Well I just got back from a trip to LBDN. We had 5 guys, and fished from the 27th-30th. We arrived at 2 on the 27th and hurried to get bait and hit the ice. We were a little behind and decided to try right out in front of our cabin for some perch and maybe a bonus walleye or 2. We managed to get set up by a little after 3, running 2 tip-ups apiece along with our jigging rods. We were set up in 13 feet of water over a weed bed on a rather large flat area. I started off using a 1/4 oz. buckshot spoon in super-glo perch color tipped with a minnow head. This is probably my favorite bait for big perch and it showed with the first perch coming in at 12″. We chased a few flags and caught a few nice perch, but no more big ones that night and no walleyes.
We decided that we would try the same spot on Tuesday morning as the morning perch bite is pretty good on the bay and most of the crew isn’t very good at getting up early. We ended up chasing quite a few flags and picking up 8 or so more nice perch.
Tuesday afternoon we headed for a steep bank to try for some walleyes. We set up on a drop that goes from shallow water (I’m not sure how shallow it actually is at the top of the drop) down to 30 feet of water. There is current through this area which tends to draw the walleyes and quite a few perch in. We started marking fish pretty quick but couldn’t seal the deal on anything. I had a few lookers, but they just wouldn’t bite. After a few bait changes and jigging cadence switches I discovered what the fish seemed to like; a vertical jig ripped up a few feet with just the slightest of pauses between strokes. I iced a 14 incher that had to go back, but passed the word about what worked for me. A little bit later my friend iced the first keeper, using the same tactics. We managed to miss a few more and lose a few on tip-ups, and catch a few pike, but didn’t ice any more walleye that night.
We headed back to the same spot in the morning and didn’t produce any walleye. We had a BIG one on a tip-up, but it managed to break the line. We also iced a few more pike that morning. I didn’t mark much, and we decided to head somewhere else that night.
We settled on a location off the yellow gate Wednesday night where I thought we would get into the eyes, but I managed to be on a streak of picking poor fishing spots. We hardly marked anything, and the only fish of the night were a 24″ pike and a 17.5″ walleye that I got on tip-ups and 1 perch.
After catching a bunch of rightly deserved ribbing for picking some poor spots I agreed that we should head out for more perch in the morning. It was misty and warm and the snow was melting on the ice making for very wet conditions. I ended up breaking off from the rest of the guys and trying to head out to find some walleyes since that was what we really came for. I set up on a gradual drop from 18-24 FOW. I had 1 flag on a sucker minnow, but didn’t really have many fish come through. Around 10 I decided to move out to a 15 foot flat in the hopes of finding a fish or two working it. About 20 min. after I finished the move a nice 20 incher came through and smacked my ice darter. After beating the fish half to death on the bottom of the hole I finally managed to get it topside and had my first decent walleye of the trip. It was getting late and I was getting hungry so I headed back to the rest of the group to see how they were doing. They had a few more nice perch to add to the take, and quickly agreed that it was lunch time. After a quick lunch break we headed back out. They went to the same spot, one guy broke off to find the edge of the flat they were working, and I set off for that edge as well, but farther south. We managed to do pretty well, the main group ended up getting 10 perch that were all about 9-10 inches, the other guy got 2 nice eyes that went 19 and 21 along with a few more perch including a fat 13 incher, and I picked up 2 good perch and a fat 21 inch eye. The warm weather seemed to turn the fish on and they were absolutely smacking everyone’s baits.
All in all it was a pretty good trip and that was probably the most fish we have caught on the now annual ordeal. We had to walk everywhere which limited our ability to move around and access some good water. Ice was 8-11 inches in most places and the water in the upper bay was stained pretty well.
I’ll try to get some pictures up later.
Were you using 4 wheelers? 
