1-20-13 SUN

1-20-2013 Sun 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Weather:
NW 10, 14 ˚, clear, 30.28 falling
Water:
5.78 steady, 31.8 kcfs, clear
Location:
Pool 6, near Winona
Caught:
Approx. 10 crappies 9 – 14”, 25 gills 6 – 7.5”, 6 perch 4 – 9”, 3 LMB 14 – 20”, 2 pike 24 & 26”
Partners:
Jake T.

Comments

Time wise it was a short afternoon ice fishing outing, but drive wise it was about a sixty mile trip. We were targeting a back bay impoundment of the Mississippi river that does not get a lot of fishing pressure. The bay has some shallow weed areas along with some deeper dredge and scour holes.
Today I planned on putting out four tip ups and we would jig fish with two other poles in the comfort of my portable heated shack. We punched quite a few holes in pursuit of the sweet spots.
We found water greater than ten feet for jig fishing and by looking at clear areas of the ice I was able to find the weed edges for our tip ups. We no sooner had our four tip ups out and we had our first flag. I ended up catching a fourteen inch bass on my favorite pink Polar tip up. While I was busy catching the bass and re baiting the tip up, Tupper was busy pulling in bluegills and crappies.
At the end of the day we were both impressed with the size of the two crappies we caught along with the size of a couple of the bass. We were also impressed with the numbers of fish we caught. We had great action when we first set up, but then as the sun settled into the far reaches of the western sky the action slowed considerably.

Observations:

The size of two of the crappies and one of the bass were phenomenal. The ice thickness was somewhere between ten and twelve inches. It was nice to have some clear ice. I was easily able to find the weed edges by looking through the clear ice and spotting a line of continuous air bubbles encased till spring in the clear, hard ice.

1-19-13 Sat

1-19-2013 Sat 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Weather:
W 15, 46 ˚, cloudy, 29.67 rising
Water:
639.48 steady, 14.6 kcfs, very clear
Location:
Pool 7, Third Lake - Trempealeau
Caught:
Nothing
Partners:
Josh B. and his wife and friends

Comments

It was a surprise ice fishing birthday party for Josh Bungartz. His wife had called me a couple weeks earlier and wanted some help finding a spot to have a surprise ice fishing party for Josh. She did not want to have to drive a vehicle onto the ice and she wanted to find a spot where they could put out some tip ups.
I knew the lake was pretty much off limits, because this time of year about the only place you are going to have any luck on tip ups is either out by the runway lights or to the west of Red Oak Island. Either way, without having the ability to drive out, the walk would be over a mile and would not work out for a birthday party.
The only place I could think of was Trempealeau’s Third Lake. I have never ice fished this lake before, but I knew it was a popular spot and I also knew Josh had ice fished it and had good luck with tip ups here.
The ice fishing really sucked, I only saw one thirty one inch pike caught. I guess some bluegills were caught right away in the morning and lots were seen on the camera, but almost everyone had tip ups out and was just socializing, so the pan fishing was pretty much ignored.

Observations:

The morning started out sunny and warm, but in a very short amount of time the wind picked up and the temperatures started to plummet. The ice thickness was around the twelve inch range. The water was very clear with abundant plant life below.

1-16-13 Wed

1-16-2013 Wed 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Weather: NW 11, 32 ˚, cloudy
Water: 4.88 steady, 15.2 kcfs, clear
Location: Pool 8, upper central part of pool
Caught: Approx. 10 -12 crappies, 9 -10 “
Partners: John R.

Comments

I had not fished crappies at night for a couple of years, but John Riek had clued me in on a crappie bite that they had experienced, so I wanted to take advantage of it. I invited John along and plans were made to meet on the ice after work, and see how much damage we could inflict on the paper mouths over a couple of hours’ time.
I got to the landing around 5 pm and John had already been fishing most of the day, and the report he gave me was not what I wanted to hear. John had found very few fish and the crappie were even more elusive than the bluegills. He said the crappie bite was not happening today, but his son had caught just a couple and they had come off the bottom in about eighteen feet of water.
We set up in about eighteen feet of water and set our dead stick minnow rigs just above the bottom to about four feet off. I caught my first crappie about four feet off the bottom and all the rest were caught very near the bottom. The action was not great, but it was steady. The size was also smallish at around nine inches.

