UP TILL Jan 17th Summary:
So far this ice fishing season has been not too good. No luck around the local area.
The only luck I have had has been during my trip to Hemlock Lake, where we did get some
decent, not huge, but decent gills. Otherwise it has been slow.
January 17th, 2002
Time: 7:30-8:30
Location: Beckers Lake, Calumet Co.
Results: Marked a lot of fish 20' down in 30'. Not a bite, tried waxies and minnows.
January 18th, 2002
Time: 2:30-6:00pm
Location: Beckers Lake, Calumet Co.
Results: Fished among the shanties, got 3 gills and 3 white bass that were keepable. Fish
bit sporatic from 4:15 to 5:00.
January 19th, 2002
Time: 6:00am-8:00am
Location: Bullhead Lake, Manitowoc Co.
Results: Tried for Crappies, Nothing.
Time: 9:00-11:00am,
Location: Round Lake, Calumet Co.
Results: The usual crop of small gills and some decent trout.
Location: Beckers Lake
Time: 2-5:00pm
Results: Got about 5 keepers again. Fish again biting sporatic.
January 20th, 2002
Time: 7:30am-9:00am
Location: Horshoe Lake, Manitowoc Co.
Results: 2 real nice gills, and also a few trout.
Time: 3-5pm
Location: Beckers Lake, Calumet Co.
Results: Slower, only a nice gill and a white bass, a few smaller ones.
January 21st, 2002
Time: 2:30-5pm
Location: Redbridge, Portage Co.
Results: Me and 3 other guys went out, got about 20 decent gills. Was a nice day out on the ice.
January 22nd, 2002
Time: 2-4:20pm
Location: Lake Joanis, Portage Co.
Results: Nothing but a small pike. Was out trying to find the crappies but had no success.
January 23rd, 2002
Time: 3:30-5:00pm
Weather: Nice
Location: Redbridge, Portage Co.
Results: Another great day on the ice, me and the guys brought back another about 30 gills.
January 24th, 20002
Time: 2:00-4:40pm
Weather: Nice again
Location: Redbridge, Portage Co.
Results: Fishing was slower, maybe 15 gills between 3 guys, not as fast a day.
January 25th, 2002
Time: 2:00-4:40pm
Weather: Nice
Location: Red Bridge, Portage Co.
Results: Repeat of the day before pretty much.
January 26th, 2002
Time: 3:10-4:40pm
Weather: Quite warm.
Location: Pipe, Portage Co.
Results: Got a few nice gills, not a ton. One was a big 9in + slab.
January 27th, 2002
Time: 3:00-4:45pm
Weather: Very warm & Cloudy
Location: Pipe, Portage Co.
Results: Started out where we were yesterday, right out in the front part there. Got about three keepers. Action was only so so; so we decided to go down the left slough
to the spot where that little slough comes in on the left. We had heard that a bit ago they had been getting huge gills & crappie there. But we didn't get a thing but small perch. We also wondered out close to the river there. Again nothing but small perch.
January 28th, 2002
Time: Morning
Weather: Cool, Cloudy & windy
Location: Pipe, Portage Co.
Results: Not much, a few small perch, bass, and a little gill or two. Did not stay long.
January 29th, 2002
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Weather: Colder and windy
Location: Redbridge, Portage Co.
Results: Lots of small stupid perch, bass and two small gills. Yuck. This cold snap
has shut the fish down.
January 30th, 2002
Time: 3:30-6:30
Weather: Cooler, cloudy
Location: Lake Joanis, Portage Co.
Results: Nothing but a small pike. Still can't find the crappies.
January 31st, 2002
Time: 2:45-5:15
Weather: snow
Location: Pipe, Portage Co.
Results: Took home one crappie, one perch, and 2 decent gills. Not too hot of a day.
February 2nd, 2002
Time: 2:00-5:20
Weather: Cooler, windy and cloudy
Location: Lake Emily, Portage Co.
Results: Moved around a lot. At our first spot we didn't get anything. Then we moved to a different spot and got nothing there. Then we moved back to our first spot and did get a few gills.
February 3rd, 2002
Time: 2:45-5:00
Weather: Cold, windy
Location: Lake Emily, Portage Co.
Results: Not too good, a few mediocre gills, missed a lot.
February 5th, 2002
Time: 2:30-5:00pm
Weather: Cool, partly sunny
Location: Pipe, Portage Co.
Results: Fish few and far between, brought home 2 big gills and one nice crappie.
February 6th, 2002
Weather: Sunny, nice
Time: 3:30-5:00pm
Location: Lake Joanis, Portage Co.
Results: Tried again for Crappies, zippo.
February 8th, 2002
Weather: Warm and Sunny
Time: 3:00-5:15pm
Location: Bullhead Lake, Manitowoc Co.
