Fishing report 03 January 2026

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, it looks like we have another round of significant snow tomorrow through tomorrow night.  It looks like anywhere from 3-5″ during the day and another 1-3″ tomorrow night.  Next week looks to bring a big warm up with temps in the mid to upper 30s everyday and a wintry mix on Tuesday that will probably make a mess of everything.  The heavy snow we received last week has not hurt the ice, however it did create a layer of slush in between the snow and ice.  The ice base on most lakes is at least 10″ and anywhere the snowmobile trails are, travel should be excellent.  Fishing has slowed down a little bit with that snowstorm we got, and not sure what tomorrow’s storm will bring but generally before a front, and a few days after can be great fishing.  

Northern pike–Pike should be set up in and around shallow weeds, whether that be off of points, on top of reefs, or just big weed beds.  Now that we have a lot of snow cover on the lakes the weeds will start to brown.  If you can still find green weeds, those are an excellent starting point.  Set tip-ups on weed edges both shallow and deep and use either sucker minnows or shiners.  Pike will aggressively eat bigger spoons jigged in those areas as well.

Walleye–The walleye bite has slowed down a little bit, but anglers should target deeper rocky points or reefs or sharp breaking shorelines.  Both tip-ups and jigging with spoons in these areas can be productive especially around dawn and dusk.  If using tip-ups, rig them with suckers or shiners and run them anywhere from 1-2′ off of bottom.  Jigging can call fish from a long distance and most anglers start low in the water column and work fish up.  

LMB/SMB–I have not heard of any kind of bass bite for either species, however anglers may find success for largemouth fishing with tip-ups and minnows in and around shallower weeds and in the same areas as pike.  Anglers may find smallies in some of the same areas as walleye, although they seem to be pretty nomadic and not caught very often through the ice.

Crappie/Perch–Crappie and perch should be roaming basins right now and anglers have had some luck using small spoons or jig/plastic or minnow combos.  From what I have been hearing, anglers are finding luck anywhere from 15-25 FOW for crappie and perch right now.

Bluegill–Not a whole lot to report on a good bluegill bite, however gills should still be more related to shallow structure vs. a basin bite.  Shallow structure can be weeds, timber, shallow rocks and shoreline breaks.  Smaller jigs tipped with waxies or plastics are all anglers need to ice nice gills.

That is all I have for this week’s report.  Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.

Greg