What is a basic ice-fishing setup for walleye?

The proven system is one active line and one still line, 1–3 m (3.3–10 ft) apart. The active rod fishes a jigging spoon or rattle bait tipped with a minnow head, worked in lift-fall-pause cycles — its job is drawing distant fish in with flash and thump. The still line — a deadstick or tip-up — presents a lively whole minnow under minimal hardware for the followers that inspect and refuse the spoon; on tough bites it converts the majority of fish. Location beats both: structure edges adjacent to wintering basins in roughly 6–12 m (20–39 ft), holes drilled early, and the dusk window fished seriously — the half hour each side of sunset is the ice season's reliable pulse. A flasher or sonar is worth more than any lure change, because it shows the fish that come to look, and how they answer your cadence.

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