Anybody else getting smoked ice fishing??

Went to Bemidji to visit some friends in college and wow did we get smoked fishing. Our first trip was out to Bemidji and boy was it tough fishing. All just little perch, couldn’t find the jumbos what so ever. We ended up with like 5 descent perch good enough to eat and that was it. The following day we went out to Leech and the fish were definitly there. The only problem was no matter what presentation you would use the fish were finicky. Spoons sized 1/8-1/16 didn’t work, dead stick worked very slowly, jigging smaller jigs was slow, and tip ups were not even touched. We went out to walker bay where we heard the fish were doing good on the humps but 25-40 FOW worked slower than turtles. Moved shallower where we couldn’t even catch one fish. biggest wally we caught was 13″. everything else was just tiny. pics weren’t even worth putting up.

Sounds like pretty much everyone of my trips

We’ve been struggling here a bit at times. When you get a monster cold period like we just had everything goes a bit in my experience. The trick is to keep at it and find the feeding windows. They are there just more brief than usual. After a couple of tough bites, sometimes it will turn into something special to the dedicated patient angler.

ME!

I was out yesterday form 10am-8pm on a lake that normal will not only produce non stop action, but they will almost all be keepers. 3 guys 10 hours 9 fish put on ice and 4 released. 65+ holes.

You could get them to chase, had sunnies chasing me 5 feet then thy would just drop back down.

Well Im glad its not only me. I am not the best fisherman in the world but can usually catch some fish and this year his been tuff at times. Beats working though.

I have one lake that has totally kicked my this year and two others that have tried to just throw the little ones at me but I manage to get a couple dandys to keep my interest up.

Yeah…I agree its almost like work except no paycheck…patience and perseverace will bode a great catch in the near future-hang in there…

The crappies have been biting @ Clearlake in Iowa. This is one of over a dozen the last week this size ( 14″ ) The walleye bite is good for a hour or so @ sunset, but are small. We are fishing in 20 FOW and the crappies are 6′ off the bottom. I am going Wed. if the weather holds. This is the best crappie action I have ever seen. The lake is known for yellows, but the monster crappies are huge. Almost 2 lbs.

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The crappies have been biting @ Clearlake in Iowa. This is one of over a dozen the last week this size ( 14″ ) The walleye bite is good for a hour or so @ sunset, but are small. We are fishing in 20 FOW and the crappies are 6′ off the bottom. I am going Wed. if the weather holds. This is the best crappie action I have ever seen. The lake is known for yellows, but the monster crappies are huge. Almost 2 lbs.

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WHAT A FISH!!!!!! NICE

Been doing good on lakes but the Croix is whoopin me this year……so far

Nice fish

Slow for me yesterday. Hit three different lakes before the crappies cooperated on my home waters. I think/hope the lunar/game phase might have something to do with it.

It has been slow to say the least!
You are the third person in 5 days to say that about the lunar phase?I”m starting to wonder, last weekend JJ and me dropped the camera down at his favorite jumbo perch lake.
Right away we seen some perch and a huge school sunnies.We drilled 20
+ holes and couldn’t get not ONE bite so we packed up headed
to a different lake.We had much better results, but i still agree that the ice fishing has been slow this year.

Slow year here in WI also, I have had one good day this year and many days that you have had to work really hard to get them to bite. I was out Monday on my main lake with a bud and we managed to get close to our limit but we fished hard all day.