Last fish of the ice fishing season

toothy critters

Hi Folks, Guided the hard water Saturday morning for northern pike.  20" of solid black ice on the lake we fished.  There wee some folks driving on, but not this fishing guide.  We set-up on the outside edge of a shallow bay where northern pike will be moving to spawn shortly if not already.  Beautiful day on the ice with no wind and sunny skies.  We set the tip ups with live and dead large golden shiners.  We had 2 flags all morning with fish on the line.  We did manage to land one large pike that was all of 32" and weighed in the 8lb plus class.  Big female who had a belly full of eggs.  She ate a dead bait off the bottom in 5' of water.  We released this fish as any pike over 30" is a female and why kill the future with a fish that will spawn?  Eat the smaller northerns and let the big hen fish go.  We did catch a small pike on a jig stick who ate a minnow on red hook.  Perch fishing was steady with perch from 4" to 10" caught all on jig sticks.  With the warm weather on the way, the ice fishing season will be coming to a close.  Once the ice breaks pike fishing with the fly can be outstanding.  I have guiding pike on the fly for almost 20 years and look forward each spring to catching some water wolfs on fur and feathers.  Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.  Have Fun, Willy

reservoir brown

yeah man

Hi folks, Guided yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours at the Shanty.  Nice blanket of snow on top of 12.5" of black ice.  I like the snow pack on the ice to quiet things down.  Big in coming weather front I think really turned the fish on.   The fishing yesterday afternoon was completely different than a week ago when I last guided.  A week a go with a north wind and a glare ice surface we could not buy a bite except for a few small yellow perch.  It makes wonder about the snow on the ice and the weather.  We landed 4 wild rainbows yesterday and a 1 16" brown trout.  We caught all of the rainbows on jig sticks right below the shanty in 35' of water.  Hali jigs in gold and green tipped with maggots were the ticket.  The brown trout took a fat head minnow on tip up that was set 15' below the ice.  We also landed one of the biggest yellow perch I have sever seen.  It took a small golden shiner right under the ice.  Perch fishing off the bottom was also pretty darn good.  Lots of action.  A few weeks left in trout season so hopefully we can maintain some momentum and tug on some more trout.  Have fun, Willy