Fishing Report

Good morning, a few inches of snow fell out here by the quiet lakes area Wednesday night into Thursday but not enough for any kind of recreation. Bitter cold temps over the last two nights (it’s 7 degrees as I am writing this) is keeping the “good” ice we have in a great spot. Our area does look to have a pretty big warm up on the way with quite a few days in the 40s over the 15 day forecast. Low temps will still be below freezing so we should maintain good ice for a while yet. Reports on ice are varied, especially on lakes with moving water, for example I have heard Moose lake alone has spots of almost 12″ of ice and other spots down to 4″. Most lakes in the area sound like they are quite “safe” but as always anglers should check every lake, every time they go out. I am hearing pretty consistent reports of 6-10″ with some spots closer to a foot.

Fishing has been good to great lately, with anglers doing well on all species. Some of our social media friends (that I follow) are doing well on species such as bass and walleye, and local anglers and anglers up visiting are doing well on panfish, Northern, and even a few Musky through the ice. Honestly, not much has changed in the way of tactics to catch fish throughout this winter, predators are still being caught mainly by tip-up and panfish mainly by small offerings. A good friend of mine caught a walleye, pike, and musky on the same tip-up set up on a shallow to deep edge transition all within a few hours the other day. All of those fish hit walleye sized suckers that he had rigged up. My guess is the walleye may have come from deeper water and took the easy meal, while the pike and musky were probably cruising the shallower water in search of baitfish. My point is the transition is key, and can be applied to any lake. Almost all of the reports I am hearing on panfish no matter the species are of them relating to deeper water. Look for crappie in the +/- 20 FOW range, perch on that deep transition or out in the basin in 12-20 FOW and bluegill up just a little shallower in anywhere from 10-12 FOW. Simple small spoons or jigs tipped with minnow heads/tail sections or waxies or plastics on the jigs are icing some nice panfish.

Thats I all I got for this week. Any anglers that are set up to ice fish should come up and enjoy some of our lakes. There is great fishing to be had and all of the resorts/businesses in the area could use some help this winter. Hope you have a great weekend and we will talk soon.

Greg

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, the weather does not look favorable for the ice situation moving forward.  The next 15 days all look to be well above freezing with highs at the end of this week reaching the mid 50s. Current ice conditions have reports anywhere from 8-11″ but we will lose it fast if the temps hold up as forecasted.  Fishing has been pretty good overall with folks still doing well on tips-ups and jigging.

For walleye, pike, and bass anglers are using walleye suckers or shiners underneath tip-up rigs.  Set rigs in shallow weeds for bass and pike and try to get right on the transition from shallow to deep water for walleye. In most lakes, shallow weeds would be in the 5-8′ range and the deep transition will be in the 10-12′ range.  Most times you will pick up a pike or two on that transition as well. 

I am hearing reports of anglers doing well for panfish in the deep basins.  Dropping small tungsten jigs or small jigging spoons down to 20-25′ FOW can find some nice crappie right now.  Some lakes may fish shallower than that depending on the depth of the lake.  Waxies on jigs or chunks of crappie minnows on the treble hook of a spoon can be great options for aggressive crappie, perch and bull bluegill. 

This may be some of the last good ice we have of the season. It’s definitely been a strange winter with very little to no snow and moderate ice at best.  My guess is that the shorelines may start to get thin if this weather holds up. The only upside is we may be able to get the boats in the water by March!! Have a great weekend and we will talk soon!

Greg