Good evening from the Quiet Lakes, another early/late report as we are in Duluth for a volleyball tournament this weekend. This report will be short and sweet…..
Ice conditions are still favorable for now as anglers can still get onto the ice sheet and they are roughly 20″ thick. Obviously anglers should be aware of creek/river inlets or outlets and landings getting onto or off of the ice as any kind of flowing or water or shorelines can change quickly. I was out with the kids’ school on Wednesday on an area lake and we had about 19″ of ice but it got very slushy by afternoon. We did manage to find some nice crappie in the morning while it was cloudy and colder, however that bite shut down during midday with a high sun. We found crappie in 17-20 FOW and did not find them anywhere else! During the midday sun we also found some smaller bluegill and perch, but nothing to write home about. We had great luck on small jigging spoons and jigs tipped with waxies…..we had very little luck on any kind of minnows as bait.
The rest of this weekend is really supposed to warm up with temps in the mid to upper 50s and lots of sun. No doubt that is going to start opening up streams, creeks, and rivers and anglers should be mindful on that if they want to chase late ice panfish. I’m not sure of the exact regulations off hand, but I believe anglers can target trout in streams and creeks and rivers if they desire right now.
I also noticed personally that I have a few reels to go through and get fixed or cleaned before opener so anglers should start thinking spring, or at least thinking of the bare minimum they need to do to get ready for the open water season. Next week we will dive into some spring boat/rod/reel/tackle things that anglers should address before May 2nd sneaks up on us!
That is all I have for this week’s report……not looking great for anglers wanting to be the last on the ice as I think the shorelines are going to go away fast after this weekend, but that is the reality of March in the Northwoods!! Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.
Greg