Curly's Photo and Fishing Blog
Ice Fishing for the Holidays
WE are ice fishing on most lakes and as people get out wii find where the fish are biting.
Upper Peninsula:
Anglers in the U.P. are out in force ice-fishing thanks to single digit temperatures for the past week.
Indian Lake near Manistique has a whopping 10-12 inches of ice and the action is fair to good for walleye and perch with minnows the bait of choice.
Sault St. Marie has good angling action near the locks for white fish.
Munuscong Lake has 6-inches or more of nice solid ice. Anglers are catching nice counts of perch and walleye on minnows. Cedarville Lake also has 6-inches of ice and the ice fishing for perch is fair to good with minnows.
Brevort Lake and Christiansen Bay near St. Ignace are both producing decent counts of perch and walleye for ice fishing. Boedne Bay is good for blue gill.
Eagle Harbor is giving up plenty of splake action for ice-anglers fishing on the west end. Lake Fanny Hooe is providing good action for perch on minnows.
Lake Gogebic near Bergland has 8-inches of ice in spots but the activity so far is poor for walleye, and the fish are very small in size.
Around the Marquette area, most inland lakes have 6-8 inches of ice. Anglers are pulling in nice catches of perch, walleye and northerns. No report so far on the ice conditions for Lake Superior.
Little Bay De Noc north of Gladstone has 8-10 inches of ice. Anglers are doing well for good numbers of walleye, perch and pike.
Northwest:
Alanson anglers have plenty of ice to do some great fishing over the holiday period. Pickeral Lake has over 6-inches of ice at this time.
Good action near Boyne City on the Boyne, Boardman, Jordan and Manistee rivers for steelhead using wigglers and spawn. Fish are averaging two pounds. Susan Lake is good for crappie and pike on minnows.
In Traverse City anglers have good ice conditions. Long Lake on the north and south ends the walleye activity is good.
Near Kalkaska, Lake Skegemog and Little Glen Lake is good for perch on minnows. Lake Leelanau is giving up nice catches of walleye and perch. Manistee Lake is giving fair to good counts of blue gill, walleye and crappie on minnows.
Around Frankfort the ice is nice and solid on Arcadia, Portage and Crystal lakes with good activity taking place for perch and pike.
Ice continues to thicken around the Gaylord area on Otsego and Bradford lakes. The average thickness is 3-inches. Anglers are doing well for walleye and perch on minnows.
Cadillac anglers are having great success on Mitchell and Cadillac lakes with pike, blue gill and some really big walleye. Walleye are averaging 7-9 pounds and 26 inches long. Ice conditions are ideal.
West:
Around Ludington, the Pere Marquette Lake and River have about 5-inches of ice, use caution. Hamlin Lake has 6-9 inches of solid ice. Anglers are doing fair to good for blue gill and crappie and good for walleye in the evening hours.
Chippewa Lake has at least 8-inches of ice and anglers are setting up for ice fishing.
In the Baldwin area, the Pere Marquette River is good for steelhead, Howells Lake is good for blue gill and sunfish and Big Bass Lake is giving up good catches of perch. Ice is averaging anywhere from 6-8 inches.
Most inland lakes are frozen around Grand Rapids, Muskegon, and South Haven with ice ranging between three and six inches. As the temperatures remain in the single digits the ice will be in very nice shape by the weekend. Northeast:
Alpena anglers have good ice all over. Grand Lake is giving up good counts of perch. Fletchers Floodwaters has some really good fishing taking place this week.
Around the Oscoda area, perch and pike are in good numbers near the landings of the Foote Dam Pond. Van Etten Lake is producing good counts of perch on spawn and Cedar Lake is giving up good action on blue gill with spikes and wax worms.
Lake Margrethe near Grayling is good for walleye activity in the late evening hours when anglers use sucker minnows. Fair activity is taking place for nice size perch on minnows, and anglers using tip-ups will find good numbers of pike, however small in size.
Houghton Lake has 10 inches of ice and anglers are out in force fishing for good numbers of walleye and pike. Tip-ups with minnows and jigging with spoons or Rapalas seems to work well. A few perch are being pulled in as well.
Higgins Lake is freezing up nicely, about 2-4 inches of ice in areas. By the weekend ice-fishing should commence.
Au Gres anglers are pulling in very good numbers of walleye on the Au Gres River. Anglers are reeling in 50-60 fish but plenty of sorting is taking place. Blue gill activity is fair in the cuts and perch action is slow today.
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