The stars and the moons lined up for Mark Courts this year when it came to competitive fishing. Courts won the Professional Walleye Trail Championship, which is the highest honor a walleye fisherman can attain. I joke that there is some luck involved here, but Courts has been fishing competitively for many years and earned his title through hard work and skill.

Professional Walleye Trail Champion Mark Courts. Photo by Tim Lesmeister.

While Courts is a machine on open water, he is also a hard-driving angler on the ice. His prowess with the short pole is legendary, and if sports shows didn't have him traveling the country in the winter months, he would likely be competing in ice-fishing tournaments as well. Fortunately for him, there is not much going on when first ice hits the states where ice-fishing is a reality, so you know where you can find Courts when the water freezes at the surface -- in a portable shelter staring at a sonar and vertical jigging for walleyes.

"No matter where you are in the ice belt, that period when the ice first gets solid enough to walk on is when you have your best walleye fishing," Courts said. "Those walleyes are feeding a lot because the water temperature is dropping and they're loading up on protein for the long winter ahead."

Courts said the best way to find walleyes at first ice is to continue the fall patterns right into the winter.

"Where you were catching walleyes pre-ice is where you will find them at first ice," he said.

According to Courts, the first-ice hotspots consist of hard structure like gravel, rock and sand. His favorite spots are long points that begin on a sand or rubble flat and lead into deep water. The best points have one side slowly tapering into the depths and the other side dropping off quickly. If the base of the point intersects with sand or rock, you have a high-potential location.

Of course, there are lakes where walleyes are stocked that can't brag traditional walleye structure because the bottom is soft and the lake is rimmed with vegetation. Courts said in situations like this you go where the food is and that would be just inside the cover. Submerged vegetation quits growing where the light can't penetrate enough to generate growth. In some lakes, this can be less than 10 feet; in others, it could be more than 20 feet deep. Find that vegetation edge and position your bait a foot or two inside that line.

Courts said the vegetation typically grows sparse toward the edge and that's where you want to place the bait.