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Dad and I are planning on some ice fishing north of Grand Rapids this coming weekend when the forecast is 33 degrees. I'm not looking for anyone to share their "secret lake" but I am hoping some of you will share how the bite is going. Crappies and Sunnies are goal. Are they deep or shallow? Morning, Night or all day? Waxworms, minnows, or other? Also, how good and thick is the ice? Any info is appreciated so Dad can catch a few. Thank you.

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No replies? ouch.

I don't have much for recent fishing reports, but I can say the ice is good and thick. Excepting current areas or springs (or any other obviously hazardous areas), the ice should be between 2 and 3 feet thick everywhere with 6 - 12" of snow on top. No melt has started - not even close.

As for time of day, that's totally going to depend on the lake (primarily) and the weather (secondarily). Except for on very stained waters, I'd make sure you fish right up to or through dusk, even if (or ESPECIALLY if) you haven't had any action during the day. That's assuming you're on fish.

I'd probably still check deeper water before the shallows during daytime. If you can't find them, start working your way shallower. If you know there are fish around, but can't seem to find them during the day, pick a likely-good shallowish spot and "wait them out" until sunset.

Right around this time of year is when I'd start getting really good action in shallower water at sunset in years past.

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VTX - I will be up there next weekend so I am interested to see how you do. I AM looking for you to share your secret lakes! 8^)

I have been up in Dec and Jan. Dec was tough fishing - the sunnies must have still been in the shallows because I couldn't find them. The Jan trip was better and the fish were concentrated - not in the deep holes, but in the 20-30' range. I will follow Deet's advice of checking shallower again.

The Jan trip found me belly deep in a channel (it was -11F). I had cut a hole 15' away and it was 24" of ice. I hiked back to the truck, unfroze my overalls and fished 2-3 more lakes (staying away from channels). Be safe out there - if there is any current, the ice depth can change rapidly.

I looked at your post again and thought I would answer some of your questions - we never fish with minnows because we hike to most of our lakes. Waxworms or plastics seem to work when the fish don't see much pressure.

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No replies... ouch indeed. However out of 731 views, 2 were kind enough to share their info. Thank you.

I went and this is what I found. About 36" of ice. 6 to 12" of snow.

You were spot on with the lake dependent. Dead sea on 2 lakes. Mediocre on another. Hot on another.

Mediocre lake found fish at 18' chasing up to 15'. Lake depth was 32'.

Hot lake found fish at 28'. Marcum was full from 26' to 23'. Lake depth was 37'. All bluegills, no crappies. Action was on wax worms.

A neighbor buddy was fishing another nearby lake with crappie minnows in 32' of water with the crappies suspended at 15' but he said the crappies were all under 9" or smaller, so I didn't join him. He said quite a few people were on the lake and keeping their limits of 8" crappies which didn't intrigue me.

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Fished a small lake on Saturday afternoon that had lots of small to decent crappies and sunnies a couple years ago. I was hoping the big year class of little ones had grown up by this year. No such luck. In fact, we didn't even get a questionable keeper. All 5 - 8" crappies. No bluegills. The fish were located everywhere from 15' of water to 25' (max depth), but located 12 - 14 ft down no matter the bottom depth.

Last night I buzzed onto a tiny backwoods lake that had been in the back of my mind for a few years. Figured it would be boom or bust. Swiss-cheesed the lake and found a very surprising max depth of 38', but couldn't even graph a fish with about a third of the lake drilled up from 8' down to 38'. Then just before sunset, I started graphing packs of fish coming through way up high (3 - 5 ft down) in my shallower holes (8 to 12 ft). Finally caught one - tiny perch. Then a few more. Then a crappie! Keeper! Then proceeded to catch about 8 more crappies, all TINY, and one respectable pumpkinseed. And by dusk they were gone, the bite was over.

What was really strange is these fish didn't relate to bottom at all. Even the perch. Everything came through at 2 - 5 ft below the bottom of the ice. I never graphed a fish at any of the deeper spots I had drilled. I maybe should have pushed even shallower than my 7 ft shallowest spot. So I'll have to keep that experience in mind as I try new lakes this time of year.

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It sounds like you were on the lake my neighbor went to. smile All 5 to 8 inch crappies. I have my eye on some backwoods lakes as well, but I think I will wait until spring and carry the canoe. It will be work, a lot of work but hopefully the experience will be worth it. Bonus if I catch nice fish.

That is strange they didn't relate to the bottom. This has been an odd winter for fishing. Glad you caught a few keepers.

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How's the acesses holding up? We'll be fishing Bass as well as a few others north of Grand Rapids. Hoping to drive, but will walk if have to.

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A small lake I fish I have been catching crappies from 0-4ft below the ice. In 18 feet of water. Good thing they are keepers because every time I set the hook I bang their heads on the bottom of the ice.

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Fished Sat and the ice was 30". Not sure if I would drive because it would get 3" of water/slushy ice on it by evening. We fished from 8am-2pm and saw 2 fish - both crappies (10', 13.5"). During that time, we drilled about 50 holes (ran out of gas, hiked back to car to get more). Then like Deet, we finally found them in 15'. We carved out 30+ holes and could follow the schools of sunnies, some crappies, and lm bass as they moved around the bay. From 2pm-8pm the action was really fun. We caught another keeper crappie (11"), but not many more - all smaller. We caught 20-25 bass up to 15" (on panfish rods and tungsten jigs, they were really fun). But, the two of us must have caught 80-100 sunfish in that time. We kept 20 sunfish - all 8.25-9" and could have kept double that number in that range. We threw back 5 bigger ones - none got to 10". Easily the best panfishing that we have had. Up cleaning them until 9:45pm - wished that we had kept less at that point.

Sunday (different lake) was as cold as Saturday was hot. 5 hours fishing, 70 holes, 4 fish caught - all sunfish with the biggest not reaching 5".

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
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