Cold Fishing Report?

Anybody fishing this past weekend? Curious how you all did. We were debating coming up, but we would have been in portables and didn’t want to hassle heating the camper at -20

Hiya,

Fished Saturday from around 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Managed to get 10 through the hole going 50/50 on jigging and dead stick. Missed a few as well and lost the best one right when I started packing up for the day.

Found many fish would hit and miss the jigging stick, then go immediately over to the dead stick.

Not fast by any means, but a good fun day with enough action to keep you attentive through the day.

Caught fish from 8″ long up to 22″ long.

I was off the north end of the lake in 23 feet of water on my own. Ice was 17.5″ thick where I was.

Fun day on the water…

Steve

Had a buddy in a sleeper on the mud who said he did well. He thought the full moon trumped the cold front, and caught most of them on dead sticks.

I was thinking the full moon would help, but curious how it turned out. Like I said, I didn’t want to heat my camper so we tried like heck to rent a sleeper. Called all over the lake and every resort I called was completely booked.

I went out on the mud with my family this weekend. Having a 16 month in the house made for less fishing for me, but we’ll worth it. Most all fish came on rattle reels after dark. Managed a 28 inch and the rest around 20 inches.

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That’s awesome Jeff. Kinda makes me want to get a permanent like that to take my little kids out!

I’ve gotten a few other reports that said the bite was dramatically slower. So you guys that got fish should feel good. Sounds like being on the mud, after dark was a common theme.

I was up 2 weeks ago and found the fish to be pretty aggressive throughout the day. We went up for the day this past Saturday and didn’t find much for active fish during the daylight hours. We did get a little bit of a bite after the sun went down, but it was a lighter bite than before. With the temps so cold, we weren’t out hole hopping as much during the day, so that may have played into it as well.

I’ve been up to the pond 3 times in the last week and a half, out of the east side every time. With the cold weather, we found fewer active fish during the daytime. At prime time in the evening and later seemed to be the best luck for us. We were set up on the bottom transition edge of structure near the basin.

A few smaller fish on spoons with minnow heads, most of the better fish came on deadsticks and tip-ups with lively small to medium suckers 6″-18″ from the bottom. They were still very light and tentative bites. Best of luck to you!

I’ve been struggling up there since the cold front. The size average has gone up but the numbers have gone down, big time. The vast majority of yo-yo fish won’t bite. The ones that do come screaming up to the bait like they’ve never seen a bait in their lives. Suckers under tip-ups have largely been ignored. I’m hearing shiners are working better. Doldrums.

Bass Thumb wrote:

I’ve been struggling up there since the cold front. The size average has gone up but the numbers have gone down, big time. The vast majority of yo-yo fish won’t bite. The ones that do come screaming up to the bait like they’ve never seen a bait in their lives. Suckers under tip-ups have largely been ignored. I’m hearing shiners are working better. Doldrums.

Seems every account or report can be different. And based on whose report you read could be relative to what’s good, okay, bad or slow?

I think some have come to expect these 20-40 fish days because that’s what’s being reported by other’s. I dunno, I’ve never expected anything like because I’ve never had that.

That being said, I was up there Monday through this morning and got maybe 10-12 walleyes. A handful less than 20″, but a 24″ and three at 26 inches. And almost all on suckers under the rattle reels.

So…for us it wasn’t all that slow and was perhaps one if not the best fishing out there in some 10 years.

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Andy, those fish look healthy and plump.

This was from Tuesday. Pushing 27” if I had it laid straight on a bumpboard. Look how skinny! Haven’t seen many like this this year. It also looked super old, with no color at all. I caught 6 in 5 hours on spoons. The sucker never got touched.

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Fished sunday night through tuesday morning out of Mac’s and I must say their houses are nicer than most hotels I’ve stayed in. The fishing was aweful. Never marked one fish the entire trip. Got 1 Monday morning on a rattle reel with shiner and missed another one Tuesday morning as I was packing up. Jigged for hours and not a single blip on the bird. I’ll be back with them for sure again as we still had fun!

eyeguy507 wrote:

Fished sunday night through tuesday morning out of Mac’s and I must say their houses are nicer than most hotels I’ve stayed in. The fishing was aweful. Never marked one fish the entire trip. Got 1 Monday morning on a rattle reel with shiner and missed another one Tuesday morning as I was packing up. Jigged for hours and not a single blip on the bird. I’ll be back with them for sure again as we still had fun!

Yes…I would say just the same. I’ve been out of Mac’s three times before in previous years and they have the best houses, although Appledoorn’s is right there too. And same disappointing fishing out of Mac’s too. Maybe a couple fish each time but mostly like you described.

This year I decided to change it up and try Appledoorn’s for something new.
The “catching” was very good with numbers of walleyes and some big fish too,
and I see we were out the same time as you?

(if you noticed, that was like a poem)

Just something I wonder about…what’s different? I would think Mac’s moves their houses, you would think…but I don’t know?

I do know Appledoorn’s moved their houses because the one we were in was moved further out the Friday before we got there. We then saw them moving more houses out farther the time we were there through Wednesday.

I don’t know much…I’m “the walleyestudent”, but I’d go back to Mac’s again…if Appledoorn’s was all booked up.