Good day, Northland anglers. For those who are on first safe ice, we hope you are off to a successful start. Every year is different, and this year has the makings of a great start to a potential long ice season.
The weather has been cold enough to keep the solid base growing, and now that we are heading into mid-December, I don’t see us losing any progress. With that said, and as always, please be cautious when heading out to the hard water. Currently, we are seeing the small bays and shallower bodied waters locking up anywhere from 4-7 inches of ice. Some area waters that hold larger volumes and are deeper have much thinner ice and will need a little more time. And for the waters that have natural springs and/or moving currents, please wait until you have 5 inches, or better yet, 6 inches of solid black/clear ice.
The best ice for the first trips out is the ice that takes a bunch of hard pokes with a spud bar to reach liquid water. For my typical routine, I will pack light with only a small sled with little gear, a life jacket, rope, ice spikes and my trusty spud bar. The spud bar gets a good workout as I continually poke in front of me to make sure the ice is safe. In most cases, I will always follow my tracks back to shore when the day is over. However, I will also poke on the way in as well. Ice safety is something no one should take lightly, ever!
OK, let’s talk about what is happening in our local waters.
We will start with the big lake and the St. Louis River Estuary. Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay is just starting to skim over with locked-up ice. A start of 1-2 inches happened overnight this week near Ashland, but the winds blew over and cracked up some of the fresh spots. Conditions should improve this week, starting in Ashland and moving out toward Washburn.
I do think we are still about two, maybe three weeks away from just starting to access fresh Lake Superior ice. Let’s all cross our fingers that we continue to get cold weather, and the big snowstorms stay away.
For the St. Louis River, I would wait a little bit longer. It is obvious that the river has just started to get some anglers working some fresh ice, but we do not encourage anyone to head out and fish it just yet. I would give it at least another week or two, as this ice is unpredictable.
We will continue to work on fresh lake ice in both Northwestern Wisconsin and Northeastern Minnesota near the Twin Ports. We have been on ice a few times, but mostly for scouting missions and checking conditions. With that said, don’t think for one second we haven’t bent a rod on a fresh first-ice fish, though. So far, we have tangled with bass, pike, walleyes, perch, crappies and sunfish. We will start with the reservoir report from north of Duluth. We have been setting up over soft mud transitions and finding some nice perch activity. Best baits have been very small spoons tipped with a minnow head or a shredded-up wax worm. It does certainly pay to have a dead stick rigged up nearby with a chub for a cruising walleye.
Most of the walleyes have been coming in the low-light periods, so if you’re after “ol’ marble eyes,” you will want to concentrate on daybreak and day’s end. As well as after dark, for the lake that has good night bites. At this time of year, most can have such a bite, which leads me to another call out. Some anglers have been getting some nice walleyes fishing weed edges with tip-ups and lights. If you have never sat in a warm running vehicle and listened to a football game while waiting for tip-ups to fly, you really should give it a try.
For our crappie bites, we have been working glo-spoons or simple live crappie minnows under a float suspended in 10-15 feet of water. Sunfish have been in similar areas, but to start the season, it seems they are still sort of lethargic so far. Most of the big gills we have been getting have been near the bottom, but I expect that to change when we start to get more mild winter days with good sunny or overcast mixed with sun-type days. As ice continues to build and more people start to come out to fish, please be courteous to each other. Anglers do not need to be setting up an ice house anywhere within 100 yards of each other. Especially this time of year, when the fish are active in most areas. Let’s all show good fishing etiquette as we climb into the full-on season of ice fishing.
Lastly, a couple of things: The hard-working big walleye factories of Lake of the Woods, Upper Red Lake and other big waters are starting to run ice fishing operations. I know I always look forward to renting an ice shack and sleeping deep in the water wilderness of the big Northland lakes. If you haven’t already, now would be the time to book something.
Jarrid Houston of South Range is a fishing guide ( houstonsguideservice.com ) on Minnesota and Wisconsin inland waters, the St. Louis River and, in winter, on Lake Superior.