Chippewa Flowage ice fishing report 1-22-2012

[walleyemaxx]

Hi everyone,

Fished the Chippewa Flowage yesterday with two good friends Josh and Jamie. Because of the extreme cold, we didn't Start until about 10 A.M. I left home in very cold conditions- 22 below zero at 6A.M. and by the time I arrived at the Big Chip, it was 19 below zero. I was sure glad it warmed up!. luckily the wind was nonexistent for most of the morning. However under a mostly sunny sky the wind started to kick up by afternoon but the temps started to rise. By the time we left at dark it was 17 degres above. A regular heat wave.

The fishing was slow most of the day as we would see many fish come in on the Vex but they were real skittish. Lots of times they would stay a foot away from the bait for a few seconds and then just swim away no matter what we did to coax them into hitting. But our hard work and persistence paid off. We wound up with a mixxed bag of 3 SM. Bass, the biggest was 161/2", all were released, 5 Crappies, kept 3, 4 Perch, kept 2 and Josh nailed a big Bluegill that was kept. We also lost few Crappies at the hole and the fish were biting so light that we had several hits that we just couldn't get a hook set.

We caught most fish on jigs and minnows and jigging raps tipped with a minnow haed. I kept trying the waxxies thinking they would seal the deal, but the fish wouldn't even look at them. They wanted meat. We were fishing deeper wood flats with a soft bottom. Anywhere from 16 to 21 feet deep. The fish were relating to the wood, but like I said, they were not real active.

The good news with the cold is that the ice has thickened up. Jamie measured 14" of ice and the snow cover on top has hardened up. Very good travel conditions. Could see where there was slush pockets that had now frozen over. No problem getting around. Just be carefull of current areas. If you've never seen the Big Chip with a layer of ice on her, you owe it to yourself to make a trip up. She's a different world now. I'll be over to fish with Josh and Jamie again real soon. Under better conditions I think we'll catch a lot more fish.



Walleyemaxx