2024-2025 Ice Fishing

[WoodlandSavage]

How’s the ice? Are people driving out in trucks yet? I heard the walleye bite is good!

[WoodlandSavage]

Ok, I guess many people are not that active here anymore. Went out on Dec. 26th at EJ’s Road for the afternoon/evening bite. Ice was 14-16” thick. Good walleye bite from about 2-4 pm. It actually shut off before dark. Stayed much longer hoping they would still bite. No Northern’s on tip ups. Had trouble finding walleyes small enough to keep. Probably caught 10-12. Was able to keep 3. The rest were too big or too small. All in all, lots of fun!

 

 The number of ice castles headed north on 72 that day was insane!

Edited December 30, 2024 by WoodlandSavage

[Wanderer]

2 hours ago, WoodlandSavage said:

Ok, I guess many people are not that active here anymore. Went out on Dec. 26th at EJ’s Road for the afternoon/evening bite. Ice was 14-16” thick. Good walleye bite from about 2-4 pm. It actually shut off before dark. Stayed much longer hoping they would still bite. No Northern’s on tip ups. Had trouble finding walleyes small enough to keep. Probably caught 10-12. Was able to keep 3. The rest were too big or too small. All in all, lots of fun!

 

 The number of ice castles headed north on 72 that day was insane!

Nice outing - thanks for the report!

 

It’s harder to tell where people are posting about on this site these days.  

[leech~~]

3 hours ago, WoodlandSavage said:

Ok, I guess many people are not that active here anymore. Went out on Dec. 26th at EJ’s Road for the afternoon/evening bite. Ice was 14-16” thick. Good walleye bite from about 2-4 pm. It actually shut off before dark. Stayed much longer hoping they would still bite. No Northern’s on tip ups. Had trouble finding walleyes small enough to keep. Probably caught 10-12. Was able to keep 3. The rest were too big or too small. All in all, lots of fun!

 

 The number of ice castles headed north on 72 that day was insane!

Nice report.  By this coming weekend with the below temps, things should start moving on the ice again.  

[Wanderer]

We (my wife mainly) are monitoring the pages of the big three pretty closely.  Not Mille Lacs though - we don’t go to the big one closest to us - haha.

 

We’re still shooting for Winnie tomorrow but might have to shift to Red if we can’t get out there yet.  Spent all day going through gear.  Bought a ton of bait.  Sharpened my spears and saw.  Way too much gear.

 

I also found out I forgot 1 ciscoe in my long rod box from my Ontario trip in March. Gaaggggghhh.  Everything out, washed with Dawn in hot water and set out to dry.  Still stinks but not like a punch in the nose stink.  And like me, after a long weekend fishing, after awhile I hardly notice the smell anyway.

[leech~~]

19 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

We (my wife mainly) are monitoring the pages of the big three pretty closely.  Not Mille Lacs though - we don’t go to the big one closest to us - haha.

 

We’re still shooting for Winnie tomorrow but might have to shift to Red if we can’t get out there yet.  Spent all day going through gear.  Bought a ton of bait.  Sharpened my spears and saw.  Way too much gear.

 

I also found out I forgot 1 ciscoe in my long rod box from my Ontario trip in March. Gaaggggghhh.  Everything out, washed with Dawn in hot water and set out to dry.  Still stinks but not like a punch in the nose stink.  And like me, after a long weekend fishing, after awhile I hardly notice the smell anyway.

Are you sure one of your other grumpy old friends didn't throw that in there for yea?  

[Wanderer]

1 hour ago, leech~~ said:

Are you sure one of your other grumpy old friends didn't throw that in there for yea?  

Well that would explain it better n me forgetting about it!

 

I swear I chucked the last of em before we left the lake!

[leech~~]

35 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

Well that would explain it better n me forgetting about it!

 

I swear I chucked the last of em before we left the lake!

 

[Wanderer]

5 hours ago, leech~~ said:

 

Thanks for reminding me to make sure that one is in the fish house!  It’s tradition that we watch that on the first trip every year.

[leech~~]

6 hours ago, Wanderer said:

Thanks for reminding me to make sure that one is in the fish house!  It’s tradition that we watch that on the first trip every year.

We got #1 & 2 up at the camper.  Great stuff. 

[Mike89]

they are always good for a laugh!!  

[smurfy]

2 hours ago, Mike89 said:

they are always good for a laugh!!  

YEP.......almost as funny as Leech trying to find Wanderers GPS coords!!!!!!!

[Wanderer]

2 hours ago, smurfy said:

YEP.......almost as funny as Leech trying to find Wanderers GPS coords!!!!!!!

He can have this one!  Haha!  We shoulda maybe stayed on top in 14 but we could see the bottom so clearly and it was shallower than we really wanted.  The quick deeper water check yielded perch and pike right away, so we moved.  Caught plenty before dark, now pretty quiet.

 

I have a hunch the bay WILL fish shallower than the main lake we’re used to.

 

16 inches of good ice out here.

 

[Wanderer]

We’ve moved 3 times now.  We were too deep up in the bay according to what reports we’ve been seeing.  Plus this cold front has been a bit nasty.  Reports from people on Red were they got slower too with the front.

 

Pike and perch were fierce though.  Great spot to bring people that just want to catch fish.  But bring lots of minnows.  We had to go get more during our move to Highbanks yesterday.  I never did get to really explore the bay for the better panfish and pike spearing.  Too cold and windy to be casual about anything.

we left there with a couple pike over 26 and some 10-12 inch perch.  The couple walleyes we got were 18.5 and 23.5.  I let the 23.5 go but maybe shouldn’t have?  It was the first one.  Protected slot is 18-23 out here.

 

Went to a proven spot out of Highbanks for last night.  Pike, perch and better walleyes.  Starting to get a decent bucket going with 17.75’s. Otherwise they’ve been in the slot.  They only bite when you’re about buck neked so only 1 pic that I’ll put here.  You’re welcome!