Ice Fishing Report -- posted on Thursday, February 2 2012

February has arrived with warmer temperatures and that makes being out on the ice more pleasant. That is the good news. The bad news is that the mild weather, combined with what snow we had, has caused some slush to develop on the area lakes. We would advise taking a good look at conditions before traveling out with your vehicle. Heavy slush can stall a vehicle down, not to mention making it miserable for anyone traveling foot.

Typically early February represents roughly the mid-point in ice season. We are not convinced of that this year, as the ice is still thinner than normal. If we do not get some cold weather in the next few weeks, I believe ice out will come earlier this year. Time will tell, but for the present, ice conditions remain good except for the slush.

Panfish action continues to be fairly steady. We are thinking that some of that may be due to the lesser ice thickness providing better oxygen conditions on the lakes. Whatever the reason, crappies and bluegills have been showing a consistent bite in the past weeks. January is often a slow month for pan fish, but this year it has been pretty good. We are still hearing that crappies are suspended just off the bottom in the deeper areas of the lakes. They will begin moving towards shallows, but that will be much later in the early spring. Find the deep areas and fish there with jigging rods, or tip-downs and small minnows. Bluegills are usually in mid-depths and light line and small jigs with waxies are still best.

Walleyes action often slows down this time of the winter. We are hearing of some drop off now, but anglers are still finding a few. Fish above weed beds with minnows under tip-ups. Action is rarely fast and furious and we are not hearing stories of large fish, but walleyes have been providing enough of a bite to keep it interesting. Late afternoon and into the evening hours are still the best times for walleye.

Northern pike seemed to be more active this winter, but they have slowed down some. They will still take a medium to large size minnow if the presentation is in the right place, usually along weedy areas near the drop-offs.

February often marks a transition from walleye fishing to more of a focus on panfish. It is too early to tell if that trend will be evident this year, but we think the next week or so we will see a definite shift to panfish fishing.