Upper Turtle

Again, I am just passing on some second hand knowledge as I just haven’t had time to sit on the ice myself. I even had to turn down a trip to Pool 4 in the morning. Maybe next week will be a little less hectic. Anyway, I was told today that they are getting some nice panfish through the ice on Upper Turtle lately. I know the lake was turning out a lot of crappies late in the season last year. Again, no info on location or presentation. Can anyone out there confirm this report of the panfish bite on Upper Turtle. I hope it is still hot next week, as I plan to give it a shot.

Got a chance to fish this lake yesterday. First time I’ve ever hit Upper Turtle through the ice. Was really going in blind. Punched quite a few holes, and moved around. Saw quite a few on the flasher, but not many takers! Had a short flurry of action around 4:45 that lasted for a half hour. Put 5 nice crappies on the ice during that time, then things shut off for me. Fish were in 18′ FOW and were 1′-2′ off the bottom. All fish came on glow teardrops & minnows below an ice-buster bobber. The fish were very picky. They wanted the smallest minnows I had in the bucket & no movement on my part. You could watch them on the flasher move up off the bottom then just sit there and watch the minnow for a while before they finally hit. I was jigging a small spoon w/ a minnow head, but they wanted nothing to do with it. Anyone else have reports for this lake or tips? Plan to try this lake again. To steal a line from the Governator “I’ll be back”!

I guess there is a contest out on upper turtle this sunday. Thought i might go out there with some friends for the heck of it. Im a big tip up and shinner fisherman, any advice on where to fish for northern, bass, walleyes. Thanks

I may have a few ideas for you. Don’t have much time to respond right now & my maps are at home, so I will post tonight sometime.

Thanks, any help would be great

O.K. here goes, now remember, I am certainly no expert on Upper Turtle, these are just a few things I have seen or picked up while I was up there trying to ice some panfish. On the SW end of the lake there is a nice shallow flat & underwater point (it should be marked on any map, I have the Sportsmen Connection book of maps for NW WI & it shows it on there). I have been told this is a decent spot to pick up northerns, bass & walleyes on tip ups. About 2/3 of the way up the lake there is a decent break along the shoreline. I was up there fishing panfish & saw guys with tip ups fishing in approx. 15′ of water. Saw them catch a few northerns & get some flags. If I remember right, the very north end of the lake gets a decent weed growth. Don’t know anything about the action up there, just looks like that big shallow weedy flat might hold some fish. There is a creek that runs in up there (North end), so I personally would check the ice conditions up there before I did too much running around on the north end. The rest of the lake seems to have good ice as they are driving all over.