Ice Fishing Report Northern Minnesota
As a kid I remember March being a lot warmer. I used to kind of put it into the category of spring. Maybe I was too young to notice the cold, or I never really understood the difference between actual temp and windchill. This March in my opinion falls way more into the category of winter than spring. Snow continues to fall and temps are remaining pretty cold.
Traffic on most of our area lakes remains good. I can always judge travel conditions for a wide variety of lakes based on my view of Trout Lake in Coleraine each day. If things look like they are going well out there, then I can almost bet travel on most of our area lakes is good as well. Trucks were making their way around on Trout this weekend to my surprise. The snow didn’t have too much of an impact. The warm parts of our days are cutting back on the extra snowfall we have received, and the top layer then has an opportunity to freeze hard at night, making for a nice hard pack on the lakes. When I’m out with my young boys however, they enjoy the snowmobile ride just as much as the fishing. I also like to limit the chances of getting stuck and making the day way less enjoyable for the young ones. So snowmobile it is.
My oldest son Duncan pictured with the nice perch above, got to play the role of guide for our latest adventure. He chose species to target, location, and jigs. Trout Lake offers young ice anglers and opportunity at lots of bites, especially when targeting perch. Duncan knows this. Him and I have spent many days on this body of water during the spring, summer, fall, and winter. Many of the shallow flats on Trout during the winter months can provide tons and tons of bites for small perch. The kids love it though! Vexilars are not needed, but these tiny perch are what taught both my sons, even Decker, now age 2 how to recognize fish on the vexilar. and where to have your bait.
After an hour of taking off perch after perch after perch, I kind of geared the boys up to try a new spot that I have been wanting to try. Thinking we might run into some bigger perch possibly, bluegills or even crappies. Many of the shorelines on Trout lake have broken trees that have fallen into the water. Some of these spots where these trees lay also have deep water. You might only be 20 ft from shore, but in certain locations you can be in 16-20 ft of water with flooded timber. Sounds cool right. The bite was not on fire, but what we did find was a much better class of perch. Most of the fish were 8-9 inches with a few pressing that 10 inch mark. Put it this way, I think we will be giving this spot a try again in the very near future.
Northern Drift Outfitters Tullibee Rigs
So no tullibee this weekend, or eelpout for dad. However, lots of smiles and hook sets were had. If you read last week’s post I mentioned that I would post some pictures of my Tullibee rig that I have grown to love. Here are three examples or variations that have worked well for me.
This week’s report is brought to you by Jeff Johnson. Jeff provides guided fishing trips on Lake Winnie, Pokegama Lake, Trout Lake, Leech Lake, Red Lake, and many more. If you are interested in an open water or ice fishing trip you can reach Jeff at 218-259-8893.