Minnesota Fishing Reports Archive for Mid Winter 2006

Ironically, now that we’ve spent most of the winter trying to reassure folks that the ice conditions have survived the warm weather, winter has decided to dish out a sample of a good old-fashioned Alberta Clipper. As I write this report, it’s 20 degrees below zero with a wind from the Northwest at about 20 MPH. I did head out on the lake today and lasted about an hour before returning home to plan a re-match for later in the week. It crossed my mind that we’re only 12 weeks away from the open-water fishing season, so it’s going to feel like a short winter no matter what happens for the next few weeks.

Somehow, snow that has hit other areas of the state has continually missed our area and ice conditions continue to improve. When this cold front passes, we should be looking at excellent travel conditions for folks who want to travel up for some late season panfishing. The DNR announced yesterday (2-17) that the Northern Pike and Walleye Season has been extended until February 26, 2006. So if you read your regulations and thought it ended this weekend, you have a bonus week that you might want to take advantage of.

I’ve been trying to get a great fishing report together all week long. Frankly it’s been tough to get really fired up because the fish are in what I’d call a three-day cycle right now. They feed fairly well one day, not at all on the second and maybe there’s a decent run of action for an hour or so on the third day. If you are able to fish a three-day stint, you’ll certainly have good fishing on one of the three.

Walleyes are already in the early stages of moving toward spring locations and Walleye fishing on mid-lake structures is showing signs of winding down. If you want to take advantage of the last week of fishing, I’d suggest fishing shallower points that extend out from the main shoreline. The presence of baitfish is the key. If your screen is blank during the day, move on until you find a location where you see minnows on your Vexilar. The fish will run again late in the afternoon and early evening.

If you can locate any green weeds at all, you’ll be able to locate Bluegills working just on the outside edges of the cover. They have been sticking tight to the weeds during the day, but run fairly steadily for an hour or so every afternoon just before dark. A 1/16-ounce glow-bug or similar jig tipped with a wax worm will do great.

We done a little more Trout fishing and the action appears to be holding up. Reports around the area are better than average in both size and numbers. They have moved significantly deeper than we found them earlier this winter and we wasted several hours looking for fish in the 40 to 50 foot range without even a sighting. Moving out to about 65 feet in a small hole produced many more sightings and another nice Trout. In my opinion, if we’d found that spot a couple of hours earlier, we’d have picked up another fish or two. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of action, but the surroundings are terrific and the time goes by fast when your chewing the fat with friends. Having a few fish close to home is kind of a nice option to have in your bag of tricks. The best Trout bait we’ve seen so far this winter has been the Perch Pattern Airplane Jig by Northland Tackle. A shiner added to the hook (where it’s legal) has caught at least one fish each time out.

Perch fishing reports are coming in spotty with some folks finding good schools of fish and others missing the boat. The early morning bite still produces more reliably than later in the day, so a good strategy would be to fish Perch until Lunchtime, take a break and get set up for panfish or Walleyes in the late afternoon.

As soon as the weather settles back down, we’ll get back out there and take a look at some of the spring spots and see if the move is on.

I don’t know how conditions for ice fishing could get much better than they are now in the Itasca county region. We continue to get night temperatures just cold enough to keep the ice that we’ve already got, but warm enough during the day to make conditions pleasant for fishing. Last weeks meltdown means that snow cover is practically non-existent on area lakes and this has helped to keep the surface ice solid with no slush to worry about. There are quite a few lakes where folks are driving trucks without problems, but if you have a ATV, conditions are perfect for using them right now. The down side, there is very little if any new ice forming. So, you’ll still need to be cautious about choosing a lake and avoid areas where ice can deteriorate. Current areas, springs and places where vegetation above the ice could cause melting should all be avoided.

Snow cover is all but gone, driving conditions are good with ice thickness of about 20 inches.

Fishing this week has been a lesson in timing and humility for me. It seems like everywhere I’ve gone, the fish were nearby but rarely biting. I should have been there earlier, later or on a different day altogether. It’s been common to get good reports from some folks, while others are struggling. It’s also been common to see lots of fish on the Vexilar, but have to work really hard to get a bite. For reasons known only to the fish, the better fishing reports have been coming in the mornings lately and my normal advice about fishing the evening run doesn’t appear to be a good game plan right now. Your best bet is probably to get out on the ice earlier in the morning than usual and fish until early afternoon.

Perch reports are varied with some fish coming from water in the 22-foot range and some from deeper water, out to about 30 feet is producing well for some folks right now.

 There are still some shallow fish too, but these are generally smaller fish. Folks fishing the shallow water are sorting through many small fish to get a few keepers. Finding newer schools of fish is easier said than done, but is a key and if possible, try splitting up your group to locate fish and then compare notes and regroup whenever someone finds a better school. Perch eye jigs, jigging Rapala and the larger blade baits like the Demon are producing some fish. On Monday, my best bait was a 1/16-ounce Perch Eye jig with a tail hooked minnow. I usually like to jig a little, but right now, I’ve been better off leaning the pole on a bucket and standing back to watch.

Crappie fishing is still going fairly well, but they too are running better in the morning hours. Locations haven’t changed much. They’re still following the steeper edges of shoreline breaks and using deep main lake holes. They do seem to be making bigger moves lately and once fish move through an area, they seem less likely to come back. There have been a couple of excellent reports from friends who have gone back into the off beat lakes and found fish that haven’t been pressured. This sounds hard, but there are a lot more of these little lakes than you think and with travel conditions this nice, it would be a great time to branch out and try some lakes you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to reach.

