Hi Folks, I have been wrapping up my ice fishing guiding season. I guided over the weekend and I have 1 more scheduled trip. There is still safe ice to fish on. I have been walking on 8” of black ice covered by 10” of hard snow pack. It looks like I have another week to chase northern pike on the hard water. It a great time of the year to catch a very large pike.They begin to congregate in spawning locations. The large females avail themselves to us anglers during late ice and ice out. I don’t harvest these fish as I want them to reproduce. Just fun to catch! We have been setting tip-ups in 10’ of water and less. I had tip ups set from 2’ of water into 10’ yesterday. We are using small yellow perch we catch for baiting the tip ups as well larger golden shiners. Dead baits can be very effective this time of the year. The larger predators do not want to burn any calories than they have to in order to eat. Making it easy to eat with dead baits works. We have been jigging yellow perch.We have not located any schools of large yellow bellies, yet we are catching perch fairly regularly. Looking at the weather for next 10 days, I think I have a week left on the ice. Will be open water fishing here soon enough. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home.Have Fun, Willy
