Chequamegon Bay & Hayward, Wisconsin Ice Fishing Report 1-28-15

By Jeff Evans | January 28, 2015 |

This week’s report has a little bit of everything in it. From small fish, to big fish, to strange fish, it’s all happening right now both inland and on Chequamegon Bay. Josh Teigen reports a strong mixed bag bite of trout still happening around Bayfield and the Apostle Islands. He spent a day with Josh from Green Bay, WI (the other Josh!!!) chasing trout and they ended up with browns up to 23″, splake up to 21″, whitefish up to 20″, and some small lakers. The fish bit well throughout the day as they stuck with tip ups and shiners along with jigging Kastmaster spoons. They located fish in anywhere from 10′ – 65′ of water. Assuming Josh is a Packer fan… A day like that is just what the doctor ordered!!!

Josh’s buddies Clint, Mitch, and John joined him for an afternoon trip last weekend, and the trout bite continued to be strong. They iced lakers up to 22″, browns up to 21″, splake up to 18″, and whitefish up to 20″. Kastmasters and blade baits jigged in 25′ – 40′ of water produced most of their strikes, and they also caught a few fish on tip ups with shiners. Josh reports great ice conditions with 14″ – 16″ in most places he’s fishing and easy travel. He does note that you need to be careful crossing the pressure cracks as they’ve opened up a bit with the recent warm up. Good weather, smooth traveling, and fish biting. That’s the kind of report we like Josh!

I had the opportunity to get on the ice last weekend as well. My good friend Rick Tutor and his 12 yr. old son Dylen from Ashland, WI joined me as we chased panfish in the Hayward area. We met up with my other good friends Jeff Miller and Tim Seibel from Bloomer, WI to chase a hot tip for crappies. Well, our hot tip turned out not to be so hot… Plan B. Jeff and Tim had been on a good bite at a different lake, and we decided to go with what we know. It turned out to be a good choice. Fishing was slow early in the afternoon, but things picked up around 3 pm. The flashers lit up, and the crappies came in bunches with fish up to 12″. A few big perch and gills were mixed in to make it interesting, and the Tutor men went home with some fillets for a fry. Dylen did an excellent job picking up the technique as we were using tungsten jigs tipped with waxies in 30′ of water. He got the hang of it quickly, and may have even out fished his poppa… Sorry Rick! We had nice weather, and I couldn’t have picked a better bunch of guys to hang with for the day. The lakes we fished had a solid 12″ of ice on them with light snow cover, and we drove our trucks around with no problems. Thanks to Jeff and Tim for steering us in the right direction and saving the day. You guys should be guides!!!

Aron Kastern has been into the fish as well. Boy has he ever!!! I think his crew has caught just about everything that swims in Chequamegon Bay over the past week. Aron also reports a strong bite around the Apostle Islands for mixed bags of trout, and he’s been able to get out a little deeper to target the big lakers. Browns, splake, and whitefish are being caught in the 20′ – 50′ range both jigging, and on tip ups. Lakers are coming in 50′ – 75′. Aron also had a crew in the bay around Ashland this week that caught darn near everything that swims out there. Smelt, perch, pike, browns, splake, cohos, smallmouth, and whitefish were all caught including Eric Bowman’s fish that was the biggest he’s ever caught. That’s a heck of a brown Eric, and congratulations!!! A big old burbot even made it into the catch. Man that’s one ugly critter!!! Aron reports that hali jigs tipped with shiner chunks and waxies have been hot for the smaller fish, but larger spoons and tubes are definitely the key for larger lakers and browns. All I can say Aron is, “That’s one heck of a mess of fish!” Well done brother!!!