Chequamegon Bay Ice Fishing

Well I thought the bay would get totally capped off this week, but from the looks of it, we are going to have to wait for a bit longer for good ice out here..

To anyone that is interested in fishing this area through the ice, please be sure to post any questions you may have and I will help out as much as possible. The first ice bite out here is quite well on a variety of species… Ranging from Trout/Salmon.. Walleyes… SmallMouth… Perch.. etc etc.. Then later into the ice season, we start our ventures into the Apostle Islands for Lake Trout action.. A definite must do for the hardcore ice angler…

Hope everyone has had a great start to their ice fishing season. Definately one of my favorite times of year!!

what do you have for ice conditions up there? looking to come up there and hook in to some trout and salmon thanks. been up there before lookin to get up there again here soon

Bub

The bay is iced over in the Ashland area.. Out to around the Lighthouse and east into First and Second Landing area. I personally have not been on this ice yet, but have heard a few reports of people going out off Ashland near the shipping channel and out off First Landing. 3″ of ice is what I have heard…

Now with this warm up… the ice will be sketchy again…

thanks for the info thats kinda what i was thinkin for conditions, lookking to get back up there and just really got the itch

Jim:

Was in Bayfield to officiate a BBall game and was drooling looking at the ice on the bay. Can’t wait to get up there after the first. Too bad about this weather as this could have been one of the first years in a while to be able to get on the bay before Christmas… Hope to meet you this season.

Mark

Hi
I have a couple of questions.

While my two brothers and Dad are home for christmas, we were looking at going some where for an ice fishing trip. Thought about MN, but we would like to try and stay instate. Anyways, we have a spot to stay near Drummond and were thinking about trying the bay. We have never fished it in the winter, we used to do a lot in the summer and were wondering how hard is it to tip up for walleyes/northerns and some panfish. I have never tried for lake trout , are they still in the bay or would you have to go out to the islands? I guess what I am wondering is how far out or where would you go for some tip up fishing ( I really don’t want to travel across the ice a long ways with out any experience). Also how difficult is it to find walleyes and anything else in a three day trip. Is there any place that rents houses, or do they even do that? I understand the ice is a little different than a lake.
Thanks,

Tyler Birkel
[email protected]

Tyler

Sadly, I think you will be hard pressed to find good fishing because of ice conditions this Christmas.. Just too shaky for my likings yet and a lot of open water north of the lighthouse area.

I am hoping, with some colder nights, what ice we have will firm up here by the first of the year and we can fish safely off Ashland.

But for your questions.. If you are coming for walleye action, do not look for a whole lot of fish catching on the walleyes(even for three days), but you will catch em and mostly probably the ones you will catch will be good sized, over 20 inches. Look to 12 to 18 foot flats out in front of Ashland and 12 to 15 foot depths off the First and Second Landing areas. Check these same areas (the later) for pike as well.

For trout, if the ice is safe to get out into the 25 to 30 foot areas out in front of Ashland, there will still be some trout around, including lakers. They will stick around until the ice caps off the bay quite good and then head out into deeper water. Not a whole lot of lakers, but there will be a few swimming in the bay itself. More so you are looking at browns, splake, and coho for the bay trout and salmon species.