Thinnest Ice We’ve Found
Last 2 Trips= 5+
Today was one of those ‘Good Days’. Everything just kind of clicked and we got our Perch, came in for a bit, went back out for the evening Walleye bite and ended 1 short with about 20 throwbacks. Weather was beautiful and so was the lit up Vexilar!
The Perch today weren’t really, really active. They were more into dead sticks and too much jigging had them scattering. If multiples would come into the lure on the dead stick and we just twitched it a little bit, we would get some good reactions out of them.
Our Walleyes this afternoon were much more active. When they would come in they would fly up and just hammer our buck shots. We love this early ice period, and while it is later in the year than what we are used to, it is still early ice, and one of our most cherished times of the year.
This spot was from Friday, and it one of my favorite ‘sit-and-grind’ spots. You can set up in this area and just sit and grind all day and expect to catch fish pretty much the whole time. The other thing I really like about it is you never really know what is going to come through the hole and the only species I haven’t caught in this area is a Crappie.
Ice Depths!
Ice formation was slow going at first and getting an ice sheet on the entire lake seemed like it took forever. Well, the whole lake is finally froze and the last freeze areas have finally hit the 5 inch range. The last two trips onto the ice we haven’t seen any ice under 5 inches and today we were on two areas that were in that ‘last freeze’ area and we still had 5+ inches.
We are making ice every night and come this weekend we are going to see some major ice production. 4-Wheelers are safe in many areas and I would say that after Saturday they will be safe in MOST areas.
Depths!
Early Ice usually means some relatively shallow fishing and we have found that to be true the last few trips, today’s Perch were in 28-30 and today’s Walleyes were in 13-16 feet.
While there will be Perch to be caught right away out in those deep areas, a shallower water Perch always seems to be much more aggressive. My Walleye fishing over the next week or two will be 15 feet and under and my Perch fishing probably won’t break 35 feet. Cherish these shallower water bites as those fish are always a little more aggressive
Lures/Bait
Today was a ‘Buck Shot’ day. We caught the majority of our fish on that Orange/Chartruese one tipped with a minnow head but landed a few with that Pink/White one and OF COURSE a couple with the Gold Varmint; all in 1/8 ounce
Good Luck out there!
Coming up in a couple weeks