Lipless Crankbaits for Icing Walleyes
There are a variety of “go to” techniques for icing Lake of the Woods walleyes. One of the techniques which is a must have for a variety of reason is jigging a lipless crankbait.
The waters of Lake of the Woods are stained, meaning, the natural plant matter produce tannins which give the water a light coffee color. This color of water actually makes it so walleyes and saugers will bite well during the day vs gin clear water lakes where low light fishing is typically more conducive.
With the stained water, walleyes still use their eyesight, but depend much more on their inner ear along with their lateral line which detect vibrations in the water. Most of the time, walleyes will sense their prey through vibration before they actually see them in stained water.
Sound carries more than 7x better in water than it does in air and walleyes are very adept at sensing sound and vibration.
Lipless crankbaits should be considered for two important reasons.
- They flat out catch a lot of walleyes and saugers
- Even if the fish doesn’t hit the bait, the bait is noisy and a natural attractor to even neutral mood fish, pulling more close which might then fall for the deadstick with a live minnow
This video provides some good ideas on using lipless crankbaits to up your catch of walleyes and saugers through the ice.
Ice fishing on Lake of the Woods continues through March. Fish houses can be on the ice through March 31st, walleyes and saugers are open through April 14th and the pike season never closes.
Just about every fish will hit an aggressive lure like a lipless crankbait, pick a few up and add them to your walleye arsenal.
