Has it been Tough For Most People This Season?

I admittedly have not been able to get out as much as I normally do so I’ve had a hard time staying on good bites, but from a lot of people I’ve heard from it’s been a tough year for them as well. How have you all done? Curious to see if the impact of the increase in anglers over the past two seasons is having an effect on things or if my ice fishing skills are just diminishing.

I would agree it has been a tough bite this year. We did ok on Winnie a couple times, Mille lacs has been tough. Did not make it to LOW this year. Early Red was good but got chased off by a storm. So yeah it’s been tough.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Mille lacs has been tough

Usually when the winter bite on ML is tough, the following open water season is also difficult. Is it the number of bait fish in the lake John?

I would say yes. I’m no expert by any means and I imagine other here have logged more hours than me on the pond this year, but lots of tiny perch to eat and what we have pulled out looks like it is well fed.

Access has certainly made it more difficult. Late January and February I usually hang up the gear and chill out, don’t love truck traffic or the wheelhouses owning spots.

Instead of grinding out MN, I have found I enjoy trekking to ND as much as possible in December/January/March. Drill less holes and catch more fish. Usually I complain about February doldrums but we recently disproved that in ND.

Guys who have time and tracks are still catching fish (and headaches). Bring on the melt.

I just got my old Indy 400 running well again so I have the means to get around again finally. Just have had a hard time finding a solid bite this year.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I just got my old Indy 400 running well again so I have the means to get around again finally. Just have had a hard time finding a solid bite this year.

You are not the only one. Fish have been finicky. We have put some really nice fish top side but no numbers. Every time I’ve been walleye fishing lately it’s been 1 maybe 2 12 to 14 inchers. Big ones have been tough to find. I refuse to sit over a 30 to 40 ft hole to catch crappies so I search for a shallow water bite. Which puts us in a tougher category immediately. That and the multiple negative temp windy weekends have been brutal.
My son and I are out now with 4 tip ups rocking just sitting in my truck and the chisago bass are very active. But it’s to windy to hop around.

I think I am Aldo ready for the melt. Ready for boat season and ready to get back on the river.

Tough for me too, went fishing with a guy I have not seen in a while, I asked him if he wanted size or numbers because this year i cannot seem to find both.

I live in NE Illinois and our lakes are always a tough bite. But this winter I have fished a lot more than previous years. I love to fish even when I don’t catch much.

I still haven’t gotten a crappie over 10 inches this ice season.

Yes, walleyes have been harder to come by for me this year. I love ice fishing, but a few slower trips dampened my interest/excitement to keep going out.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I think I am Aldo ready for the melt. Ready for boat season and ready to get back on the river.

I’ve never been more ready than this year.

I really need to proof read before posting. This dang phone works against me. I’m going to give it a honest try this weekend again, but after that I’ll hang it up for a while. Get ready for rainy and maybe late ice. I have some work in my basement that could be completed

well now i feel better knowing that its not just me that have had a horrible year so far!

Haven’t been out much to be honest, did pretty well up in Otter Tail area a few weeks ago, but not many trips outside of that.

I am going up to Red Lake, Ontario at the end of March though, hoping to put some big pike and some lakers on the ice :).

It’s been a pretty good year for us, we didn’t have a wheelhouse last winter or a machine for pulling a portable. It made for a tough go last year dragging by hand or waiting until the ice was thick enough to drive on.

This winter I’ve been much more mobile and have had the new wheelhouse out a fair amount, even around home the last few weeks.

I too had my ass handed to me on Mille Lacs on my only trip there last week. Even bouncing around on the sled fishing multiple spots was futile.

If a couple of regular guys here want to hit a slam dunk crappie lake in Wisconsin this weekend hit me up.

It’s a night bite, but they’re as consistent as it gets, and I can all but guarantee a 25 fish limit of 8.75″-10.5″ crappies if you stay the night.

We’re doing a guys trip with my buddy, his boy and my boys, so my shack is full, but if you have the means to stay the night let me know.

There’s a trillion 5-9″ perch there during the day too, if you have kids you have to bring them with.

It’s non-stop action 24 hours a day, eater crappies at night and perch during the day (and has been for decades) 👍

Attachments:

1. 

   PXL_20220212_201922075.MP_-scaled.jpg
   

2. 

   PXL_20220212_210825994.MP_-scaled.jpg
   

3. 

