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