Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, mild temps this week hovering right around 32 degrees aside from Wednesday’s high of 16. We got 1-2″ of snow last night and they are calling for more snow showers today and Tuesday. Not sure if that will amount to much, but every little bit helps. The ice is in great shape and this little bit of snow cover makes traveling on it excellent for any type of machine. I was out on an area lake yesterday and we saw right around 18″ of ice everywhere we drilled holes. The fishing has been decent lately from everything I have heard.
Walleye–Anglers are still finding walleye on edges of structure such as points, flats, or mid lake humps. Tip-ups or jigging anywhere from 12-16′ off of those areas will produce fish. We had some luck on both shiners and suckers rigged under our tip-ups yesterday.
Northern pike–Anglers will find good action on pike on weed flats or big weed beds in shallow bays. Tip-ups are the way to go for pike as well, rigged the same way you would for walleye. Set up in big pockets of weeds, on weed edges, and inside or outside turns in the weed beds. A good target area for pike is anywhere from 6-12′.
LMB–I know some anglers pick up some decent largemouth on tip-ups fishing in these same weedy areas for pike. That has not been the case for me, but that is what makes tip-up fishing so fun, is that it’s always a mystery until you see the fish in the hole!
Crappie–I don’t have much of a report on crappie action, as I have struggled to find any on the lakes that I have fished. I have not tried deep basins, and stuck mostly to fishing on top of or around structure so maybe that’s my problem! All lakes are different but on most lakes my guess is they are schooled up in 20-30′ FOW and roaming out there most of the time. Small tungsten jigs tipped with waxies or minnow heads would be great options for tackle choices. Small jigging spoons would work as well.
Perch–We did not find any perch yesterday, however last week we caught some in that 15-20′ depth range and caught all of them on jigs and waxies. My guess is they haven’t moved much off of those areas.
Bluegill–I set up camp on kind of the top of a mid lake hump with one side of the shelter and the other side was on a sharp drop to deep water. We had great weeds and I thought for sure we would get into some gills and crappies and I was completely wrong. We did not see any kind of panfish in the 6 hours we fished, which was beyond frustrating, but that’s fishing. I would have to think bluegills are still relating to shallow weeds, just not where we were yesterday.
That is all I have for this week’s report. This warm up will be welcomed after the brutal cold we had earlier this past week. Have a great one and we will talk soon!
Greg