Arvid's Fishing Report

Tuesday Don & I loaded up the snowmobiles and went to the Lake. We unloaded at the Wheelers Point landing and followed one of the marked roads to the Lake. Travel is pretty much limited to snowmobiles, ATV’s, and small Tracker/Geo type vehicles.  It was quite a site as we crossed Pine Island; a small city of fish houses for as far east to west as one could see. The resorts have been busy getting their houses out using small vehicles. Being mid day we decided to go deep and drilled some holes in about thirty feet of water. Fishing was slow to start, but picked up and we caught lots of fish; mostly small saugers that we released. We kept eight saugers and two small walleyes; caught and release a 20″ walleye and a pretty good size burbot. At least the action was much better than the river, where it’s one fish a trip and that’s what everybody is doing.

A city of fish houses in front of Lighthouse Gap and Pine Island

With the cold weather that we’ve had the past couple of weeks, we now have ice; good ice with very little snow on top. I understand that the lake has a foot and the resorts are using small, tracker type vehicles to move houses. Reports I’ve heard is that fishing on the lake is “HOT’. The river has about eight inches of ice, but as always at this time of the year, there are spots that don’t seal up right away, so one really needs to watch and know where you go.

I have fished the river the past couple of evenings trying to determine if I should even put my little shanty out  this winter. Wednesday I had one bite; caught about a 22″ walleye I released. Thursday I had three bites; missed one; caught a nice eater and had another half way up that got off. Others I’ve talked to are doing about the same. For this time of the year; that is down right poor.

It’s that time of the year, but we have not had that much cold weather and the ice is not safe. Sometime on Saturday a couple of snowmobiles tried coming across the Bay in front of the house and one didn’t make it. I saw where there was a trail of broken up ice, but didn’t know until Sunday when a group of guys started fishing out the snowmobile that one didn’t make it. It took a couple of hours to get the snowmobile out and I haven’t heard of any injuries, etc. I think somebody’s pretty lucky.

Fishing for a snowmobile in about 7-8 feet of water

The snowmobile is out of the water

It has taken until November, but finally some time and a couple nice days to take a walk in the woods and look for a grouse. I did that Thursday morning and got two.  Finished the day by fishing near the airport for a short time before dark. It was a bit chilly at 35 degrees and I wasn’t too encouraged, getting only a couple of perch bites the first hour, but then in fifteen minutes I caught two nice walleyes and two saugers. We may have a deer season bite on the river after all.

A kind of neat sight, is to get a somewhat close-up look at the Tundra Swans that stop on their migration south. They like the rice paddies south of town.

Two ruffed grouse

Two nice November walleyes

Tundra Swans making a stop on their way south

Thursday afternoon, Tom, Steve, George & I went to Zipple Bay after they finished work. We went to the same general area as we did on Tuesday and were fishing about 5:00 p.m. The bite was good and we caught lot of fish; mostly sauger and a lot of little ones we released. We kept seventeen; thirteen nice saugers and four walleyes. It was good for less than two hours fishing.

Tom practicing on little saugers.

Looking for one like he caught in February. (See 02/28/09 report)

George with a nice walleye

Steve with a good sauger

A couple of the Bosch Boys are up from Detroit getting things organized for the upcoming winter test season. With fishing not like it should be on the river, four of us; Tom, Steve, George and myself went to Zipple Bay on Tuesday afternoon. We left at 4:00 p.m. after they finished work and it must have been near 5:00 by the time we got to the lake. We anchored up in about twenty feet of water and the bite was good from the start. We used jigs and minnows; both chubs and frozen shiners. It didn’t seem to make any difference what color jig or which minnows we used, as we all caught fish. We lost count of the number of fish caught in the one and one half  hours that we fished, but we kept eighteen; twelve nice saugers and six walleyes. Numerous small sauger and walleye were released. The wind kept getting stronger and we were running out of daylight so we called it quits or we probably would have gotten our limits.

Steve with a nice walleye

Many of us are waiting for the weather to shape up and the fish to move in the river and start a good bite; both have been slow in coming.

Jonathan and his two girls are home for the MEA weekend. We made the best of a cold, dreary Thursday by getting a couple odd jobs done around the house and then Jonathan took Rachel skating at the arena. Friday, the weather began to change and Jonathan, Rachel and I fished the river for a couple hours in the afternoon. We caught two walleyes and a perch. Both walleyes were too big to keep. Rachel caught one 21-1/2″ and I caught one 25″. After an early supper Jonathan and I fished the river that last hour before dark and caught five walleyes. Jonathan caught one to big; 22″, one to small and a nice one 17″. I caught one 20″ and an eater. We both lost a fish that we maybe could have kept, so for the short time we fished it wasn’t too bad.

Jonathan and Rachel with her 21-1/2″ walleye

Jonathan with a nice 22″ walleye