Tried boom early saturday morning and bite was slow so decided to try a new lake out of town. Glad i did! Slayed the gills. Kept 5  8 inchers but also caught and released this 10 inch monster! Best ice fishing season of my life up here this year. 

Does anyone know if there are any roads still plowed on boom lake?  Did well day before blizzard, then during blizzard i could not get to hodag park parking lot, i was not going to fish but heading back from grocery store getting supplies for big fish fry from day before thought i would check it out, absolutely crazy windy blowing snow that day, heading up to house next week and want to fish between snowmobile rides, if i can, prefer to drive out and fish.  

A bit of action from a few weeks ago.  By the looks of it we will have a few more weeks of hardwater enjoyment before we can appreciate spring time open water.  Best of luck out there!

Hurray it's the first day of spring on the calender. Although we are having cooler than average temps the ice fishing season will be extended this year. Travel conditions have improved with the slight warm up last week and four wheeler travel will be great. Snow totals and drifts were knocked down and that lessened the slushy areas on many lakes in the area.

Crappie: Expect to do some drilling and moving around during high light conditions through the day. Fish are moving around in deeper basin areas before dark when they move in to feed on shallow flats. Many of the fish I caught were suspended half way down in all depths I targeted. Bro Bugs tipped with Dave's Wedgees proved to be the jig presentation of choice to get the fish to commit. I actaully downsized the Wedgee due to fish not getting hooked and grabbing at the tails. Minnows were also used on tip downs once I settled on a spot for the evening bite. Regular crappie bait and rosies were used with downsized treble hooks. Gills were suspended right with the crappies. Any times I marked fish on the bottom of the Vexilar i dropped down to get them active.

The current weather forcast shows daytime highs in the mid 40's and nightime lows dropping into the 20's and teens. With this pattern i see some lakes in the region holding ice for a considerable amount of time. Any locations with running water should be traveled with caution due to currents increasing with run off. Good luck and tight lines!!! 

Fished fri-sun and bluegills and crappies were pretty aggresive using small jigs with moussies and gulp waxies. 6 ft of water in the weeds. Switched to a swedish pimple towards dark sun and hammered the crappie. Gills were at all depths while crappies were mostly 2 ft down.

Daylight savings time is in full effect and it gives us another hour after work to be on the ice with sunlight. The past Satuday was amazing weather to be out and not only catching fish but soaking up some vitiman D. Snow conditions are varying from lake to lake and expect things to change the end of this week with temps in the 40's. We did run into slushy areas where holes had been drilled early in the day. Four wheelers with four wheel drive struggled in the slush spots. Snowmobiles on the other hand stayed on top of the powdery snow.

Crappie: We marked fish at every spot we had drilled and they seemed to be on a constant move all day. The schools we did get on only amounted to 3 fish on average being caught before they were gone. Towards the later part of the afternoon we set up on a channel edge and waited them out. Fish were more receptive to minnows than jigs. We did catch better sized fish on Bro Bugs tipped with Dave's Wedgies in pink colors.

Sunday we started on one lake in search of gills during the mid day and came up with smaller perch instead. We decided to make the move to another lake right away and go for crappie . Fish seemed to be turned off with the heavy winds and light snow squals.

This weekends weather is going to nock most of the snow down and the ice conditons are still to the point of bottoming out augers without extentions. It looks as though our late ice fishing will be extended with cold temps at night and relatively cooler temps than average. When crossing many of the open running water spots we did see plenty of migratory spring swans and geese making it north already. Good luck and tight lines!!!!

Closing in on the second to last weekend of gamefish in Northern Wisconsin. Last week fish showed an increase on Thursday to feed through the mid morning to early afternoon . Friday proved to be a whole different strategy with fincky fish that ate while using dead stick tactics once they came in on the Vexilar. The rest of the weekend was spent scouting and picking up plenty of fish that were on the small side.

Pike: Fish are just outside weed edges in the 10-12' range hanging and chasing gills and perch. I kept treble hook sizes small with the lighter bites due to snow cover and no shorelines pulling away yet. Medium to large shiners on tip ups rigged with Toothy Critter or Cortland coated line does the trick for stopping bite offs.

Panfish: Cloud cover is always welcome to keep the bite alive through the day. Friday we were met with bluebird skys and wind that proved to put fish higher in the water column and less likely to hit aggresively jigged baits. Northland Bro Bugs in perch pattern and even brighter perch pattern caught the majority of the gills. Perch have been targeting minnows on tip downs and Bluegill jigs also.

This weekend will be the last for me to target gamefish on the ice. I will be attending the Wisconsin Musky Expo and have a booth there all next weekend.  I have dates available for the following weekend and all of March.There is still plenty of great panfishing ahead and ice conditions will continue to be safe for some time to come. Good luck and tight lines!!!!

Looking for some advice:

Heading up to the Rhinelander area for a guys weekend fishing trip March 1st and was wondering where would be a good place to start (I know were close to Thunder).  Would love to get after some pike on flags throughout the day while catching some crappies and gill near by.  

Also, near end of light hours where would some solid walleye spots be.

I know spots are sensitive but would love any help we could get.  

Thanks! 

 

Continued 1/23/18

Going into the warm weather we had this weekend allowed time to be spent out lake hopping and doing some scouting for upcoming outings. The recent snow total from yesterday came to 10" of fluffy snow which will make traveling by four wheeler a challenge on the ice. Snowmobile travel is still the only means for me for the rest of the year. People are out with hard sided shacks and campers on many of the area lakes and traveling with pick up trucks on the ice.

Pike: The morning bite got off to a slow start with multiple flags turning out to be fish running out a couple feet of line and spitting the minnow as soon as tension was applied on the line. Mid afternoon fish had changed into chomping down and peeling plenty of line out and inhaling minnows with great hooksets to follow. Shallow barron shelves close to the deep basin was where we did our best all the way till dark. Medium shiners 1-2' off bottom under tip ups kept the guys running all day.

Crappie: Choosing to go out scouting proved to be a big pay off with checking out cribs I had marked in the past while open water fishing. I found them to be loaded with decent sized Gills and Crappies that had the smallest eyes I had ever seen on my Aqua Vu. I only fished one crib for an hour with a couple fish tearing off on the way up to the hole. 

The weekend looks to be another great one to be out on the ice and not being cooped up in the house. Expect slushy areas where past holes were drilled, due to additional weight on the ice. Good luck and tight lines!!!!