Chequamegon Bay & Hayward, WI Ice Fishing Report 12-16-13

I think it’s safe to say that we are locked into our ice fishing season.  As predicted, the slushy conditions from big snowfalls on our inland lakes began to firm up with the frigid weather we had last week.  Josh Teigen and his gang of ice fishing nuts found good access on a remote inland lake, and boy did they get into some crappies.  Talk about slabs…  Due to the extremely cold weather Josh, Acorn Armagost, and John Darwin were only able to fish for an hour, but what an hour!  All of their crappies were between 15″ and 16″.  Those are mega crappies!  The boys fished tungsten jigs tipped with Jr.’s Jig Tails over weeds in 15′ to 18′ of water to ice some of the nicest crappies I’ve seen or heard of in quite some time.  Josh reported 4″ to 6″ of ice on the lake they were fishing.

On Thursday, Josh, John, and Acorn headed for Chequamegon Bay and found good ice conditions with easy foot travel.  In 5 hrs. of fishing, they were able to land several fish including whitefish up to 20″, herring, a 23″ brown, pike up to 33″, and some jumbo perch.  That’s quite an assortment, and I’d say the boys are dialed in!  They used tip-ups and jigged Kastmaster spoons in 19′ – 24′ of water.  Again, weather conditions were brutal with sub zero conditions continuing to make good ice daily.

Friday brought more cold, more ice, and more fish for Josh and John.  Kastmaster spoons in 19′ to 25′ of water caught browns in the 20″ class, whitefish, jumbo perch, and an undersized walleye.  The mixed bag magic continues!!!  First ice on Chequamegon Bay always produces interesting results.  You never what will be on the end of your line.  Josh reports that ice on Chequamegon is definitely fishable right now providing good access on the Ashland side with 8″ – 10″ of ice and 4″ to 6″ of ice between Washburn and the head of the bay.  Thanks to Josh, Acorn, and John for another great report.

By the way, thanks to everyone from the Ice Force Team that I worked with at the Arrowhead Ice Fishing Show in Duluth, MN this weekend, and thanks to all who stopped by to talk about our products and fishing in general as well.  It was great to see all of you and all of the positive energy surrounding ice fishing.  Time to get out there everyone, and enjoy the awesome fishing opportunities we have.  Stay safe!