During the night, because the moon doesn’t provide much light, walleye are more on the move. This is also when bait fish are more active, so the walleye are looking for food.

When you have staked your pad on the ice and have your hole drilled, you will, of course want to keep warm and be able to see. Naturally, you would have brought along a light to accomplish both of these. There is a trick to lighting your fishing hut. Instead of a lantern, bring along a variety of candles. They will provide enough light for you to tie your line and watch your rod in case a fish strikes. Any light that you use will penetrate down the hole, and the brighter the light, the further away the fish will be. You will, of course, need to bring a heater, but make sure that it doesn’t emit too much light. I found that I got the most bites in the 2 hours after sunset and the 2 hours before sunrise.

Take the right equipment- Because you want to minimize the amount of light that penetrates your fishing hole, you need to choose your bait wisely. Normally, walleye love to attack brightly colored jigs, but in the dark, this could pose to be quite a dilemma.

Instead of color, go for profile and sound instead. Choose a jig that is a decent size so that it is easily seen as it passes over the walleye. As well, use bait with a rattle. I found that walleye are attracted to this sound. Make sure that the bait is heavy enough so that the line is taut and there are no kinks in it. You should be able to feel it bounced in the water when you tug on the line.

When it comes to line; the thinner, the better. Rather than lunging at their prey like their fellow predator, the pike, walleye will instead inhale their prey. If you use a lighter line, it makes it easier for the fish to inhale. Otherwise, they will simply spit it out or let it go.

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