Depending on where you went this past week has been kind of tricky as far as travel goes. We have seen extreme conditions in both directions. On one lake we had over a foot of snow with a 3 inch crust of ice along with areas of slush below the snow. These conditions made for almost impossible travel. On other lakes that we fished there was no snow at all, and there were areas of open water that we had to skirt around to get to safe ice that we could fish.
The conditions this past week were interesting but the fishing was extremely good. We had some outstanding catches of perch, crappies, and bluegills, along with some nice pike that we caught in the shallow backwater areas off the river. Most of the fishing this past week was in one of two locations, and they were completely opposite of each other.
On one body of water we targeted shallow weedy areas for panfish and pike looking for open pockets in the weeds. Once we located the open pockets in the weeds we set tip-ups baited with golden shiners for the pike, or we set up and jigged with tiny tear-drop style jigs in yellow or orange for the panfish.
On another body of water we were fishing a main river channel that ran through the system. We looked for and fished in anywhere from 10 to 18 feet of water targeting crappies perch and bluegills that were swimming up and down the channel. In this system we ran small tungsten jigs in gold and orange along with a few tip-downs to locate active fish. Once we found a school of fish, we set up in the immediate area and worked it until the school moved on.
Have a great week,
Phil Schweik
Hooksetters Guide Service
Phone: 715-693-5843
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