Do walleye feed in winter?

Emphatically yes — walleye are arguably North America's premier ice-fishing species, and the entire Canadian and northern-US hardwater culture is built on that fact. Cold water slows a walleye's metabolism, so it eats less often and chases less far, but a coolwater percid never approaches the near-shutdown of a largemouth in the same lake. What winter really does is compress the windows: under ice the old low-light rule tightens further, with the half hour before dark through early evening the most reliable bite of the day, plus a smaller dawn window. Fish structure edges and flats adjacent to wintering basins, downsize and slow down, and be on your best hole before sunset — not looking for it.

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