Building ice, ice fishing and ongoing lakefront perch

6 yr old Michael Dornfeld and his dad Courtney from Glen Ellen, IL had two tip-up flags fly on Lake Puckaway this afternoon. Michael told his dad I’ll get this one and pulled in his first ever northern pike on a tip-up!

Hi Dale,

I didn’t get wet, but I’m going to wait a few days before going back out on the ice, it wasn’t much more than a couple of inches thick. That was an unpleasant surprise after several days below freezing. This particular pond has several things in its favor as far as ice formation: as can be seen in the attached image, the pond is located at the bottom of a depression, so it’s out of the wind; it’s small; there are neither beavers nor waterfowl. If this place is barely two inches thick, I wouldn’t want to be out on bigger water or a lake with a lot of waterfowl activity.

I cut half a dozen holes and fished by jigging a Swedish pimple and suspending a Mini Mite tipped with a Berkeley Powerbait under a float. Neither tactics was productive.

Pete

Hi Dale, enjoy reading the column, keep up the great work, wanted to share some info on the Calumet system for perch. Fishing has been decent depending on the day, caught a ton of little ones plus some keepers today, as well as some fish lost and missed bites. We were in the river by boat. I’ll attach a pic of my share of the catch. . . . Hope all is well and Happy Holidays! Derek

Capt. Rich Sleziak at Slez’s Bait in Lake Station, Indiana, texted:

Still lots of perch being caught from shore and boat fisherman seems like 87th and way up river best but action here and there at other spots

Hey Dale,

Here is a recap of this past weeks fishing

Area lakes- waiting

Here is an updated ice report for IL. Ponds and backwater areas wind protected locked up Saturday night into Sunday. Smaller lakes locked up last night into this morning. Ice will continue to build with this weeks forecast.

The wildcard will be Thursday and Friday and whether that storm hits us. Fingers crossed on that one.

**Use extreme caution when checking first ice**

TTYL

—

Ken Husker O’Malley

Husker Outdoors Waterwerks fishing team

Anglers can access the lake after 12:00 PM during duck season (ends 12/27 in the Central Zone).

We don’t offer public goose hunting at Emiquon, so anglers can begin accessing the lake sunrise to sunset beginning on 12/28.

As a reminder, anglers and other users need an access permit. These are available at Dickson Mounds Museum during their normal hours of operation, and expire on 12/31, thus, users will need a new permit for access in 2023.

There are still a couple blow-holes being used by geese and swans on the lake right now, but I expect the forecast lows the next couple nights will add significant ice.

Bank fishing and boat fishing at Spring Lake after 1:00 during the late Canada Goose season.

Fishing Report – 12/19/2021

Mike Norris

Big Green Lake – Frigid air arrived in central Wisconsin last weekend but brisk winds that accompanied the colder temperatures kept many of the area lakes from freezing over. With lighter winds predicted for the early part of this week we should see firm ice form in Beyer’s Cover and in Dartmouth Bay. Both areas are known for big bluegills at first ice up. The main lake on Big Green is still wide open and should remain that way into January. A major snowstorm predicted for later this week may shut down the boat launches though and if heavy snow falls upon the thin ice, it will hamper additional ice formation.

Fox Lake – The main body of the lake froze over last Sunday evening and hard water anglers are venturing into Wedges Bay to target northern pike with medium shiners hung beneath tip ups. Bluegill anglers will venture into the area known as The Jug with jigs tipped with spikes.

Lake Puckaway – There is four inches of ice close to shore, but exercise caution when out because the middle of the lake just froze over Sunday evening. Ice anglers are catching walleyes and northern pike with medium shiners hung beneath tip ups.

If you want to add that guys that can’t get to northerly island for pure passes or parking passes they Can message me through Facebook and I can try to set something up with meeting them

4) Snagging for chinook and coho salmon only is permitted from the following Lake Michigan shoreline areas from October 1 through December 31; however, no snagging is allowed at any time within 200 feet of a moored watercraft or as posted: A) Lincoln Park Lagoon from the Fullerton Avenue Bridge to the southern end of the Lagoon. B) Waukegan Harbor (in North Harbor basin only). C) Winnetka Power Plant discharge area. D) Jackson Harbor (Inner and Outer Harbors).

If we’d had our choice, we would rather have had this week’s weather last week. We could have used some real cold to build our ice base up to support the weight of last week’s rain/snow storm. As it is, we don’t get to choose, so while we didn’t lose ice (still avg 5-9 as of this writing 12/19). We now have to cope with 4-6 of water and slush atop the ice with a couple inches of snow on top for good measure. Ice still accessible, by foot, but not without some effort. While snowmobiles and ATVs have been out on the ice in places, slush tough on tracked vehicles.

Northern Pike: Good – The preferred targeted species this week as setting a few tip-ups and waiting preferred to drilling a bunch of holes, wandering through the slush searching for panfish. Suckers and shiners, the bigger the better. Reports of a better early afternoon bite, probably picked up after the lull of the storm

Crappie: Good – Bite slowed day after storm, yet improved as time passed thru the weekend. Still holding in tall, green weeds of 8-12’. Location in the weeds dependent of barometer. High or very low – Crappies holding tight to bottom. As pressure changes, watch for movement 3 to as much as 8’ off bottom. Crappie minnows on dead sticks or tip-downs. Slow dropping jigs tipped with white, pink, yellow or silver plastic when wind allows.

Walleye: Good – Not like earlier, but still decent. Best on 2-3 suckers or wild golden shiners. Jigging the new Euro Tackle Z-Darters, Clam Tikka Mino and Northland Puppet Minnows tipped with a minnow head (center hook) have also been worth spending time using. Most evening activity in 8-12’, yet a shift to somewhat deeper water of 14-20’ is also occurring.

Perch: Good – Scattered Perch in cabbage flats of 6-8’ taking Vinglas tipped with waxies. Outside weed edges of 12-14’ use VMC Bull Spoons tipped with spikes.

Bluegill: Good-Fair – Most not willing to punch a lot of holes in the slop until it freezes. Till then, use small 2.5-3mm tungsten jigs tipped with waxies or spikes to tempt mid-morning bites from Gills in 6-10’ weeds. Late afternoons have offered up a nice, but short bite window also.

Largemouth Bass: Fair – Hadn’t had many reports. Few targeting. Most caught accidentally jigging for Perch or Gills or on tip-ups for Pike.

We do have some cold nights ahead this week. Hopefully, the sub-zero temps will get down and firm up the layer of slush laying over the ice. Single digit highs for Fri/Sat/Sun should also help. Ice conditions have held at the 5-9 range. Walking is recommended, though there has been some ATV and UTV use out there.

To all of our loyal followers, we hope this Christmas Season finds everyone happy, safe and healthy.

Kurt Justice

Kurt’s Island Sport Shop - Like us on Facebook

Still lots of perch being caught from shore and boat fisherman seems like 87th and way up river best but action here and there at other spots

Steelhead picking up In nwi tributaries voodoo jigs tipped with waxworms best but some on spawn saks

Lots of groups waiting on ice fishing around here to start up

Slez’s Bait Shop will be open 5am till noon on Christmas Day. Ice stuff loaded in bait shop come take a look.

Fishermen are still walking out on area bayous and lakes. Very cold temps and near blizzard conditions predicted for Thursday and Friday. Should be better after