Hi Folks, Guided the hard water yesterday morning for northern pike and yellow perch. Pretty interesting weather as it was 40 degrees out and raining steadily. Seems like an oxymoron fishing on a frozen lake in the rain. Weird weather winter with extreme temperature fluctuation. There was 17" of good black ice and you definitely needed creepers for getting around on the ice. We set a dozen tip ups baited with live and dead golden shiners and wounded yellow perch we had caught jig fishing. Multiple flags off the get go but the fish kept dropping the bait. Our first pike of the day was caught on a fire tiger Hali jig tipped with maggots and fished over holes that I had chummed with chopped up bait. Landed the 25" fish on 2lb test and a really soft jig stick. Lots of fun. The largest pike of the day came on a tip-up that was baited with a perch was a nice healthy 32" female pike. Nice looking fish. The northern fishing has been consistent and we have been locating pike over weed beds in 8' to 15' of water. Catching perch just not very many large ones. Trout season opens next weekend. Have Fun, Willy
