Hi Folks, Been a nice month thus far for guiding ice fishing trips and the fishing has been very consistent. Been into chasing pike through the hard water. Even after all of the rain over the weekend the ice is still in good shape. We found 17" of solid black ice with a couple of inches of snow over the ice to provide nice walking conditions. The recent rain did make the edges a little sketchy so caution is advised when walking or driving onto the ice. We choose to walk yesterday though there were folks driving on the ice. So we set tip ups and jig fished. Tipped the traps with live and dead golden shiners as well as wounded yellow perch. We had 3 flags yesterday and landed 1 pike, lost another, and had one fish break us off. Jig fishing was consistent with catching yellow perch. We hooked two northern on the jig sticks and landed one. I have been chumming the holes pretty heavily with chopped up bait and perch. Really brings in the fish. Every time the perch stop biting you know that a predator is around. Loads of fun fighting a feisty pike on 2lb test on a soft jig pole. Trout season opens on Saturday and I will now mix up my fishing between chasing northern and trout. Have fun and be safe on the hard water. Willy
