the one night but only marked 1 fish all evening. At Ste Anne we probably weren't in the best spots but still didn't mark a thing... Between those 2 nights we tried 4 different spots all at different depths and structures.

[CanadianBadass]

Interesting that other people have success at night. I know we were in good spots at wab the one night but only marked 1 fish all evening. At Ste Anne we probably weren't in the best spots but still didn't mark a thing... Between those 2 nights we tried 4 different spots all at different depths and structures.

What depth ?

[Fishslayer99]

Interesting that other people have success at night. I know we were in good spots at wab the one night but only marked 1 fish all evening. At Ste Anne we probably weren't in the best spots but still didn't mark a thing... Between those 2 nights we tried 4 different spots all at different depths and structures.

I feel your pain Rav, been there myself, crawling valley for burbs and walleye,4 hours in the dark and 1 missed bite. Gull lake until midnight and nothing. Nice to see some people catch fish in the dark!

[RavYak]

What depth ?

9' sand flat, 7'-12' mud dropoff, 11' mud flat and 15' rocky structure near dropoff/hump... One of the same spots during the day gave us roughly a 40 fish day on Saturday so must be a night thing... Either they just aren't active or they go somewhere different at night.

[Alberta Bigbore]

Night eyes are my favorite.

[Talking moose]

9' sand flat, 7'-12' mud dropoff, 11' mud flat and 15' rocky structure near dropoff/hump... One of the same spots during the day gave us roughly a 40 fish day on Saturday so must be a night thing... Either they just aren't active or they go somewhere different at night.

Were you targeting pike? I find pike the least night time friendly fish next to perch. Walleye and burbs I find better to target at night. Especially the latter.

[RavYak]

Were you targeting pike? I find pike the least night time friendly fish next to perch. Walleye and burbs I find better to target at night. Especially the latter.

We were hoping for anything, would like some burbot action since I know they are most active but just have no idea where in particular to target them.

[Talking moose]

Another month and they will be up on the sand flats spawning... Writhing balls of ugliness....quite a spectacle if you time it right

[taipan]

Just so happened that last week on pigeon I had a pretty slow day and was excited for the evening bite. It turned on pretty good as it got dark and to my surprise was consistent till about 8:30 pm, where I had to tap out and go home but was sure I was walking away from lots more fish.

Would target walleyes specifically at night back in Ontario.

I think your missing out if your not hunting eyes after dark.

[Habfan]

I found it makes a big difference to pre drill holes at least 2 hrs before dark,then move around jigging until you find them !!

[EZM]

Night = a lot shallower than what you would fish during the day for walleyes coming in to feed. 5-6 FOW

Have not night time ice fished walleyes for a few years ..... but that seemed to be the ticket.