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