Observations:

The ice is bare and very slippery, any snow cover that was there disappeared over the warm spell we have had the last couple of days. I would estimate the ice thickness to be around the ten inch mark.

1-9-13 Wed

1-9-2013 Wed 10:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Weather
(1353) W 10 G 28, 38 ˚ clear, 30.31 rising
Water:
4.98 steady, 19.1 kcfs, clear
Location:
Pike Bay, pool 7
Caught:
four pike 31, 30, 28 & 25”
Partners:
None

Comments

It was a mid - week ice fishing excursion by airboat and I was flying solo. My quarry was going to be pike, and hopefully big pike. I did not have high expectations on account of the large pike kill we had this summer.
I was set up and fishing by 10:30 AM and by 12:30 PM I had landed three. Then around 1:00 PM my solitude was interrupted by another air boat with three fishermen. They were quickly set up and surrounded my tip ups with ones of their own. Within fifteen minutes they had their first flag and a very nice chunky pike that I estimated to be between 34 and 36”. After that first fish they had fairly consistent action and iced about six fish total. And of course they kept and butchered the big fish and let the little ones go. I always get rather discouraged by ice fishermen; they seem to have the mentality that large fish are limit less. I do keep pike from time to time, but never anything over 28” and usually no more than two.
Between the arrival of the other fishermen and the time I left the ice which was around 5 PM I only caught one more fish. The other three fishermen also pan fished, but they did not catch a single fish jigging.

Observations:

I took the airboat from the landing at home up to pike bay, and between the two I did run across plenty of four wheeler tracks and snowmobile tracks. I was really surprised by all the traffic that was out there, because there is not a lot of ice out there. I did see numerous spots where either a four wheeler or a snowmobile had partially broken through. The ice thickness in Pike bay was around the 10 – 12 inch range.

1-4, 5 & 6 - 2013

1-4, 5 & 6-2013
Weather:
Pleasant with daytime highs in the teens, sunny and light winds. The nights dipped down to around zero.
Water:
Upper Red: Not overly clear, but not dirty either. Pike Bay: Clear
Location:
Friday and Saturday: Upper Red Lake, Sunday: Pike Bay
Caught:
Red Lake: Approx. 20 – 30 walleyes 10 – 19 ¾”, Two perch. Pike Bay: Approx. 100 perch between 6 and 10 inches, kept approx. 70.
Partners:
Jay and his cousin Rick and Jay’s fried Tim and his son Logan.

Comments:

It was a new fishing experience for me. I had been to northern Minnesota before on an ice fishing trip, but I had never stayed in a sleeper on the ice. We were targeting walleyes and pike on Upper Red Lake. The lake is a walleye factory, which we hoped to cash in on. We were also hoping to catch a few of the large bonus pike that are said to swim in this lake.
We were on the lake and settled into our 8 X 18 sleeper shack by 1 PM. The shack was nothing spectacular, it was equipped with a small stove, two sets of bunks, a propane heater and 12V electric lights, but most importantly it had six holes in the floor to fish in comfort inside the shack. The ice house was definitely too small for the five of us. I think it would have been about right for three.
Friday afternoon and night was the best fishing we had, it was not great but at least it was fairly consistent. I opted to fish outside the house during daylight hours, with Jay and Rick taking advantage of the climate controlled conditions in the ice house. To me it just did not seem right fishing in a cabin, but it was fun and comfortable.
Tim and his son Logan made it to the house after dark on Friday, and we all settled in for a couple of hours of night fishing. That was the first time I had experienced rattle reels, which are basically and empty wire spool with some beads inside and line on the spool part. Bait is attached to the end, lowered to a depth of a few inches of bottom and dead sticked for the most part. When a fish takes the bait and runs the line goes out causing the reel to turn and the beads to rattle. A very simple but effective way to fish.
Saturday morning was pretty dead, so we ventured out to a rock pile in the lake and set up tip ups for pike and jigged for walleyes. Jay caught a few perch and rick caught the biggest walleye of the trip, but we had no pike action. We only spent a couple of hours here, because we got a call from the shack owners that we were being move to deeper water. We got back to the shack just before it was moved, and followed along to its new resting spot. In a short amount of time it was set up in its new location and we were fishing. We did catch a few fish right away, but as the light faded from the sky and day turned to night, the walleye bite disappeared with the sun.
After a great fish fry put on by Tim, some of the die-hard football fans, both Packer Backers and Viking fans went to one of the local bars for the game. I opted to stay back and fish. Tim’s son Logan also was not interested in watching the game so we both stayed back and fished. Logan is a good kid; he is twelve, well-mannered and loves to fish. Even though Logan did not have much action he never complained or quit, I was impressed!!
Sunday was upon us before we knew it, and that meant the long dreaded trip home. We opted to leave the lake at first light and head to Pike Bay, which Tim had suggested to us. Here we targeted pike and perch. The perch were very cooperative, but the pike were not. We had pretty much non-stop action on the perch, and when we first arrived they were so active that bait was not necessary. The fish were not huge, but perch between nine and ten inches were the norm, not bad in my book. Tonight I was looking over the map of Cass Lake and Lake Winnibigoshish and I am almost certain I had fished this exact same spot five to eight years ago when access to Lake Winnibigoshish was extremely bad.

