Off the Beaten Path for Rainy Lake Walleyes at IDOfishing.com

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As much as possible I try to present to each fish individually. Once you've had some time staring at your flasher you get real good at picking up how aggressive the fish is by the way it moves. Here's some generals that I tend to stick to...

A fish coming in 1 - 3 foot above the bottom is typically much more aggressive than the fish that coming in right on the bottom. When I see those marks I tend to put my spoon 6" above their nose and give a couple 4" - 6" snaps to my jigging spoon, followed by a pause. During the pause I'm waiting for a reaction. If I can get that fish to start rising up towards the spoon I'll start to slowly pull that spoon up and away from the fish while continuing to impart those 4" - 6" snaps to my spoon. If the fish keeps rising I keep the spoon moving upward. In this scenario the fish almost always hit. And hit hard.

Fish that come in right on the bottom tend to be less aggressive and often need to be coaxed a little more. When I see that fish come in belly to the bottom I'll put the spoon just above the fishes' head and give small "wiggles" to the spoon while watching intently for a reaction. If the fish comes up fast and committed then I'll fall into the pattern I described above for more aggressive fish. More often than not those bottom huggers come up to the spoon slowly and won't move far. In that scenario I'll concentrate on imparting very minimal jigging motions and again I'll wait for a response from the fish. If I can get that fish to come up off the bottom very often I'll stop jigging my spoon and slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, raise my rod tip. The goal is to get that fish to come up with the spoon. One quick movement or overly aggressive jigging motion and that fish will be gone! At times I'll spend several minutes playing this slow game of cat and mouse to get a hit. Very often what happens is these less aggressive fish will gradually become more and more aggressive as long as you don't scare them off. The key to getting this type of fish to hit is to get it to come off the bottom 6" to inspect that slowly moving spoon before it drops away. When it drops away drop that spoon back down to where you first started working the fish and give the spoon a couple small snaps... just a couple inches. Wait for that fish to come back in for a second look. Then slowly raise your rod tip. Some times small twitches to the spoon will help maintain the fish's interest. The goal is to get that fish to come up off the bottom a little higher this time... maybe 9". Then 12". Often if the fish is going to eventually hit you'll notice the fish gets a little more aggressive and will rise a little higher in the water column to follow the spoon. Eventually that fish will hit... if you play the game right.

As for suspended fish, those that ride well above the bottom... they're a whole different breed. Some times they're so danged aggressive all you need to do is get the spoon above their heads. And then the next time you reel up to a suspended fish it will bolt from the screen like you tried to drop a lawn chair on its head.

I hope this helps. The short of it is every fish needs to be fished individually and the key is being comfortable with your flasher as a good flasher can communicate a tremendous amount of information that will aid an angler in upping their catch rates more than just about any other tool they could possibly have on the ice.

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James Holst - In-Depth Outdoors TV Host
IDA Guides Guide Service
Ph. 507-271-0362