I often wonder how many guys hang up their cleats this time of year. While I’m not up to date on current ice conditions south of “Manland” I assure you some of the best ice fishing action in borderland for Big pike, Walleyes, Crappies and Perch are in front of us. When ice lingers into APRIL those fish WILL become very active. In all honesty we still are not experiencing the traditional “Late Ice” hoopla. There isn’t any ice swirling down old grooved holes and there isn’t any honeycombing on the sheet. The influx of oxygen from run off water hasn’t even started pouring down from the ridges into the lake. WHEN this happens SHORTLY the big Pike will become very active staging outside spawning bays, and the big walleyes will keep becoming more consistent in morning and evening bites. The Crappies tend to become tighter grouped. Right now we’re still finding crappies one or two at a time. This of course makes it more difficult to put bigger numbers on the board.
We’ve got 2ft of ice on most borderland lakes right now. The next 7 days calls for highs in the upper 30’s or low 40’s while getting below freezing at night. This I promise will not have any devasting impacts to the sheet. I predict ICE FISHING AT LEAST into the middle of April if not the 3rd week in April.
Due to the late ice out anyone looking to flag giant pike give me a shout. We never pre-book trips that late not knowing ice conditions, but line up the boys this could be awesome!! We also can fish eyes until the middle of April. Of course Slabs….They are in the cross hairs right now I assure you.
Yesterday our Crappie bite was flat out slow. We only managed 3 crappies, couple walleyes, pike,8-10 tullibee, few perch, few rock bass, sucker and a whitefish!! LOL!! OUCH!! MIXED BAG?? 
We lived to fight another day, and I fully expect CRAPPIE REDEMPTION is in the air today ahead of this front. 
Pull that ice fishing equipment out boys!! This is going to get crazy good!!
It helps out looking at the pics of crappies that could slurp down a 