Observations:

I had a good trip. I have always wanted to rent and fish out of a sleeper house, and now I have done it. I am definitely going to do it again, but the next time I am going to be staying in a larger and nicer sleeper house, I may even venture up to Lake of the Woods. I was totally amazed at how popular ice fishing is in northern Minnesota; it is what runs the economy in the winter time. Wisconsin is losing out on a lot of revenue from the ice fishermen. It is too bad, I think if we managed our fisheries as well as Minnesota we would be an upper mid-west destination for ice fishing.

1-1-13 Tue

1-1-2013 Tue 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Weather
S 5, 14 ˚ overcast, 30.18 falling
Water:
3.34 falling, 1 kcfs, clear
Location:
Black River side bay
Caught:
Six pike between 20 – 25”
Partners:
None
Comments

It is a new year of fishing and the action has started out well. The qualities of the fish were not big, but I definitely got a good workout chasing flags. Except for about a half hour lull around four o’clock the action was constant.
Today I did not even try for pan fish, with the amount of pike in this bay and the lack of cover they just do not seem to be here. With the lack of down time, I did not have much time to reflect on the past year.
The early spring brought low water levels, then around June we had some high water, but then by the end of summer we were enveloped in drought conditions. There was one week in July we had extreme heat and with it we had very low flows. The combination of these two conditions resulted in a very large die – off of some very large northern pike and a few largemouth bass. The low water conditions and the heat were very stressful on all the fish and they responded in a negative mood.
Largemouth bass on the lake were practically non-existent once we hit July, but the small mouths were rather abundant. The flat heads on this pool were hard to come by, but the pool to the south was decent fishing for them.
Bluegill action and crappie action was fair, but the perch were hard to find.

Observations:

This was the second time I targeted this bay this ice season and again the size structure was small. The water level had risen since the last trip, but there was still only about two and one half feet of water.

12-29-2012 Sun

12-29-2012 Sun 10:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Weather
(1200) NW 8, 14 ˚ cloudy
Water:
4.79 rising, 12.4 kcfs clear
Location:
Mississippi River Pool 8 South of dam
Caught:
Respectable amount of crappies and bluegills, two pike Approx. 28 – 30’, Two LMB approx. 17 -18”. We all kept some pan fish and I and Tupper each kept a pike.
Partners:
Scott, Jake and Mark Tupper
Comments

It was an after Christmas fishing trip to one of my favorite bays near La Crosse. We fished hard for most of the day, except for a little break in the action when I cooked some venison steaks and moose wieners over an open fire.
The action was good, not fantastic but good. Most of the fish were caught in that ten to fifteen foot range. The bluegills outnumbered the crappies by ten to one. Most of the fish that were spotted on the flashers committed to biting.
The tip – up action was not very good, we did catch one pike and two LMB and we missed at least two other flags, but other than that it was slow.

Observations:

The ice conditions were not ideal; the ice thickness where we fished varied from three to six inches. The main channel had about one inch on it with some spots being completely open. There was a slight dusting of snow on the ice.