Results: Tried to find Crappies. Got one bite, otherwise nothing.
February 9th, 2002
Weather: Cloudy, warm and windy
Time: Afternoon
Location: Beckers Lake, Calument Co.
Results: Went out for Gills. Saw a lot of white bass on the camera but they wouldn't bite. Saw one gill but that didn't bite either. Fished straight across the lake from landing in 17ft.
February 13th, 2002
Weather: Cooler and Sunny, windy
Location: Tree Lake, Portage Co.
Time: Afternoon
Results: Went out for crappies (I will catch crappies sometime this winter!) but only got bites. Missed about 5. They seemed to bite better earlier when I got there, but less after 3:30 or so. Fished in 32 feet in the middle of the lake.
February 16th, 2002
Weather: Sunny, cooler, and very windy
Time: Most of the day
Location: Lake Dubay Co. Park, Marathon Co.
Results: Fished with a few friends in the UWSP paper science fishing tourney. Got a good number of small perch, 2 keepers of that species. Kept a 23" northern 2. We also got about 8 gills, but most of these were about 9 inches so it really made catching them worth while. We fished in the small cluster of shacks to the right of the landing there.
February 21st, 2002
Weather: Sunny and Cool
Time: Afternoon
Location: Lake Emily, Portage Co.
Results: Nothing.
February 22nd, 2002
Weather: Sunny, nice
Time: All day
Locations: Tree Lake, Redbridge, DuBay Co. Park
Results: A few panfish at Tree, all small. Nothing at Dubay. Got a few small panfish at Redbridge. Not too hot of a day.
March 1st and 2nd
Location: Lake Eau Claire, Eau Claire Co.
Results: It was cold and nasty and the fish weren't biting.
March 2nd, 2002
Location: Hemlock Lake, Barron Co.
Time: Afternoon
Weather: Cold and Sunny
Results: In one spot we got bluegills but they were all small, and in another spot we got a few crappies. Not too good.
March 8th-15th, 2002
Location: Lake Joanis, Portage Co.
Times: Various
Weather: Various
Results: Fished Joanis a few times between this span of days. Mostly fished for crappies. We have been getting a few, but no slaughterfest. Also we have been getting a good number of small bass and northern to. The best crappie fishing seemed to be at night.
March 15th-20th, 2002
Location: Lake Joanis, Portage Co.
Results: It is only fitting that I finished ice fishing out at Lake Joanis. Fishing wasn't too spectacular. A decent amount of crappies were caught, the biggest being about 11 or 12 inches. Not too bad for the last of ice fishing season.
April 3rd 2002
Location: Below the waste treatment plant dam, WI River, Stevens Point.
Time: Late afternoon
Weather: Cold
Results: Not too good. Didn't have any live bait. However we did manange to get one walleye and miss to others on plastics. The walleye were small. The action wasn't too hot there with other people also.
April 7th, 2002
Location: DuBay Dam
Time: Afternoon
Weather: Cool
Results: zippo
April 9th, 2002
Location: DuBay Dam
Time: Afternoon
Weather: Nice, warm
Results: 2 decent pike while jigging for Walleye
April 11th 2002
Location: DuBay Dam
Time: Afternoon
Weather: Rainy, kinda warm
Results: Great day of fishing. Me and 3 other guys came back with 12 legal walleyes. All between 15 & 17.5 inches. It was a fun time out. Fish actually hit really well.
April 12th-13th: Went out several places. Nothing. Water too high
April 19th, 2002
Time: Afternoon, evening
Weather: Nice
Location: DuBay Dam
Results: Got tons of walleye, must have been about 40 between me and my buddy. Only one legal though. Kind of dissappointing.
April 20th, 2002
Time: Evening
Location: RedBridge, Portage Co.
Weahter: Nice, cool, clear
Results: Was not in the best spot. Crappies are hitting. Saw a lot caught. Got 2 myself after the main group left. Real nice big ones being caught there.
April 23rd, 2002
Time: Evening
Location: Redbridge, Portage Co.
Weather: Cool
Results: Nothing
May 2nd, 2002
Time: Late Afternoon
Location: Redbridge, Portage Co.
Weather: Ok
Results: Went out with three other guys, came back with 20 crappies of decent size. Some guy by the bridge was catching some nice gills.
May 3rd, 2002
Time: Evening
Location: Bullhead Lake, Manitowoc Co.
Weather: Cool again, P sunny
Results: Typical Bullhead, zippo
May 4th, 2002
Time: Evening
Weather: Cool, p cloudy
Location: Beckers Lake, Calumet Co.
Results: Actually had a nice trip. Kept 1 crappie, 10 gills, and 16 yellow bass. Not a bad night. Fish are starting to come up close to shore, about 7 feet.
