It has been a wonderful week in the Northwood’s, with great weather, plenty of fresh snow, and lots of fish being caught. Snowmobilers are having a great season, especially now with the recent snow falls.
 

The trails are in perfect condition, the lakes are marshes are solidly frozen over, and riders are getting out. Fishing has been really good with anglers doing very well on all species.
 

Panfish have taken the number one spot this past week for action, with bluegills and crappies being the most abundant, but the perch bite is not far behind. When it comes to targeting each species, location varies greatly depending on the body of water that you are on. Weedy lakes may have a shallower bite for most of the panfish as they relate to the weeds for food and cover, where as a larger weedless lake or reservoir will have the same type of fish holding tight to the bottom or suspended out over deep water.
 

Guy’s looking for action from big fish have been setting their sights on northern pike, and they haven’t been disappointed. We have had very good luck setting tip-ups in 3 to 8 FOW and baiting them up with a variety of baits like large golden shiners or larger sucker minnows in the 5 to 6 inch range. You may have also heard or seen a few reports of people using “HOTDOGS” for bait for northern pike. We read about it ourselves and decided to find out what all the hype was about. We had a few anglers go out and give it a try and sure enough the pike devour them! Believe it or not, it does work!!!
 

We picked up a few nice walleyes this past week while jigging and a few good ones on tip-ups, but the key to finding the walleyes was different than usual. As opposed to finding most of our walleyes on points or fingers like we recently had been, we found them relating to pockets or wash-out holes that were actually deeper than the surrounding area. These fish were holding tight to the bottom in some of the deepest water in the area.
 

Have a great week,
 

Phil Schweik
Hooksetters Guide Service
Phone: 715-693-5843