We made it to December. Hopefully, everyone had a great holiday break, ate lots of good food, hung out with family and friends, and watched some good football. Skol!
Now we are all in on winter fishing. We have already been out scouting early ice spots and finding that things are heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, we already have had an early ice tragic event in our community. Thoughts and prayers to the family and friends.
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We cannot stress this enough: Please, please, practice good safe ice protocols. It is obvious we have a whole ice season in front of us, so there should be no reason to rush to be the first one out. There is a popular saying that gets kicked around this time of year: "No fish is worth risking your life."
A few things as we approach first-crack ice spots:
- We always tell someone where we are going;
- Bring a buddy;
- Make a plan;
- Do not go on water that is dangerous (rivers, deeper/larger lakes, etc.);
- Seek shallow, smaller, bay-type areas;
- Bring along a good ice chisel and always check as you slowly approach;
- Wear a life jacket (even if you have a float suit, bring a personal flotation device);
- Carry a good throw rope and ice picks;
- Be in decent enough shape (if you can't do a push-up, you likely cannot ice-pick yourself out of the water);
- Check in with bait shops, resorts, fishing guides or people who are avid anglers and know ice fishing.
OK, we can dive into what we are seeing out on the early ice:
To my knowledge, Lake Superior has not seen any fishing traffic this week. Although lake trout has opened back up on the Wisconsin shorelines, we probably won't hear of any angling until we have good ice. Generally speaking, that period usually happens by mid-January, and only in the sheltered areas of Ashland. Our fingers are crossed for good ice, especially after the tough season we were dealt last year.
Same goes for area rivers including our own St. Louis River Estuary. Angling has been nonexistent as we are in a period of hard-water transition. We are starting to see some back bays and other sheltered areas cap, but there is no more than 2 inches of ice on the thickest spots we have been able to poke.
We will need another few weeks until we can get to our first panfish spot, and even longer until we can chase river walleyes. Hopefully, between Christmas and New Year's, we will start to routinely ice fish our St. Louis River.
Inland waters will certainly be the first spots to chase some early ice fishing. We already have word that the big walleye factories of northern Minnesota are starting to host anglers (walking-only as of now).
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On the famed Upper Red Lake, we are hearing reports of 5 inches of ice out to 8 feet of water. On Lake of the Woods, they are just starting to poke out into the bay between Wheeler's Point and Pine Island. Both these lakes will certainly be in full swing starting next week. As usual, check in with the locals before heading up.
More locally, we are finding ice conditions up to 5 inches on select waters. We were able to have first-chance walleyes the last few days on very shallow water bays up near the Iron Range. Make no mistake: You can catch walleyes, pike and perch in 3 feet of water, especially this time of year.
Our best bet was stealthy standstill fishing (make no noise or movement). Live chubs on dead sticks have been best this first ice fish of the year. Please be safe out there.
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