Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, another arctic blast has a grip on us here in the Northwoods for the weekend. It looks like single digits today topping out at 8 degrees and -7 for a low tonight. Temps barely make it out of the teens for the next 10 days so we will continue to make ice. I am seeing a possibility of snow at the end of the 15 day forecast but that is ways out to say for sure. Let’s hope we do get some snow as we could certainly use it. We have mostly safe ice on all of the lakes in the area, but it is ice and never 100% safe. I know the Tiger Cat and Callahan lakes got staked for snowmobile trails this past week as well as the Spider Lake chain. I was told the Spider Lake chain had anywhere from 11-13″ of ice already and it’s just going to keep building. The fishing has been steady for those willing to put in the time on the ice.
Walleye–I got out on the ice on New Years Eve and we did pretty well on walleye using tip-ups at dusk anywhere from 10-15 FOW with a deep basin nearby. We were using walleye suckers under the tip-ups.
Pike–While we didn’t get any pike that day, they have also been hitting tip-ups rigged with either suckers or shiners. Anglers should set these tip-ups slightly shallower for pike and try to find weed edges more so than deep water transitions.
Crappie/Perch–Anglers have been finding crappie suspended out in the basins on most lakes (some lakes just don’t have a basin bite) and doing well on jigs or small jigging spoons tipped with waxies or minnow heads. Some anglers will use full minnows on the spoons as well.
Bluegill–Gills should be stacked up in and around weed beds or in shallow bays. Small jigs and plastics or waxies are the best option to catch bluegill right now. With no snow cover and good light penetration anglers should be able to find some weeds that are still green and holding fish.
Typical winter fishing pattern right now and should continue to be good with the ice conditions. Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.
Greg