Extended periods of frigid weather can have a dramatic effect on location. "I thought there must have been a temperature gradient acting like a barrier keeping them off their normal spots. "Walleyes were a lot deeper last year," says Minnesota guide Brian Brosdahl. Some of the best anglers in the region concurred. ![]() Where we'd been catching them at 17 to 24 feet during January for many years, we were finding walleyes 30 to 35 feet down. But how did the toughest winter weather in a third of a century affect fish location in other areas? In Minnesota and Wisconsin, where fish had the option, we found them deeper than what we consider "normal" on lake after lake. Temperature layers in the Great Lakes and other large lakes, it seems, are less likely to be affected by changing conditions above the ice. "The depths they used were pretty typical." "But we found walleyes in the same spots where we typically find them on Erie," said Craig Lewis, owner of Erie Outfitters. The good news was ice fishing on Lake Erie was safer and lasted longer than it has in decades. Cleveland, Ohio, experienced more sub-zero days than during any winter for over 30 years. The winter of 2013-14 produced thicker ice, heavier snowfall, and colder average temperatures than normal. Such events seem especially prevalent during extreme winters, like the one we experienced last year. Every ice angler experiences it, sooner or later: A "guaranteed spot" that crawls with fish every winter suddenly fails to produce.
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