Who's been fishing?

[Drake]

Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season and that you found some new fishing gear under the tree! Who managed to hit the ice up here over the holiday time?

Things have been pretty busy, so only managed to hit the ice once the past few days, and that was a trip to Upper Red doing some walleye fishing. Between 3 people kept four walleye, but several eyes were caught and released, both under and in the slot were released, but not lucky enough to reel in some slabs. It's still early in the season, but there have been some folks reeling in a crappie here and there and the reports of a few limits are starting to come in, mostly in the deeper 13-14' depths with a red glow working best, walleye active in the 10-14' depths and some monster pike coming through the ice in the shallower 8' depths. On Red, the roads at the accesses are in great shape, with 14-18" of ice on them, but still watch it when you are off roading it with the drifts and slush areas.

Blackduck anglers are reporting a pretty consistant 12" of ice, with reports varying from group to group. One group would come in and say that they just had a few perch and a couple of walleye and the next group I would talk to in the fish cleaning room would say it was great, as I watched them clean up all their jumbo perch and walleyes. Several folks were also up in the area hitting many different smaller lakes in the area, and the recommended mode of travel on these lakes that aren't plowed is still four wheelers, as you will find drifts and some slush pockets, but there were many fish fry's this past weekend of some sunnies, crappies and perch.

Temps today and tomorrow are below normal (normal 12 for the high), with temps today and tomorrow to reach a whopping 5 degrees and lows 15-20 below tonight and zero tomorrow night, then we're in for a warm up like the rest of the state, with Thursday 25-30 (lows 10) and Friday 30-35 (lows 15)

[woodman]

Fished the duck twice in the past week in the am with the kids and had limited success. We saw lots of eyes come in and hit the bait and leave. We changed lures, bait, and everything else you can imagine to try and convince them to bite. Managed one small eye and some perch in 14 ft of water the first day. The second day went in shallow 11 ft and saw the same action. Switched to a small jig with a fat head and the eye's would come in and bite it side ways and play with it in their mouth and then spit it out. Went down to a minnow head and caught some small eyes. Had a great day except for the slush. Just finished thawing out the wheeler in the neighbors heated garage. Man when we hit the pockets it stopped us dead in our tracks. Be careful out there and always look 30 ft in front of you.

Happy New Year!

[Roscoe16]

Are people taking trucks out on Blackduck yet or is travel still limited to ATVs and snowmobiles? Anybody have any roads plowed out at all? Thanks!

Roscoe16

[woodman]

Just heard tonight that some trucks 1/2 tons have been out there. My boss will not drive yet, due to the slush and the varied ice. Be careful, and no roads yet, last week there were some atv roads, but they were drifted in.

[kosterguide]

as i made it home tonight there was a fellow heading out on the lake with a 1 ton ford with a plow i might imagine he was plowing but dont know, i live right on the north side of the lake and could see head light heading in about 11pm tonight so some are out there

[draggin bottom]

Woodman we were up to to the cabin and had the same type of bite tried different depth and lures they would just look at the bait then move on didn't know if was because the water was so clear or just tite lipped i could count pebbles on the bottom at fifteen feet . the slush did suck but you didn't have clean your hole out after drilling with the water shooting up hope next time things will go better Terry