Having put in three months this winter for ice fishing, I’d have to say that the fishing is good, however, the ice conditions and the weather have put an enormous dent into the volume of ice fishermen [ ladies] and days available to find decent fishing weather. If our area wasn’t being hit with some sort of winter horror, the down staters  and out of state customers were fighting ice storms, blizzards, and  horrible road conditions, results /: Low  volume of lake traffic.

The current ice conditions are at first glance, very much improved. We have no slush, and the ice is solid and any type vehicle can navigate it. However,  [ again] the ice mass is thick, about 30 to 40 inches of ice, frozen matter and snow.

That said, we have had the two tournaments I mentioned last posting and the fish taken to the judges were nice, very nice. Perch for example, were 13 to 14 inches, and a lot of them. That’s  Grand lake. Long Lake is seeing some nice Walleye and Pike catches, and I  personally have eaten some very good Walleye thanks to the efforts by Lorie on Long lake. I would like to use this opportunity to applaud our Lorie Rigs, because several of the 30 prizes taken in the 1,000 hole ice contest, were taken using a Lorie Rig and tipped with minnows or wax worms.  We’re talking about nice prizes like ice shanties, power augers, and electronic equipment.

We still have about three weeks; as of this posting for Walleye and Pike  [ MARCH 15 ] Perch of course does not close. And it appears from the weather  guessers, that we have a lot of winter left, no shortage of cold days in the near future. So we hope to see you here, for some great bait and tackle.

A note of interest for the very brave and adventurous types. A few people have gone to Middle  Island off of Rockport Harbor in search of Brown Trout, on snow mobiles. While I do not recommend this, I am envious of those able to experience this adventure during a  rare season where the Great Lakes are so frozen that people are willing to chance this. No news of success or failure out there, and nobody has been reported missing…yet. Good luck where ever you decide to drill a hole and enjoy this wonderful winter.  But be careful.

OPEN 7-5 MONDAY-SAT

OPEN 7-12  SUNDAYS