Listening to the radio and television weather reports lately can give you the impression that there’s not enough ice in Minnesota to float a boat. But ice conditions in the Itasca Area, (generally North of a line from Aitkin to Walker in the North/Central Portion of Minnesota) are good and improving daily. Even though the temperatures have been moderate for this time of year, it hasn’t been so warm as to allow the ice to deteriorate. Now, thanks to a cold snap during the past few days, we’re seeing new ice forming again. In fact, the temperatures at night have been ranging from 0 to 10 degrees so it’s actually improving fast. Snow cover is still really light on our area lakes and even though there was a bit of drifting due to Tuesday’s cold, Northwest wind, it hasn’t hampered travel on our lakes at all. We’ve seen a range of ice thickness depending on the depth of water, I’d say we have about a foot of good clear ice on the deeper lakes and up to 20 inches of good ice on the ones that froze earlier. The atmosphere has improved as well. Sunny afternoons seem to intensify the afternoon runs of Walleye and Crappie making it easier to make a quick trip out for "the evening bite".

Fishing this week has been interesting for me. Although I’d be hard pressed to characterize Minnesota Lake Trout Fishing in our area as fantastic, anglers who want to give it a go, should take note that there are opportunities that offer folks a reasonable chance of catching a nice Trout. We were blessed on the Lake Trout Opener this past weekend with a nice catch of three Trout, a couple of lost fish and another half dozen Vexilar sightings. All things considered, that’s not bad. Best of all, we didn’t have to get a passport to do it!

My good friend Matt Mattson outdoes me again! Here's a nice Minnesota Lake Trout caught on an Airplane Jig tipped with a 4 inch Shiner.

Sunshine during the day seems to improve the quality of the Perch action and intensifies the late afternoon bite for Walleye and Crappie. Bill Powell shows off a nice Perch that came from 23 feet of water.

Ice fishing for Walleyes in the Itasca area is usually best on the deeper main lake structures. Although main lake humps are still prime locations, weed edges in shallower water are producing some late afternoon fish and it could be a better bet right now. We located a clear spot on the edge of a large weed bed consisting of mixed Coontail and Northern Milfoil. During the day, we had several sightings but not many hits. At about 4:15 the first Walleye hit and the action was good until about 5:25. Even though I usually like the deeper structures in winter, my next trip for Walleye will be back into the shallows.

It’s been a while since I’ve done any serious Pike fishing, but there are some rumors floating around. It sounds like some of the smaller lakes are producing decent catches of better than average size Pike. I’m going to try and work this into the schedule this week and I hope I can give you a report on that next week.

Ice conditions are stable and even though the weather has been unseasonably warm, ice quality is holding it’s own in the Deer River region. We had an inch or two of new snow this week, but not enough to slow anyone down. In fact it’s an ideal time to hike back into some of the area’s more offbeat lakes. Folks are driving pickup trucks on several lakes and plowed roads are showing up on the bigger lakes. Thanks to the warm weather, ice ridges are minimal and so far, it’s been easy to get around.

The atmosphere has been gloomy, with barely a peek at the sun in the past ten days. The "perma-grey" seems to have affected movements of fish, especially in areas where there’s been a little pressure. Instead of the expected hot bite for an hour or so at sunset, we’ve seen more of a slow-but-steady bite that comes and goes throughout the day. Almost every time I get ready to make a big move, we’ll have small bit of action that gets us interested and sucks us back into staying in the old spot for 15 more minutes. The notable exception to this rule has been whenever someone finds a new school of fish that hasn’t been pressured. Even folks, who find these new and active schools of fish, wear out their welcome after a few sessions in the area, so the best bet is to keep actively searching while travel conditions are good.

Bluegills are cooperating during the day and also stage an early evening bite. They’ve been a bit shallower than the Crappies and ideally, you’d want to find an area that’s adjacent to some green Coontail or mixed cabbage weeds. The small size jiggle bug or what we used to call "glow Bug" with a wax worm is a good bait for Bluegills right now.

Perch action is improving as folks figure out where the better schools of fish are located. The better action is still found in shallower water of 6 to 10 feet. It forces you to keep moving because the small schools are traveling constantly while they chase large schools of baitfish. You’ll have a hot hole for a while and then notice that someone further on down the line starts catching Perch when your spot gets quiet. I think the better size fish bite almost immediately when you find a new school and staying too long will result in the average size diminishing.

Ice fishing for Walleyes in the Itasca area is best on the main lake structures right now. Deeper edges of humps or deeper points are better for daytime fishing. Moving toward shallower water on top of the humps or even in to the weed edges on shoreline drops. These areas are better bets for the evening run. My favorite for Walleyes is the jigging spoon tipped with the head of a minnow. I like spoons with some copper or dark orange on one side and glow paint on the other. In a pinch, I’ll go with a Copper plated spoon like the Swedish Pimple. Any given day, I will at least catch a couple Walleye if I use this color. One great approach is to rig a second rod that can be watched in a nearby hole while you jig. Simple rigging using a plain hook, split shot and bobber with a tail hooked minnow will trigger a few fish that come in to look at your spoon, but don’t hit. This is a great way to pick those couple of extra fish that "make the trip". - Good luck, check back for updates.