garrison ice report

Went out yesterday morning out of the south garrison access. Drove out in a blazer, plenty of ice for it. Measured no less than 11″ anywhere. Fishing was sloooow! tried tip ups with small suckers, all sorts of jigging spoons, shiners under bobbers, lindy darters, and blade baits. Nothing worked. Fished 12-20 fow. left the spot and headed to a inside turn on a flat, drilled about 50 holes, fished for 2 hours, didn’t mark a single fish! wtf!!! Finally headed back towards spot 1 for the evening bite, had good action for about 20 minutes around 430 than nothing, left at 7. Caught 1 with a pink/silver lindy darter, and a couple on bobbers with shiners. Overall a pretty depressing outing

We all know the difference a day can make but when we were there Friday and half day Saturday we found a very good bite right on the weed edge in 13′ – 14′ of water. We also noticed the walleyes wanted BIG suckers over anything else with baits under 5″ getting all but snubbed while 7″ suckers would get throttled quickly. Another thing I can offer is that while there were a lot of fish in the area we did not do well on spoons. Almost everything came on big bait… fish would come up and look at the spoons but wouldn’t eat them swim over and hammer a 7″ sucker minnow.

Thanks for the report. How did the crack ringing Garrison Bay look? It was really growing and shifting around when we were there making it hard for people to find a place to cross unless they went further north from the Pike’s Pt. access up to Garrison Sports where they had a crossing.

Happy New Year!

Similar report from the Big Point area. Had a nice little flurry at sunset. 14 FOW over rock. Two over size walleye and a nice perch. Dog ate the perch while I wasn’t looking.

-J.

The crack did make it a little tough to find a spot to pass. It was a pushed together though so when we did find a good flat spot to go by we weren’t crossing any thin ice. We got off after dark so it was definatly a good thing we had a trail marked on the gps. How late in the season does this big minnow bite last? I dropped down the marcum camera for a while and did see lots of small perch along with 3 nice looking pike.

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Dog ate the perch while I wasn’t looking.

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Guess it was time for Brute to eat! My dog likes to wait until they’re filleted and then grab them!

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How late in the season does this big minnow bite last? I dropped down the marcum camera for a while and did see lots of small perch along with 3 nice looking pike.

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I think it varies year to year but last year it went strong through end of January. This year… that’s anyone’s guess. We went through 36″ suckers by 1 PM on Saturday. There’s a LOT of fish up shallow in those weeds right now and when we found the “spot on the spot” there were huge schools ofsmall perch that would roam through as well. At times those perch were thick enough to turn the bottom 6′ of the flasher dial a sold red in 14′ of water as the school swam through.

Dog ate the perch while I wasn’t looking.

-J.

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I hope he chews his food good or swallowed it head first. It may not exit as easy as it entered!

I also went out of Garrison and drove my van out of Pikes Point and out to Three Mile reef. It was slow fishing but caught 2 slot walleye(22″ and a 24″) and countless small perch to keep my friend and I busy. Weather conditions were far from ideal but to catch those fish made it worth it. Like said above, we found ice from 11-12″ with about 1.5″ of weak ice and snow on top. Passed over two closed cracks and another that seemed to open the night before. Counting myself only saw 3 vehicles into the Garrison area on the ice but that should change today and throughout this week. Consult resort owners before venturing out.

Also, tip ups and or dead sticking with larger shiners or suckers seemed to be the ticket like James has said before!