Fishing Report

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, I think after this past week’s snow, we can probably call the end of the open water season for 2025.  There may be a little bit of open water, but landings are going to be almost impossible to get in and out of, and it looks to get COLD for the coming week.  I am seeing temps mostly in the teens and mostly single digit lows with a random -8 in there for Wednesday night.  To say we should start making ice is an understatement!!  Since we do not really have safe ice to report of (I’m sure there is some, I just have not heard of any) I figure it’s a good time to recap the open water season.

We finished the 2025 open water season with some good numbers of all species being caught!  A number of good walleye over the slot of 24″ were caught as well as a bunch in that 15-20″ keeper range were caught on the area lakes.  Panfishing was good as fish were plentiful this season although we do not have great sizes on the local lakes. It seems like the Chippewa Flowage held some of the biggest panfish (crappie in particular) in the area.  We ended up filling up 3-1/2 musky charts with the largest fish coming in at 49″ on Lost Land Lake.  At 35 fish per board, we had about 125 fish posted and many more caught that were not put up on the board.  Pretty good numbers given we had a very warm summer and the fishing being fair I would say.   There were lots of 40″+ fish out of the area lakes and a few mid to upper 40″ taken out of Moose, Teal, Spider, and of course Lost Land.  Northern pike were caught in pretty typical numbers and sizes this past year, as were largemouth bass.  Smallies really took off with good numbers of fish and great sizes on all of the area lakes.  It’s never too late to start booking trips or thinking about next year’s open water season!!

Sorry for not much of a report on actual fishing but with this week’s temps I don’t think an ice report is too far off!!  It appears we may see more snow tonight as they are forecasting another 1-3″ tonight. Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.

Greg

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, looks to be a pretty nice weekend with temps around 50 both days.  That may not be very conducive for hunters seeking to harvest deer though, as it seems the warmer it is, the less they move.  I had a very nice 8 pointer come within 30yds of me Friday morning which was great, however he came about a 1/2 hour before legal shooting light so I had no chance at a shot.  Monday and Tuesday look to bring rain and then we look to really start making ICE with temps below freezing during the day and even some single digit lows at night towards next weekend.  It appears we have some chances of snow next weekend as well and I am seeing 1-3 inches of snow next Saturday and Sunday.  

This week’s report is not going to be the standard format as lakes are icing up and there are very few anglers out fishing.  I got out onto the Spider chain on Wednesday, but we could not launch down on Little Spider lake as that landing was solid ice probably about an inch thick all the way out to the main lake.  We managed to get the boat into the Clear Lake launch, but had to break ice to get to a spot I thought had fish, and we were only able to fish a very small section as probably half of the lake was covered.  I just got a message from a buddy who said a boat out on Clear yesterday was struggling to get through it.  I also know some of the smaller bays on Lost Land Lake have a good amount of ice on them as well.  The big lakes such as Round, Lac Courte Oreilles, and Grindstone should still be accessible.  

Anglers should focus on the hardwater season as it is fast approaching.  Now is the time to re-spool reels and tip-ups, go through tackle and make sure jigs/spoons are stocked up.  First ice (although it can be dangerous) is some of the best fishing of the season.  If you are an angler who chooses to be the first on the ice, please be safe and check the ice every few steps.  Ice can change rapidly until it gets set up for the season, especially around any moving water, shallow rocky areas that are holding heat from the sun and deep areas where the water takes longer to get cold.

Open water fishing is about done, and most folks are in the woods chasing white tails.  Good luck to everyone trying to harvest a deer this season!!  Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.

Greg