Night fishing for Walleye

[Logan_S]

Im thinking about going out Friday night with one of my buddies to try and catch some walleye, does anyone have any tips or helpfull advice?
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[daymere]

[font "Arial"]In the later weeks of winter, ice fishing is hot, but ice conditions can be iffy. Walleyes are staging at river mouths and can be easily caught with jigs and minnows.Tipping your jig with two minnows provides a slightly bigger target for walleyes to hone in on. Twice the minnows also means double the action - instead of one tail flipping around you’ve got two. The combo can be enough to trigger larger, lethargic walleyes into biting.Good electronics are critical. Use the Bottom Line Buddy graph or a flasher like the Vexilar FL-8[/font]
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[Logan_S]

What about using tip-ups? We are going to mainly use tip ups this weekend.
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[ISOP]

Logan,
Here in the Dakota's it seems at times and especially in winter the walleyes can be rather nocturnal. This said, there is no better time than evening to chase the eyes IMO. I usually set up a couple tipups. Use a little larger hook than you would use in open water...I use a size 2 with a large minnow or even a treble hook with a 4 or 5 inch shiner. An larger Ice jig with a glow finish cant hurt either. But remember one thing....A Walleye can see a bait from about 15 feet away, it can smell it from a bit further...but it's greatest sense at detecting forage is the detecting the sense of movement. There fore set your tipups in a circle or half circle if if you have enough guys to permit that many lines being used. Get in the midst of the tipups and actively use a jigging rod with a buckshot rattle spoon or a northland forage spoon, kastmaster or other larger spoon type jig. Tip it with a minnow and really make it move...let it smack the bottom and jig it up high doing 5 foot sweeps up off the bottom...When I do this I will catch a few fish on the jigging rod, but really what I am trying to acheive is setting off that detection of movement in nearby fish or passing fish to bring them in closer to my tipups. If I can get them to detect that movement from a distance, they will come in closer to smell and hit the tipups. Also, place a bell or some type of alarm to audibly warn you of a strike. You need to be on top of the tip up immediately so you can get that fish landed. They dont stick around forever...also lift your tip up and set it back down every ten minutes or so so that any fish just staring at the bait may realize that now is the time so to speak.
Good luck.
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[Logan_S]

Thanks for the advice! Im thinking about purchasing a few tip up lights, you ever had any experience with them?
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[ISOP]

They wrok great. Get the ones that actually spin when they are tripped..looks like a siren light...you will notice them from a long ways away
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[Logan_S]

Alright, ill probably give them a try!
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