   PXL_20220212_225422528-scaled.jpg
   

B-man how come you have the Olympics on TV and not a fish camera? I’m sure the boys would rather watch fish bite their hooks.

MX1825 wrote:

B-man how come you have the Olympics on TV and not a fish camera? I’m sure the boys would rather watch fish bite their hooks.

I didn’t have the right cord with, but they have a ball watching the Marcum during the day for perch. It looks like this all day every day ever since I was a kid lol

The same goes for the crappies at night, but most of them are actually worth keeping.

Sorry for the triplicate pics

Attachments:

1. 

   PXL_20220212_194943838-2-scaled.jpg
   

2. 

   PXL_20220212_194943838-1-scaled.jpg
   

3. 

   PXL_20220212_194943838-scaled.jpg
   

It started very good for me as it did for many but February has really been tough up and down weather has not helped we all get skunked but I have struck out a lot this past month moving a lot and just going to another lake with no luck. With the cold will grind out maybe another 2 weekends of ice after that the boat is getting ready. Ice fishing is getting old for me lots of effort little reward.

mrpike1973 wrote:

It started very good for me as it did for many but February has really been tough up and down weather has not helped we all get skunked but I have struck out a lot this past month moving a lot and just going to another lake with no luck. With the cold will grind out maybe another 2 weekends of ice after that the boat is getting ready. <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Ice fishing is getting old for me lots of effort little reward.

Sounds like the last few weeks for me also.

Geez. Pretty rough season by the sound of it in this thread. No one sticking it to them huh

I’ve noticed more clipper systems back-to-back rolling through this year and many crappy weekends . For guys having a bad year, has it been because of poor weather?

Randy Wieland wrote:

I’ve noticed more clipper systems back-to-back rolling through this year and many crappy weekends . For guys having a bad year, has it been because of poor weather?

Thinking back just about all the times I’ve gotten out this year have been about -5 with 20 mph winds…..

I’ve done pretty good on perch. haven’t caught a walleye and only targeted them for a few hours at dusk for a day.

I would say tougher most days than last year and definitely a softer bite and more finicky bite. Vex says they are they are there … they follow …

Slush sucked in early January which is my favorite time … ice thick enough to move about but no trucks yet.

Number of fronts and High pressure days seemed abnormally high.

Still having fun … rarely spend more than 4 hours out any given day unless I am on a trip further from home. Built me a nice Smitty sled on one of those crappy weekends … those I know that fished that weekend struggled at best.

Must have bought a batch of bad 4# mono… open the bail and coils of line pop off. Didn’t have that problem last year … line twist … not so sure. Moved to p-line on those reels and that seems to have solved the problem.

Saturday was crazy good. Go figure.

I think it’s weather related. Consistent fronts and high pressure have impacted the fishing. I have lakes locally that I know where the crappies are and when they bite. Not so much this year.

I’ve been able to sit on schools of crappies and dial in location with the livescope and not be able to get them to bite. I was on a local lake a couple weeks and the school was at least 200 fish. I think I was knocking jigs off their foreheads and they wouldn’t move.

I’ve only crappie fished…don’t really target walleyes around the metro but I agree it’s been tough. The optimist in me says we’ll have a great late ice panfish bite. But, the boats getting prepped this weekend so I can be on pool
2 as soon as possible. I might even stomach the crowds and hit p4.

Been one of my best winter fishing seasons so far . I’ve never been much of a ice walleye guy but after meeting a new friend at a new job I’ve learned a lot about a local lake. I have caught walleye every time I’ve gone out. We made a trip to Washburn a few weeks ago and got our limits of salmon and trout. I’m about done though, sick of winter and can’t wait to get back in my boat to do some trolling on the big lake for some more coho.

Attachments:

1. 

   4202C7F5-3F26-4593-85F2-16DC41200AEE.jpeg
   

2. 

   210DAED8-1AF8-4EA0-A9D7-54CE9336C660-scaled.jpeg
   

Randy Wieland wrote:

I’ve noticed more clipper systems back-to-back rolling through this year and many crappy weekends . For guys having a bad year, has it been because of poor weather?

I think that’s part of it. The other part is I think I’m a lousy ice fisherman.

Maybe it is weather related. Never thought of that. It has been the coldest winter in about a decade so maybe that is playing a role.