Fishing Report

Hello from the Northwoods, late report tonight as we are in New Richmond for a hockey tournament this weekend. We still have decent ice as of now, but this week could really screw things up. I am hearing pretty consistent reports of +/- 8″ of ice on most lakes, but I have noticed most of the creeks and rivers are back open and flowing water. Not a good sign on any lakes that have current moving through them. Temps this week look to top out in the upper 40s with a chance of rain on Thursday. The snowmobile and ski trails are both shot and only time will tell what happens to the ice.

Fishing has been decent as of late with most anglers still targeting shallow fish on tip-ups. The catch has been mostly pike and walleye and a few inadvertent musky. I got my first ski’ of the season last weekend on a tip-up, a beautiful marked fish that went about 22″. Thats pretty good for me as I usually don’t catch a musky of any size until October of the year!! The walleye and pike have almost all been on suckers or shiners under a tip-up in anywhere from 8-12 FOW. Look for weed edges that drop off into deeper water and focus on those transitions. I know of one angler that landed an absolute gator of a pike jigging,(Tim if you are reading this you know who you are!😉) but that one was a fluke for sure! I have not heard much else on a basin or panfish bite as those fish have just not been targeted much this year.

I really wish I had a better report for you, but there just has not been many anglers targeting panfish or venturing out into deep water on this ice. It seems like there are still decent weeds to focus on in shallower water and i don’t think the fish have moved off of those weeds yet. All 4 of our tip-ups that produced fish last weekend were in or around weeds and the one walleye we got was in that transition from weeds/rock to deep water. Have a great weekend and we will talk soon!

Greg

Good evening, sending the report out a little early as we have hockey early tomorrow morning and then I plan on hitting the hard water to chase after some fish!  It appears the cold snap we have had since last weekend finally will end at the beginning of next week.  High temps in the 30s pretty much all week with lows down into the 20s every night.  It looks like any chances of rain are gone and I am not seeing much for any kind of precipitation.  That is not good news for the snowmobile crowds as there is very little snow on the trails now.  This week has made some significant ice and I am hearing most lakes are seeing at least 8″ of good ice with some spots closer to 10″.  I would think by the end of the weekend we could be pretty consistent in the 10-12″ range, so I don’t think the warm up next week will hurt us too much there.  We probably won’t make a whole lot during the warm up, but we shouldn’t lose much either.  Most of the lakes have been staked for the snowmobile trails, I know for sure LLL, Spider chain, Tiger cat, and most if not all of the Chip.  I am not sure about Round, LCO, Grindstone, or Whitefish and to be honest Im not sure how many of the snowmobile trails go across those lakes. The Sawyer County Snowmobile ATV Alliance has been posting on conditions and are a very reliable source!

We got out fishing last weekend and we did ok on tip-ups going 3 for 3, catching two small northern and a sizeable 20″ walleye.  We caught those fish on both suckers and shiners under the tip-ups.  Missed a few fish jigging and we caught all of our fish on the edges of flats that headed to deep water.  I still haven’t got any intel on a panfish bite and we didn’t catch any to verify if they are basin related or still around shallow weeds/structure.  My guess is with these warm temps and good ice, next week and weekend will be busy ones with anglers getting out safely and comfortably.  Next week I should really be able to get a better breakdown by species, this week was pretty slow yet as it was just too cold to get out. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend and we will talk soon!

Greg