May 6th, 2002
Time: Morning and evening
Weather: Nice and sunny, T-storms, warm
Location: Backwaters past Redbridge, Portage Co.
Results: Nice catch of decent crappies and gills
May 8th, 2002
Time: Late Afternoon
Weather: Cool, cloudy, windy
Location: Backwaters past Redbridge, Portage Co.
Results: Some real nice gills and crappies again, one crappie was over 14". The fish were not biting as well though. Had to have a bit more patience.
May 15th, 2002
May 20th, 2002
Second Last week of May through first week of June
Last Entry until July 17th, 2002
Since my last entry I have mostly been fishing around Manitowoc Co. Long Lake has been productive in the shallows for gills, so so size. I haven't been out there since Mid June though. Lately I have been foolishly concentrating my efforts on Bullhead Lake, Manitowoc Co., trying to hit it big with the big gills. I have had limited success, a few plate gills here and there but no real good trips. I usually bring home about 6 big bluegills but that is it. However I did get a 20" bass there last week on accident fishing for gills with a mercury minnow. Nice fish.
July 17th to the Present (8/30/2002)
Boy, the summer sure does pass fast. Wish I could have gotten back to updating this sooner. Well let me see what has happened since last time. I have had to trips to lake Eau Claire since then. Once in late July and once last weekend. Both were pretty good for panfish, which is all I fished for. The first weekend we got the most action where the Eau Claire River spills into the lake, the last time (last weekend) it was in the mouth area of Muskrat creek. The only other lake I have really fished has been bullhead lake, Manitowoc Co. I was fishing the deep weedlines and having only minimal sucess with halfway sized gills. Then I started to drift and drag off the bottom in anywhere from 12 to about 20 feet of water. There I have been picking up some real nice gills. Not piles of them as it is summer and they are scattered. But I can usually bring home about 7 or so real big ones. Not too bad I guess. In two days it is back to Point for my last year of school. Should be fun. JB
August 30th to September 16th, 2002
October 30th, 2002
Synopsis to the end of 2002
Well sorry I have been out so long. Been pretty busy as it has been my last sememster at UWSP. Lets see hear, what happened from Nov-Dec 2002. Well not a whole heck of a lot. I guess the highlight of the time peroid was just hammering the crappies at Joanis in early December. That was great. Joanis was my best lake I think early ice. Back home I just piddled around at Beckers Lake, Calument Co. Got a few decent gills and y. bass. End of December I went up to Alexandria MN. That was fun. Lots of nice gills, crappies.
Time: Afternoon>br>
Weather: Cool
Results: Not much. Cold weather shut them down.
Time: Morning
Location: Beckers Lake, Calumet Co.
Weather: Cold
Results: zippo
Ok, its June 10th so I will try to remember where I went out in chronilogical order. First I think I went out to Beckers Lake again, Calumet Co, and did well once again for Yellow Bass. I think I made two or three trips out there. The last Friday in May they were real close to shore in schools. A few gills also. I also was out to Long Lake, Manitowoc Co, the last week in May I think the Wed and Thursday. Gills in the shallows, mostly just males yet. Decent size. Then we went across the state to Lake Eau Claire on the last Friday in May. Gills were pretty good in the backwaters until the cold snap, then nothing. Crappies and perch biting well at the lake, walleyes quite slow for us. I also went up to Bass Lake and Hemlock Lake in Baron Co. Lots of fish biting in both lakes, however most fish were small.
Ok, I am back in Point for my last year. Here's the skinny on what is going on. The panfish are biting average. I got some nice fish at pipe and redbridge. At the pipe there was a lot of action, but you had to weed through an awful lot of small ones, at Redbridge I found more quality than quanity however. As for the eyes they are catching some legals in town at the culvert below the dam. Also they are getting gills and nice crappies there off and on.
Summary since Sept 16th, 2002
So what is new since Sept 16th. Not a whole lot. Panfish season seemed to end for me as soon as cooler weather made its appearance. However in recent weeks I guess panfish action has been hot at redbridge and the pipe. I have concentrated on walleyes myself. In town at Bank one I have got a good amount of fish for that spot, but they all have been small. Below the dam in town by the pipe I have had good luck, getting legal fish every time I have been out. I haven't been there in about 2 weeks though. Last week I was at Dubay twice. On Wed I went out in a boat with a friend. The afternoon was slow, but from about an hour before dusk till dusk the fish were slamming. A fish every cast. They even hit twister tails aggressively. I got a 26 inch walleye that night. I went back on Sunday and fished off shore. I got a good amount of fish, no legals though. A lot of 14.5" fish. I didn't stay until prime bite time though.