Around the Area

[Drake]

Getting ready for the holidays and gearing up for ice fishing season has kept us busy and we haven't had a chance to hit the ice personally yet. We've had a few anglers up before Christmas hitting the ice, and for some this is the second trip already this season, but After Christmas is when most anglers start heading up this way, so not a lot of traffic on the lakes as of yet.

For Blackduck Lake and many of the smaller lakes in the area everyone is still playing it a little safer with the early season ice and taking out the four wheelers, although a quick look at Blackduck the other day there was one small vehicle out on the lake, but better to play it safe on the lakes that don't get plowed and take the wheelers, lets give the upcoming colder temps give the lakes a chance to make some more ice. Our anglers are measuring a pretty consistant 12" of ice, but a few spots with 10". The slush is disappaiting with a few pockets so that's making it easier for the wheelers to travel around to find the sunnies and gills. On Blackduck you'll see houses set up along the bars and points and there was a couple out by the island, with a pretty decent perch bite in the 10-14' depths, with one group saying a spot that was super hot one day was slow the next, so they had to do some exploring to find the next hot spot.

On Upper Red the access owners have been busy working on their roads and now are allowing trucks out, but before heading out check with the access owners to see what size of trucks they recommend and what they have to say about their roads. For example, this morning Hillmans said their road is out to 6 miles, but are recommending trucks (1/2 ton and less) only out to the five mile mark. Westwind has their road out about 3 miles. On the southshore Morts and Rogers roads are out to about the 1.25 t o 1.5 mile mark, with the access owners reporting the ice between 13-16". The walleye bite continues to go strong, northern pike are keeping the anglers busy and as the roads are getting out to the deeper waters a few crappie reports are starting to come in.

We would like to wish everyone safe travels and Merry Christmas!

[woodman]

I will be heading up to the duck early on Sat. and will post what we find and catch when I get home. The roads are really slick out right now, so I can just imagine how they will be around 5 am. We will be fishing for about 4 hours for the morning bite.

[woodman]

Well with slick roads and the front it was a challenging day on the duck. Managed a few eye's and perch with the tough weather. The ice thickness was 12 inches in the area that I fished. Did see that some have been driving plow trucks out on the flat and bar straight out from the access. Chubby Darter was the ticket on the duck. Walleye's would come in and pound it like nothing. Watched the whole thing down the hole. Cool to see and amazing seeing their reaction. I was using the #3 Glow. I did get some bites on the dead stick with a pink and white jig with a crappie minnow. They were sucking it and just playing around with it. Lots of fish marked between 6:30 and 8 am.

Good luck and Merry Christmas.