Spoon-feeding walleye works great

When I was a youngster, I had quite an appetite for absorbing as much fishing information as I could.
My Grandpa used to have subscriptions to a few different fishing magazines, so I always was excited about trips over to his place in case he might have a new issue or two.
One of the techniques I read about from the U.S. magazines was using jigging spoons for walleyes when ice-fishing.
Growing up in Northwestern Ontario, the only technique I had ever seen anybody use for ice-fishing for walleye was putting a minnow on a jig and letting it down to the bottom.
But as the use of flashers or sonar units gained in popularity, so did the use of different lures for ice-fishing. Once we had the ability to actually watch our lures as we fished, and how fish responded to our jigging action, we could learn how to trigger them to bite.
For those of you unfamiliar with jigging spoons, they are a smaller-sized spoon that typically is one-quarter to one-half ounce in size. Because of their small profile, they sink fast. But when we jig them, we can impart an erratic action that is the triggering effect to make fish bite.
Spoons come in many different shapes, which give them different actions. Typically, the wider the profile of the spoon, the more fluttering it will do. Slender spoons are more subtle in action while some spoons even come with rattles, which give them the ability to call fish in from a distance.
Northland Fishing Tackle even has a new ice-fishing spoon (Glo-Shot Spoon) available that comes with a glowing colour capsule that pops into the middle of the spoon to allow fish to see it from a greater distance.
Testing last March on Lake of the Woods went well; walleyes liked the unique spoon.
When it comes to triggering fish to bite, sometimes aggressive jigging action is the best, particularly when fish are really active–usually in the primetime hours just after sunrise or just before sunset.
Sometimes, however, subtle jigging and shaking the spoon is best. The beauty of using a flasher is that we can watch how walleye interact with the spoon and what kind of jigging stroke makes them bite.
When it comes to tipping the spoon, adding a little bit of meat to the lure always is a good idea. But instead of attaching a whole minnow to the spoon, simply add the head or the tail section to one of the treble hooks (I always use the heads because they stay on the hook pretty good).
The problem if you use a whole minnow is that the package becomes too big and the spoon loses some of its natural fluttering action.
Spoon-fishing for walleyes started for me many years ago and they are all I ever use anymore. I keep a jig rod handy to drop in as a second line sometimes, but I catch way more fish on the spoons than I do on the jigs.
Give some jigging spoons a try on the ice in the New Year and show walleyes on your favourite spot a little something different this season!