Fishing continues to be decent on Lake Superior and Northern Wisconsin. Inland, the fish have settled into more of a typical winter pattern and travel has been excellent with some lakes seeing full sized vehicle traffic in the last week.  (Use caution and check the ice yourself if you plan to drive out!)

On inland lakes that typically have good basin fishing for crappies, bluegills and perch you can expect to find them out deep but don’t overlook weed beds with some green weeds just yet, either.  Walleyes can be found on deeper structure, including man made cribs, rock spines and humps as well as shallow weedlines in the morning and evening.

Using large minnows on tip-ups for after-dark walleyes has also been very effective .  Pike are still hanging around any weeds holding panfish and the afternoon bite has been better than morning. Largemouth bass offer another opportunity for some great fishing and some nice ones have been caught by sight fishing shallow weed beds with small tungsten jigs and plastics.

As far as Lake Superior, the trout and salmon action has been excellent despite high amounts of fishing pressure due to limited ice cover. There is still very little to no fishable ice north of Houghton point but the rest of the bay is seeing lots of good machine travel with very little snow or slush on the ice.

The smelt have started to migrate into the bay and with them have come a great mixed bag of browns, lots of splake, cohos and even a few steelhead.  The best trout and salmon fishing has been deeper than we normally see with most action coming at 30′ and down.  The whitefish have been tough to find but are very nice when you do find them. There have been some folks doing quite well on walleyes and perch on the Ashland side and off of second landing in the morning and evening.

Go ahead and get after that awesome mid-winter fishing and take advantage of the good weather and easy travel we have this winter.  Go get hooked up!