Mid-winter slump

I just returned from a four day fishing trip in northern Wisconsin (Spooner, Rice Lake, Hayward, Stone Lake region). To say it was a struggle would be an understatement. The crew that I go with has been doing this for 16 years and this was the worst trip from a fish-catching perspective.

We had numerous FFS systems and could find and see fish… they just wouldn’t bite. We had our three legal lines in pretty much the whole time we were out.

I even went to a bluegill spot, it looked like nothing was there on my LVS system, drop down a jig and 30+ gills would appear out of thin air. It just goes to show how sucked to the bottom fish were. They would not do anything but peck at the waxie. I mean for 30 gills to just sit and stare and not one would commit? I’ve almost never seen anything like it before.

I am a firm believer in the mid-winter slump; when water temps bottom out, oxygen is low, and fish’s metabolism gets real slow. I guess my personal take is that we just happen to catch the beginning of it this year and that it’s a bit earlier than normal. Lakes we could barely walk on last year at this time we were driving trucks on. We saw very, very few people out fishing. Even on Saturday/Sunday we were only seeing 2-3 shacks out on big lakes.

What do you guys do when the slump hits? Take a break? Bring more beer? Target different species?

From Mid-January to Mid February I spend far less time ice fishing than before and after this window. This weekend will probably be it for my ice fishing until late February. I like to get out of the area for a week or 2 (Palm Springs or FL) during the dead of Winter and slowest fishing times. When I do go out in the middle of winter with thick ice and few green weeds, low water oxygen, etc. I lower my expectations.

If I documented my best 10-15 ice fishing outings ever by sheer size and numbers of fish caught…it’d almost certainly all be in either December or March.

Mid winter Can be a challenge for sure. There are still plenty of fish to be caught. I find you have to watch the weather and pressure for sure. If the weather remains stable for a few days and the pressure remains fairly stable the fish will bite fine. Start of cold fronts and rapidly rising pressure is by far the worst. Catch period after a few stable weather days and possibly a slightly falling pressure and the bite can be grreat.

Dog days of winter are usually in February in my region. I’ve had a great season so far and have not noticed much yet but it’s coming with all the swings in temps. 40 today and -11 in a couple days. That’s definitely going to mess with the fishing. I have noticed very short bite windows this season tho?