Been fishing the Rice Lake area for a week. 5-7 inches on most lakes, though haven’t been on the super big lakes. Bite has been hot for nice gills and bass and giant crappie. Caught my pb crappie two days ago. Good luck!!
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Another vote for the 13 fishing White Out, love my medium light for walleyes!
In my experiences it is better, especially for walleyes. There is one lake I fish in particular where you nail giant walleyes all December and then it is over. You still get some the rest of the winter but far fewer with way more work put in. For sure you have to be smart about early ice though, coming from someone who three years ago went through and is lucky to be here today. Had about 4 inches of good ice everywhere I fished all morning and let over confidence bite me when I went back that afternoon, hit a bad spot and in I went (left the spud and safety vest in the car) thankfully I brought the ice picks or I can 100 percent say I would not be here today. Needless to say, valuable lessons were learned, mainly not to be overconfident of early ice conditions. You’ll still find me out there early ice every year, just alot smarter about it now.
Any of those in white, seems like the few times I have gone for Lakers, White is right, but if I had a preference….white tube jig.
I have found 3 colors to be pretty universal, at least for me: chartreuse, pink, white. I agree with Tom in that I like to keep it pretty simple when fishing plastics. Generally I have found if those 3 colors aren’t working they probably want live bait that day so I switch to waxies or minnow heads depending on the species I am targeting.
Sufix Ice Magic 3 pound for pannies, Sufix Ice Magic 6 pound for eyes. 10 pound flouro for the few times each winter I fish Chequamegon Bay/Apostle Islands for trout/salmon.
Would imagine today’s temps and rain have erased the progress being made on 90 percent of bodies of water. Just seen a facebook post today from NWS Twin Cities about the forecast showing some extremely cold air building up over Alaska this weekend and swinging south of the Canada border around the end of the 1st week of December. This blast would certainly bring ice to alot of smaller lakes at least, fingers crossed. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/NWSTwinCities/posts/1343415512358574
I love my 6 inch Strikemaster lazer hand auger, on year 3 using it now, have tried the 8, once you start getting towards 10 inches of ice or so, the 8 is a huge pain compared to the 6. Very noticeable difference in cutting time. That said, I just received a Strikemaster electric auger for an early birthday present this year so aside from early ice the hand auger most likely wont see alot of action this year. If you are set on going hand auger, I would go strikemaster over Nils, but honestly I would recommend going propane or electric. Though I guess you could go the hand auger route and get a k drill or something similar.
Relying on your defense to win games will only carry you so far.
Now that teams have you figured you out, (which it appears its happened over the last 2 games and OMG losing to the Bears? WTF) what’s the next game plan?
I say…. “How ’bout them Cowboys” !!! And can’t wait till Dec 1st!!!
Denver’s defense pretty much carried us to the Super Bowl last year, and other than a couple wins this year where we had some offense has carried us to a 6-2 start. The vikings are up in that few teams in the league category with a defense capable of carrying them pretty far. But only if they get the o line situation taken care of so they can at least put a few drives together each game.
Fishing in Eau Claire where the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers meet caught a mud puppy once. Same spot on another outing I was reeling in to re cast and when I got my line out of the water there was a 4-5 inch muskie wrapped up in my night crawler. It’s one of only two muskies I have ever caught so I still thought it was cool despite the size haha. Have also caught beer cans, pants, a can of dinty moore beef stew (sadly it was opened and empty) and as a kid I caught my step dad up in Canada. Hooked him in the back of the head with a rapala, needless to say he was pretty pissed and I learned a valuable lesson about being more aware of my surroundings when casting in a boat.
Congrats!! Beautiful fish to boot!
A majority of the walleyes over 5 pounds I catch during the ice season are in a bay super shallow. They stay out deep during the day but come into that bay at night to feed and my tip ups are rarely over 4 feet deep. Pattern seems to work well fall open water too. I dont really fish walleye much spring or summer but would imagine its the same. Fishing shallow at night with stick baits has been one of the more consistent ways for me to put big walleyes top side. I have noticed the first two hours after dark seem better than the rest of the night though with another active period around 2 am.
Haha sweet video!!!
Goes to show how fun I am this Friday night, this thread is the most entertaining thing going on right now.
Between La Nina and what most NOAA forecasts show, seems like we may be in for a long ice season this year, I am ok with that!!!
