Hayward, Wisconsin & Chequamegon Bay Fishing Report 12-14-14

Our good friend Greg Miller from The Hunt was home on a break between hunts and joined me for a day on the ice chasing panfish on one of our local  inland lakes this week.  After searching around for a bit, we located some nice crappies and bluegills in 24′ -26′ of water using tungsten jigs tipped with waxies.  We had to do a lot of hole hopping however to stay on top of them and never caught more than one or two out of a hole.  It was definitely good to stretch our lines, and the size of the fish was exceptional with crappies up to 12″ and bluegills up to 10″.  The ice was 8″ to 10″ with very little snow on top of it to contend with.  We got a little exercise in and walked, but there were several others using ATV’s and snowmobiles as well.  Greg was able to take home a few fish for a fry before he heads out on his final hunt of the season.  Tune into The Hunt on the Outdoor Channel every Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. CST to watch Greg, Jake, and the crew chase big whitetails all over the United States.  Safe travels Greg, and good luck out there my friend!

Aron Kastern has joined us this year to help out with our ice fishing trips, and he headed out on Chequamegon Bay to get a handle on what’s happening.  He fished the Ashland side of the bay in 15′ of water over weeds and produced some nice fish including a 22″ brown and a fat pike that Aron guessed weighed in the mid teens.  Tip ups with golden shiners and jigging small spoons with crappie minnows was the approach.  The pike was landed on a perch rod with three lb. test.  Now that’s a battle!  Nicely done…  Aron also caught a bunch of perch that ran on the small side with nothing big enough to keep.  Ice was 9″ to 10″ thick with just a dusting of snow, and ATV travel was smooth.  Since Aron’s trip, we’ve had some warm weather and light rain that has melted the snow and created some pretty sloppy conditions on all of our lakes.  A cool down is in the forecast that will firm things up again by mid week, but until then you better plan on getting wet if you head out there.  Water skis might even be a good option…  Just kidding!  Thanks for the report Aron.  Those are some nice looking fish, and we’re looking forward for more to come.  Welcome aboard!  Have a great week everyone!!!