Yesterday we had some anglers out and Walleyes were caught.  A couple anglers were in 16-18 feet and thru the afternoon caught numerous small Walleyes, but the late afternoon early evening the bigger ones hit.  One 22″ was C/R from what I heard. One angler went on top of Popes about 11 feet and just caught small Perch.  I’m thinking the clear ice we have out in front of us in our fishing areas is allowing excessive light in some of the shallower areas and until we get a little cover, deeper will be better, except for the evening bite.

We will be advising anglers to NOT go past the end of the trail cones we have out and will have maps to show areas where travel is not advised. Ice depths where we have gone and marked are almost 9″ as of yesterday, some places in clear ice and inch less and in rough slighty more.  Areas like Banana Reef, the Bowl, Tundra, and the Knobs will be off-limits as there is spots where there is only a couple inches of ice due to shifting of ice last weekend.  There will still be plenty of good spots to try with out going out very far. We will be encouraging everyone to be safe and use caution where ever they go..

We will have plenty of parking for wheelhouse campers out in our field along the driveway, Private house owners are welcome to come up and portable and stay in their houses overnite if they wish.

5:00 pm. update.  Twice today the ice shifted from the sun warming it  around lunchtime.  Anglers reported hearing and feeling it.  Tomorrow and Sunday there will be more of it with the sunshine on bare ice.  One of many reasons we are not allowing anything but small ATV’s and advising anglers on the areas on where they need to stay away from. To let larger vehicles go out to go out when there is so much that could go wrong with the ice conditions the next couple days is asking for trouble,  I don’t care if there is “enough” ice or not…These days with too many people trying get out, there will always be someone not following the “rules”, or going out from a neighboring public access and seeing a couple trucks.  Then they think it’s OK, and away they go.   We think it’s always better to play it safe, even if it means loss of income.

Keep a Tight Line!!

Eddy