Terrible deal, hoping for a speedy recovery!
Also getting the itch, mostly because my step dad is planning a trip I am super excited about going on. We will be going to Lake Gogebic in the U.P. for jumbo perch and eater walleyes. Been a bucket list trip for a couple years so I am pretty pumped especially as a perch guy! Also, I agree with the above, I know you said you wanted to keep it within a couple hours, but you really should consider the Red Lake trip. Such an amazing walleye experience!
I live for fall steelhead fishing on the Brule, def counting down. Fall fishing and ice fishing is 90 percent of my fishing!
Great read. 90 percent of my open water fishing is done chasing Brook trout and steelhead in western Wisconsin and the Brule. I love catching all fish but there is just nothing that compares to wading beautiful trout streams throwing spinners. Not to mention trout are such a beautiful fish!
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The past couple winters pink horizontal tungsten jigs have been my go to followed by the perch tingler spoon 1/16 oz, so weird catching gills on a spoon to me. So most likely will be starting there, that said I am really anxious to try the VMC tungsten fly jig this winter as I didn’t pick up any until almost ice out last year.
For browns, rainbows, brookies, pretty much any spoon tipped with a waxie/waxies. For lakers, white tubes, or any big white plastics.
Here in Wisconsin I would say it varies by species. The Wisconsin DNR has done a pretty awesome job with the Brown and Brookie streams here in Chippewa and Eau Claire county, and as an avid fisherman of trout, I love that. For walleyes, which used to be one of my favs, not so much. A combo of poor regulations and over harvest from indian spearing has pretty much wiped out alot of my favorite walleye lakes from when I was growing up. The only good walleye lakes I have now are tiny lakes near Hayward in the middle of nowhere with little fishing pressure. Grindstone and lower Long are two lakes that used to be amazing for walleye, now they are pretty mediocre, though Grindstone does seem to be recovering a bit. I think a big problem is the Wisconsin DNR is way too obsessed with turning every lake into a bass fishery. Don’t get me wrong, I love bass, but it’s kind of rediculous. I would like to say they are trying the best they can, but not sure I believe that. Just my two cents.
what color for crappie and blue gills have been working the best for you guys?
Pink
This happens a ton here in the Bloomer area, soon as word gets out of a big crappie/bluegill bite, there is a city of shacks out there wiping them out. Alot of the locals feel the need to keep every fish they catch too. I could name about 3-4 area lakes that are now in rebuild mode because of it. I have found some good spots the last couple years with alot of exploring but keep pretty tight lipped about it so those fisheries aren’t ruined either. I agree, many areas could use reduced limits to let these lakes rebound.
For jumbo perch and slab crappie I have been tearing it up with a pink diamond jig from custom jigs and spins tipped with a waxie. For walleye, pink VMC tingler spoon or the gold/glow slender spoon tipped with northland impulse perch eyes.
Thank you, certainly not the news I was expecting to hear today. Glen Loch is a local favorite early ice, but with that channel I tend to just fish it right next to shore or avoid it entirely.
Very sad, especially so close to home :(. Most lakes around here still arent in the best shape, been on the chetek chain for a few days now but even that has only about 3.5-4 inches.
Shore fishing the local rivers for walleye and smallmouth is fine and dandy, but in Dec? I’d rather be ice fishing!!
My favorite is the 13 Fishing 6061.
This is my go-to. Free Spools works amazing, I can drop a 1/100 oz jig with the free spool, so you can imagine how well it drops something like a 1/50ish or larger tungsten jig.
Reels super smooth, and the star drag is also very smooth. I only jig for panfish, and this drag comes in very hand when I’m fishing large crappies or tie into something like a bass / walleye / northern.
I’ve used quite a few in-lines, and IMO the 6061 is the cream of the crop.
If you’re looking for something more reasonable, take a look at the No 8 tackle CGI as well. I stumbled onto this reel toward the end of last season when I needed another one a whim for late-ice crappies. Didn’t realize it was made by the same company as 13 Fishing at the time. Its basically a non-aluminum version of the 6061 and I was very impressed with it on late ice last season. For $30 its a darn good inline.
X2 on the 13 fishing Black Betty 6061 and No 8 tackle CGI, both reels have great feel when dropping jigs and a good drag. Have one of each and would not really consider any other in-line.
