Fishing was good this weekend, especially Friday/Friday night into Saturday when the barometer was low and rising.   Saturday night/Sunday it slowed,  but was there some Walleyes caught!  Most were too big to keep, but some fishermen were measuring pound totals instead of numbers.  Some pretty amazing fishing if you were in the right spots.  As far as weather, it was pretty miserable out there with wind and freezing rain and slick ice but most toughed it out.    The ice healed well and most fishermen kept there speeds down and our roads did well.  Friday and Saturday night there was some fishermen that obviously didn’t care what they did and how they affected others joyriding around fish houses with big rigs out of someplace else.  We received numerous reports from our customers. Many were pretty upset and scared about it and I don’t blame them.  Fishermen that have no regard for others when out there are obviously stupid.  There is no reason to be driving around others in the middle of the night.  I don’t tolerate it from my customers, if they do that they don’t come back. It will be nice when we get some snow and they stay in the areas they drive out from.

Starting Monday we will be letting pretty much everything out as long as fishermen keep the speeds under 10 mph.  The next couple nights will leave us with some good ice.  In all the years I’ve been out there, once you would hit 18-20 inches of ice you could always breathe easier.

Keep a Tight Line!   Eddy

Overnight we had some rain, but fortunately not much.  Temps stayed warm today with a lot of fog but overnight we are supposed to get winds gusting to thirty plus and temps will be dropping to the teens by morning.  Things will start freezing up out there.   Hopefully we will get a little snow for banking houses as most was lost today.

Fishing overnight last night was good in the shallows and also on some of the deeper rock transitions for some fishermen.  Most all too big to keep, but fun.  Today Perch activity was good on the first reef with some of the first good catches of “Jumbos”  I’ve heard of this year.  Nice to see, I was beginning to wonder……..

As the temps drop Saturday and Sunday and the ice chills down we expect a lot of cracking to happen.  Especially with all the traffic out there.  We are caution all of our customers to minimize travel once on the ice and when coming in Sunday to keep an eye open for problems on the roads.  We have 15-18 inches of ice which is good, but with a 40 plus degree temperature change coming, things will happen.  That’s why we are limiting size an weights of vehicles out there.  (No 1 ton pickups and dual axle wheelhouses).   We still have the pressure ridge to the gravel to deal with and we are going to wait until it stays cold for a couple days. For this weekend everything will be on this side of the ridge.   Bring your ice cleats!

Eddy

Today was a busy one getting ready for the rain and junk coming.  Fishing reports were mixed with some good catches overnight but slower today. Overnight has been the best so far. Seen a 30 plus inch Walleye caught in on of our rentals today.    A 38″ Northern caught and released and  some other individual big catches.  But then some of the fishermen had a tough day too.

The rain started at 7:30 and still is coming down but at least not heavily.  Forecast sounded like only 3-4 hours of it then letting up.  ( I Hope!)   One thing for sure if your plan on coming up this weekend you had better bring ice cleats.  It’s going to be very slick out there and if we don’t get any snow as it turns colder Saturday it will be really slick.   Due to the cold weather coming we are going to stick with 1/2 ton trucks/single axle wheelhouses,  3/4 ton trucks by themselves and smaller vehicles of our place.  Nothing bigger period.  With the ice as warm as it is now and when the cold gets to it there is going to be some major cracking going on out there especially on Sunday when people are leaving.   Slow speeds, 5-7 mph, will never be more important than the next couple days.   After this weekend sounds like we will have some ice-making weather and things will improve a lot.

If you want to catch that big Walleye of a lifetime or just have fun catching 20-27 inch Walleyes this winter is going to be that chance, so enjoy it while you can!!

Keep a tight line!

Eddy