Fishing Report

Good morning, the snow definitely did not help out the ice making on the lakes.  Lots of cold nights on the way and not too much more snow in the forecast for a while should really help to close the lakes up.    I am still hearing reports of ~5″ of ice on the quiet lakes.  Cold temps at night should really help close up any main lake areas that may still be open.  Most of the smaller bays and smaller lakes are safe enough to fish on, but it should be stated any time you go on ice to be safe!  I have also heard some reports of anglers pushing their luck last week and going through the ice. Luckily they only hurt their pride a bit and that was it.  Fishing has still been pretty good and the walleye bite is really going good right now.

Northern pike–Pike action is still coming by way of tip ups rigged with either suckers or shiners.  Focus on weed beds and weed edges and get the baits into pockets or just outside the weeds.  

Walleye–If using tip ups for walleye, do the same things you would do for pike.  If jigging for walleye right now, use spoons and be aggressive.  Get spoons down into the pockets of weeds.  Live bait may help on spoons right now but it not necessary.  Calling them in with flash/rattles should be enough right now.

Crappie/bluegill/perch–All of the panfish will be weed related as well right now and jigging with smaller spoons, or jigs tipped with plastics or live bait can be very good right now.  Again focus on pockets in the weeds to jig them up.   

Keep it simple fishing right now, the safest ice is in the bays and that is where the weeds and fish will be.  Fish are still aggressive and shallow which makes for pretty fun fishing as you really don’t need to complicate your set ups!  

Greg

Good morning, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  A decent warm up the last few days will continue today and tomorrow and start to drop off after that with some snow possible on Tuesday.  I don’t believe this warm up is hurting the ice thickness too much as I have been hearing pretty consistent reports of 3-4″ of ice on most of the spots anglers are hitting around and on the quiet lakes.  Not to sound like a broken record, but CHECK any of the ice you are walking on….Even in a few steps it can change if there is any kind of current or springs or just a section that didn’t freeze the same.  To the fishing, nothing crazy targeting wise but we will run through it quick.  

Northern Pike–Pike action has been good on tip-ups rigged with shiners or walleye suckers.  Nothing fancy, find the edges of weeds both shallow and deep and set up there.  
Walleye–Use the exact same spots and same set ups to target walleye that you would with the pike right now.  Everything is in shallow and on edges of weeds preying on baitfish that are still hiding in them.

Crappie/Bluegill/Perch–Panfish will be hiding in these same weed beds where you find walleye and pike on the edges of.  Work small jigs/spoons tipped with waxies/plastics in open pockets of the weeds to pull panfish up onto the ice.  

Here is a quick report for current ice fishing.  No need to be fancy and searching all over the lake.  First, it’s not safe to do so as all the lakes vary with ice thickness/quality and second, fish have not been targeted heavily for a month now and they are ready to eat.  Find shallow weeds, drop some live bait in their face and catch fish!  Have a great weekend and we will go over it again next week!

Greg