Lybacks Ice Fishing from 1/6/2015 – Yesterday only four groups of anglers went out. Their reports were mainly Perch during the day and Walleyes at dusk. The very strong south wind kept fishermen close to shore and looking for windbreaks. Today I’m going to start checking ice depths farther out and staking where our roads will eventually be (hopefully next week with this cold coming). Our plans (weather allowing) are to finally get things going around here and get houses out for customers. Tomorrow I am going to pull some more rentals that are booked for the weekend and a few privates houses that will ATV/Snowmobile to them as I will not allow vehicle traffic yet until I can measure 12? of ice. ATV’s will be allowed to pull out wheelhouses up to 2500lbs starting today in some areas also.
Red Door Resort from 1/6/2016 – Ice is checked to the mud! We have staked a trail to the north end of the Bombeck and Weimer flats and are finding 8″ plus consistently. Bob and Shawn are checking ice further and we will follow with results. The perch bite has been the big news for early season with many strong results of jumbo’s 12+ inches. Walleye bite remains strong for multiple year classes and our guests coming back smiling! Check out the great pics shared by our guests. Please share pics and information to our newly formed email address at [email protected] to share photos and information to keep our guests well informed. We are hoping with the cold weather coming in, we may begin pulling houses next week.
Fishermen’s Wharf Resort from 1/5/2016 – Average of 7″ out to Shaw’s Reef. Some areas with more, and some areas with less ice. Seeing lots of snowmobile & ATV traffic with portables in the bay. Fishing reports mostly consisting of some large walleye with a few small perch. Come up & get your January fish on!
Nitti’s Hunter’s Point Resort from 1/5/2016 – We started plowing off the harbor we have 10″ inside the bay. After the first ice heave we only have 6″ of ice. We continue allowing wheeler and sled traffic. Fishing reports this weekend were great. Walleye were coming in at depths from 16′ to 25′ moving on top of structure in morning and late afternoon. Sizes of walleye were also surprising we were seeing fish from 12″to28″. With a few keepers sprinkled in. Perch report was some big fish being caught off structure in 28′.
Castaways Resort from 1/5/2016 – For the most part we have 8-10 inches (1.5 miles, Carlsona, and to 3 mile) everywhere. However – Wilderness area broke up this morning (Tuesday) with 2 cracks with spider breaks and flooding. We do have a bridge out on our main road right before the road to Wilderness. We are only allowing wheeler and snowmobile traffic.
Mac’s Twin Bay Resort from 1/4/2016 – We are getting ready for the cold weather which will hopefully build enough ice to start getting more houses out. Ice is still variable, but we do have about 4 miles of roads plowed. Snowmobile and 4-wheeler traffic are still ok. Unfortunately, we don’t anticipate allowing driving this weekend but we hope that after the cold sets in, perhaps by mid next week, that might change.
•Right now, we have 6½ -11”” in bay. Main road is plowed to Road I
•Roads A, B, and C are plowed and have about 8-10”
•Roads E, F, and I vary from 6-9”
Fishing reports are still sounding good. Folks are seeing lots of fish. One group speared a couple small northerns followed by a 30 incher. That was a fun one! Another group caught 8 walleyes Saturday evening, with one in the slot. 10’-14’ seems to be the favorite. Spearers seem to be doing better with decoy minnows vs. artificial decoys and smaller suckers. Bigger minnows are doing well, too, for spearing and tip-ups here in the bay.
Agate Bay Resort from 1/4/2016 – In spite of the warmer temps, we are making ice. Where we had approximately 3 inches, we now have 4 – 5 inches and where we had 7 – 8 inches, we now have 9 – 10 inches. There is really no cold weather coming this week until the weekend so I doubt we will make much ice until then. I will check later in the week to see if we will be open for 4 wheelers. We will certainly be open for walking out. I talked to people who went out on other parts of Mille Lacs where they had more ice and everyone caught fish. The most prevalent was the 2013 year class (13 – 15 inches) but I did hear of keepers and larger fish as well. I did not talk to anyone who was fishing or spearing for northerns so I have no report there.
Rocky Reef Resort from 1/3/2015 – We are sitting with 5 1/2 to 7 1/2 inches of ice right now. It is putting it down very slowly. We will see what we end up with by the end of the week. I would like to have 10 inches to set the foam houses out, but we need enough ice to support the 1200 lbs that they weigh and not have flooding issues because of the thin ice conditions out there. The guys have been making it out to the humps and the fishing was great. They caught a lot of fish from 15 to 17 inches and of course there were a couple of nice fat pigs from 25 to 27 inches caught also, the slot limit is 18 to 20 inches with one fish over 28 inches a limit of one fish. I will keep you up to date on the ice conditions as usual.
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