Tough day today

[Paul Waldowski]

Spent the day today in search of what turned out to be the ever elusive Walleye and I have to say that today that lake kicked our %^*&(*%. Fished deep, fished shallow, fished breaks, fished flats, fished mud......you name it we fished it. Had a group of 4 out today and our tally for the day was some perch and 1 really nice eye. Batteries were dead in the digital so as soon as I get the photo developed I will post it.

Talked with a few fellow FM'ers and it didn't sound like they did any better than we did. Still waiting to see a report from Jim Hudson but we spent a lot of the day with him and he seemed to be having the same kind of luck.

Anyone else do any good???

On a side note, ice conditions seemed to have improved dramatically from over a week ago.

[Jim Hudson]

Paul

You pretty much summed it up... but I would say it was more of a BRUTAL bite!!! Not much action for sure... But we did run into a pretty good perch bite before we headed off the lake at about 4.. (Had to get home here to get ready for a day trip tomorrow)... Alot of perch in the area we fished after lunch, 26FOW in some mud, where only the bigger fish wanted to eat.. that was a good thing and saved the day...

Brutal or not, it was a great day to be on the lake.. And nice to meet up with ya guys... We shall do it again, but this time.... I hope the fish open their mouths!!

Well off to bed here for fishing in the morning...

[Squid]

It's beginning to look like a pattern is setting for the winter that has more questions than answers. From reading this post and a number of others there seems to be very few 'eyes being caught. After a great fall season this comes as more of a surprise than anything. What seems even more puzzling is the lack of 'eyes being seen. I fished from 2PM Sunday until 9AM Monday and did not see one walleye on the camera. Fished in 32 FOW of the edge of a mud flat and managed only 1 keeper 'eye (at 7PM), 1 'pout and one perch (9"). Same spot last year and it produced consistently the whole winter season.

It doesn't look like most fishermen are seeing much either. It's not like a couple of winters ago where people were seeing lots of fish but couldn't get them to bite because they were full of YOY perch. As a matter of fact I haven't seen many of them either. Most of the perch seen on camera seem to be in the 7-9" range. If the 'eyes aren't in the mud, the gravel or shallows, where are they?

[jltimm]

I fished in the rocks last Friday 1/06.Two of us caught 4 small eyes,and no perch in 4 hrs of fish'n.Slow, to say the least!Got to play with the Lowrance h2o a little though!

[PierBridge]

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From reading this post and a number of others there seems to be very few 'eyes being caught. After a great fall season this comes as more of a surprise than anything.

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I would disagree, IMO it is the best icefishing season for Walleye's since 1992, both for numbers and size, the Lake could not be in better shape for both slot and 20" plus fish.

Anybody else have opinion on this.

Thanks Pier.

[burl]

Fished out on the mud 1/07.Sarted around 8:00 am caught 1-18"

and released a 26" at noon on a set line with a shiner.Stayed till dark and was done by 4:30 with a limit of nice fish.Fished hard all day but did not see much for fish till about dark then every hole i fished had action.Was a way from the crowd by my self.Burl.

[Willy]

You must have forgot about 2000-2001 winter. That year was hammer time and almost too easy.

I agree with you though, this has been a good year. We can't expect the fish to bite hard for everyone in every spot all winter long. It is nearing mid-winter and the bite will naturally slow some. There will still be some areas where guys will knock em dead and that is what keeps everybody coming back for more.

[caster]

My group (three) fished 7 mile on Monday from 8am - 6pm. We caught a lot of perch (nothing over 11") and one pout, but we had the camera on all day and saw several walleyes thoughout the day.

With the high sky and brite sun, you could see them from a long way away. Their white tips glowed like a beacon. We had a good spot for the early evening bite and had the walleyes come in, but no takers. One turned up to chase my jigging spoon but after sniffing the bait, he made a u-turn and slowly went away.

We made a short excursion to 8-mile in the middle of the afternoon, but found 7-mile to have more perch. Again, nothing big, but we did manage quite a few in the 9-11 range. The camera made a huge difference because you could see what interested them and make changes as they lost interest.

[nblasin]

I agree that it has been one of the better winters for #'s and big fish. The bite has definetly slowed but there still seems to be some takers with usually at least one bigger fish per day. We have been seeing lots of big fish during the day, but not many takers. Then once dusk comes it's like a light switch that turns the walleyes on. Fishing is fishing and they aren't going to always bite no matter how good of a fisherman you are. At least that is my opinion.

[limited out]

My experience this year has been that while the lake seems very healthy in terms of the walleye and perch populations, they have been abnormally finicky this year for some reason. Maybe it is this constant 20-30 temps we have been having without any major swings in the weather fronts. Not sure, but i have marked a lot of fish this year and changed presentations constantly w/o success a lot of the time...

[PierBridge]

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You must have forgot about 2000-2001 winter.

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Nope, I did not forget that winter or the following summer.

For me personally it was a slow start to the 00/01 winter season and the bite came on later in the season.

This year I am catching more fish and bigger and much fatter Walleye's plus unlike 00/01 where there was literly no Perch in the lake there are some nice class's of perch represented this year.

So at this Point I would rate the action and overall health of the lake better then 00/01.

Thanks Pier.

[joeregal]

i am sure most of you are better fishermen than me but one thought i would like to express with fish and the winter more than the summer is cigarretes. i have found that if i don't smoke i catch many more fish. i feel that they have much longer to sniff a bait than in the summer and they do not like smells other than your minnow. any thoughts

[Willy]

Oh yeah, I would agree the lake is healthier right now. The fish are mostly all fat and healthy looking and there are tons of the "eater" sized fish in there right now, along with the bigger ones and there are perch.

However, it is hard to compete with 30-50 fish days that we had in the 00-01 winter. Also, most of those fish were in the 22-26 inch range, some bigger, some smaller.

Nothing wrong with this year's bite though.

[bigeyes]

Have to agree with you Paul, did dark to dark outing on Wednesday and busted our ace and only ended up with 4 eyes. Burned well over a gallon through the Auger yesterday. No realy surprise though, by the 2nd week in January this lake usually slows way down. After now most of the fish are caught in the morning and evening for short times.

[PierBridge]

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Also, most of those fish were in the 22-26 inch range, some bigger, some smaller.

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That was insane, I remember catching Eye's into March while targeting Perch, I was in denial that there were no Perch in the Lake...and the Eye's kept on coming.

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by the 2nd week in January this lake usually slows way down. After now most of the fish are caught in the morning and evening for short times.

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Thats kinda been my game plan all year not moving so much during the day but be really being prepared for the morning and dusk bites on my known Walleye spots where I have had success in the past.

Once I start Perching then I'll be on the move.....

It has slowed some for sure.

Later Pier...