Beaver Lake, Waukesha County

Hadn't fished this lake in decades but managed to get a few today.

Sounds like fun but while the lake needs less bass the one that should be removed would be the ones under 14 inches.  I know that is illegal but the DNR should fix that and let us keep some smaller bass. 

Well, it's been the best ice fishing season for me in years. So I decided to do something tough for a change. Tried to solve the Beaver problem again. Did a perch search today. Went to my March GPS spots and drilled around 50 holes. Guess it was a bit early for that. Had a few definite perch rises off the bottom, and had a few on the line before they shook off. But not  one panfish landed. Zero.. .

But it still ended up being a fun day. Caught 36 bass,  beating my all time ice fishing record by 6. 26 smallie and 10 largemouth. This lake needs less bass, so I kept a limit of smallie 14-15 inch. Released a few 15 to 17 inch .

Bass were caught in 12 to 22 ft of water,  with 15 ft being the best depth. Caught half on tip downs with minnows and half o n spoons and a jigging Rap. So still  had fun despite the tough panfish bite

Well, have had only one bad ice fishing trip this past winter, and that was on Beav. The worst otherwise was a day I got 12 gills,  2 were over 8 inch, and 3 keeper size crappie, biggest was 12 inch. That was Middle Genessee, the 2nd toughest lake I fish. Tried to redeem myself again today on Beav. Nope. Fished 4 hrs and caught only 2 keeper perch, 12 1/4 and 9 3/4, plus a bunch of dinks. For the first time in my whole life, did not catch a bass on Beav. This lake has my number

Fishin been very good for me this winter, so I decided to hit a tough lake for a change. Well let me tell ya, ol Beaver brought me down to earth. Any time I start to think I'm a pretty good ice fisherman, I just head on down to Beaver and get schooled. 

Fished 4 hrs in the afternoon in what I know is a"good" area. There was around 80 holes drilled by others the last week that were not frozen over. So I only drilled like 5 of my own. Fished like 30 holes and had 2 tip downs out. Caught 4 fish in 4 hrs. Two keeper perch, a 9 inch bass and an anorexic 23 inch pike. Nobody else I talked to caught much either. 

Thanks for the reality check, Beaver. Going back to fishing much better lakes, see ya after ice out