Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, looks to be favorable weather for the Birkie, not too warm, not too cold and the course should have set up pretty good since everything has re-froze. Slightly colder this week with highs in the teens and twenties, and a chance of snow Tuesday with reports of 1-3″. Ice conditions are still great as anglers can still take trucks, side by sides and snowmobiles to get to their desired fishing spots. I actually drove my truck on the ice for the first time ever yesterday and I have to say its pretty nice just driving right up to the shack!! There was not much slush, just a very thin layer so travel was easy and there is still around 20″ of ice. We managed some nice gills and a pike, made for a great homemade Friday fish fry last night!
Walleye–We did not manage to catch any walleye yesterday, although anglers are still doing well on tip-ups during low light hours on both suckers and shiners. Look for walleye in anywhere from 14-20 FOW in and around deeper rocks, or hard to soft bottom transitions.
Pike–Pike action has probably been the most consistent this winter, and anglers are finding pike mostly around weed beds, or bays with weeds. We caught a pike in about 14 FOW, but we were fishing a deep weed line so it keeps with that theme of weeds. Jigging bigger profile baits, and tip-ups rigged with suckers and shiners are excellent choices for pike.
LMB/SMB–A few anglers have managed to catch some largemouth on tip-ups lately, mostly in weedy bays and in weed beds. Suckers, shiners, and even smaller fathead minnows have all worked.
Crappie–Crappie moved into our spot around dusk, and anglers have said they are noticing pretty short windows of good crappie action. Jigging spoons tipped with waxies or minnow heads seem to favor smaller jigging presentations. Crappie have been in deeper water over basins, and where we found some yesterday on the deepest weed edges.
Bluegill–We caught some very nice gills yesterday, and had a pile more we threw back to grow bigger. I was surprised at how deep they were, and how green some of the weeds still were. We found them right around 14 FOW on the deep weed edge. Jigging spoon with rattles and small blades tipped with waxies were preferred by the biggest gills of the bunch.
Perch–I was also surprised that we found zero perch yesterday, and I have not heard hardly anything on a decent perch bite. Small perch have been found in some of the basins in the area, but really nothing worth chasing.
Only a couple weeks left of gamefish, although we have enough ice that jigging for panfish and chasing pike will surely last for a while longer! Good luck to all of the Birkie participants today, and we will talk soon.
Greg