With a little snow cover on the Iowa Great Lakes I finally thought the bite might start to pick up on the fishing side of things.A bunch of us met on the ice early Sat morning to get a start on putting some fish on the ice.Once everyone got set up things started fast with a few guys finding some active perch.Brain M had the early hot spot with 7 perch on the ice in a short time.Here is Brian with his fish.
Brian was in 14′ of water on the sand between two weeds edges and had alot of fish under him the short time he was on the ice.The morning bite was the best.We had perch under us off and on all day but few would bite.Here is Cole with a perch.
The perch were caught on minnows,wax morms,and wigglers.We also had alot of northern traffic in the area and had tip-ups out all day with out a flag going up.The perch would sometimes swim by your presentation,not even looking at it.Here is Shawn H. with a nice perch.
We had about a half dozen shacks working the area and had to be close to 40-45 perch before days end.Not a great day but there were fish caught.It was also nice to see a few friends that I only get to see a few times a year.The big fish trophy went to Eric Goodale(Goody) with a nice 12" jumbo.Eric,did your dad ever get to see a muskie through the ice?
It was a great day,Cole and I,along with Brian M,Panfish,Ice John,Supserdave,CSP88,will be leaving in a few days for our Devils Lake trip.Hope to have a good report when we get back.
Ryan Hale
Thanks for the report. Sounds like everyone had fun catching some nice perch. Good luck on Devils Lake and be sure and let us know how you did.
Thanks, Bill
hey ryan where were ya fishing?going up in the morn.have fun at devil’s lake,see ya when ya get back to work
Nice to see you guys found some fish. Best of luck at DL—you will never forget it!
–Whitey
Welcome to the site bubbaboy. Glad to have you with us. Please feel free to share and post all you want.
Thanks, Bill
Nice report Ryan. You sure are spending a lot of time on the ice. Good luck at DL!
thanks bill,ryan turned me onto this site.
Thanks for pointing us in the direction of fish Ryan, it sure was a lot of fun. Wish that hot bite would have lasted. Sunday was a bit tougher but managed some fish as well. Truck traffic was adding current to the bay and the fish were responding pretty negatively. Dad, Tony, and I each managed 11″ perch though. Sure wish I could have found some more perch like that big one. A great weekend though!
goody
Good luck at Devil’s Lake Ryan!
Be sure to take as many pics as possible. That lake is still one on my list of bodies of water to fish sometime both open water as well as through the ice.
Good luck!
Goody,talked to a fellow angler who fished West Sat/Sunday and said the bite was better towards the North end.Alot of walleyes were in the area and one close to 8#’s was caught.Glad to got some more fish on Sunday.We were out upland hunting.I bet your dad thought it was neat to fish in that clear water.
Bubba,nice to see you on the site.There are alot of great anglers here who will help in anyway they can.
Mike F,looks like you and I will be spending some time in the boat this spring!!! Look forward to it.
DeeZee,whats up with you?Hope the battery will stay charged in the digital on Devils.There talking -20,-30 while were there.This is my first trip and I’m looking forward to it.This will also be Cole’s first big “fishing trip” with the guys and he is very pumped about it.
Ryan Hale
Ryan, great report bud, glad to see a few trucks out on the ice also. Christy and I are headed up to west this weekend for a 3 dayer, hope things work out. Been lookin at the pics and am guessing thats Millers Bay?, looks like it anyways. Good luck with Devils lake, cant wait to hear how it went.
John,yes we were in Millers Bay.It wasn’t a fast bite,a few fish would bite but it was slow.
Don’t overlook the North end of West.Go out from Triboji and fish the 12-16′ ranges.
Also Smiths Bay is starting to get a few gills biting towards evening,set up shallow in or around weeds.
Hope you get some fish.
Ryan Hale
Thanks Ryan, appreciate the info. North Triboji area used to be a fantastic walleye evening bite years ago when i lived up there, assume it still gets some attention. Am i remembering right, on the south end of that triboji hump it spills off prettyquick into 22 ft or so? Heard from a friend today thats been fishing Silver at lake park that he’s been putting eyes on the ice pretty consistently this winter. Hes been fishing out around the island using jigging raps. Take care on the trip to Devils lake and bring back some lunker pictures. John and Christy
Sorry about the weather on the Devils lake trip guys sounded like it would have been a hoot anyway. Slow in posting here cause work is kickin my butt, but here goes. Fished west okoboji last sat and sunday and absolutely killed the gills and crappies on Millers bay. Found most of the shacks set up either out on the hump or in about 8-10 ft of water along south or west shoreline. We tried 10 with very little success. Had fished the canals for 2 hrs prior and never even saw a gill. We then moved out of the 10 ft water and up into 5-6 ft directly in front of the canal entrance on some nice stand up weeds….BINGO!, caught the hell out of nice 9-10 inch gills and some 11 inch crappies. Kept enough for a meal released the rest. Sunday went up and did the exact same thing. Kept count sundaya nd we had caught 60 gills and 35 crappies in about 6 hrs of fishing. Christy had a great time as did I. Now we’re watchin the weather prayin it straightens out for sunday to give it another shot. Be safe and good luck to ya John and Christy
Thanks for the report John.I’m glad you and the Ice Queen are getting on the fish.You’ve had a good year.
Ryan Hale
yep, im a luccky man to have a gal who loves fishing maybe more than i do and forgives me for all the checks written to cabelas and the bait shops…..lol