SW Michigan Report

Finally getting some safe ice here in SW Lower Michigan. Hit up a little local lake that has some fantastic early ice action and we were not disappointed Night time in my opinion is the right time, as we got everything set-up in about 30 fow the flasher was already marking fish suspended at 20 feet down. Minnows were the bait of choice and within minutes we had rods bending. An hour and a half of action my son and I kept a one man limit for dinner to be ethical sportsman and only kept what we needed. Weather conditions look favorable to get some of the more premier lakes safe and ready for foot travel in the coming days. A load of fun as I enjoy every minute I spend with my son Brendan in the field or on the water.

His First Slab of the Season…..

Alright! Now tell me, who caught the most fish?

Good looking Pies

Good report and great pics… Where are you from? I have good friends in Marshall…

Gregg, how much ice did you guys have? We are just now getting decent ice up here in the snowbelt. About 3″ on the bigger lakes which froze after the snowstorm we had last week.

I will have to admit, I did get out fished last night by a dozen or so…….

Tom- I live about 1/2 hr West of Marshall in Galesburg….

NTW- We havent got the snow so ice conditions in my area are improving everyday. The bigger lakes are still a little shaky with 2-3″. Little snow accumilation in the forecast so it’s only going to get better ……….

Great to see another SW MI guy on here. I am hopeing to get out next weekend for the first time. Love the photos. Great lookin fish. Good luck and stay safe.

Merry Christmas to all on the site The plan tonight was to get out locate those crappies and get my son Brendan on some Slab Action. As fishing goes things can change from day to day. The good side of the coin was we were marking smelt up high in the water column and he got to catch a few of those tasty little piranhas. We met up with my buddy Lon and he was working minnows for those Magnums that we were searching for. To my surprise he caught a smelt on a minnow, unbelievable Well I hole hopped for awhile looking for a just a rouge crappie roaming around. I heard Lon yell he got a decent eater size one. As I headed back that way he ended banging 4 crappies out of that hole really quick and then that was it. I sat and watched Brendan catch some smelt and Lon moved to some other holes. It was time to pack up and Brendan and I walked over to say goodbye to him, He said oh here comes one. He set the hook and I could tell right away he had some weight on the other end, now it was “Game Time” Couple of really juiced up power runs I knew we had more than a crappie on With the solid black ice and the lantern going we finally saw what was on the other end of the line right under Brendan’s feet, a beautiful northern with its yellow spots gleaming from the light of the lantern. The look on Brendan’s face was priceless not to mention the look Lon’s too Lon worked the fish like a pro not stressing the 2# line and keeping the line in the middle of the hole, finally I saw an opportunity to gill her and seal the deal. Knuckle Knocks all around and Lon said that was his first pike on a jigging rod Booyah, What a hoot, I live for these moments and to get to share it with a good friend and my son tonight was icing on the cake …………

Lon with his first Pike on an Austin Elite Rod {UL}…..

I’ll bet that gater was a blast on ultra light gear, and it wouldn’t matter if you were the one in the battle or a spectator.

Not satisfied with the morning outing Brendan and I loaded up and heading South to one of our old lakes that in the past has yielded some nice crappie catches. As we unloaded Brendan remembered that it’s a good half mile treck out to the area we fish But with minimal snow on the ice made pulling our Frabill pretty easy. I started cutting holes and BJ got out his Fl-20 to look for suspended fish. Didn’t take and we found some fish schooling through. A mild night in the mid 30’s made for a comfortable evening of fishing. The bite never really got going until about 9:30 then we had multiple schools at different depths. We just kept working the active fish and ended up with a fine mess of crappies and a few blugills mixed in for lunch today. All fish including the bluegills and a smaller bass came on the glow jig/minnow combo. We jigged a little but dead sticking was the dominate presentation. Another fine fishing adventure with my son Just doesn’t get any better than that …………