Sulferidge Report

My son and I were out at Selfridge on saturday as well. Fishing from about 10:30am till 2:30pm. We saw several schools of perch and many walleye go past and even had a few perch (nice size ones I might add) go after some spikes, but other than that, we came back with nothing but some frozen toes and bruised elbows.

We had spikes, mousies, wax worms, minnows and wigglers (dead from the bait store as the sales guy/employee refused to get new ones until those were sold out) on the end of various color jigs and all the fish wanted to do was look at them. The slightest moment wuld send them swimming. We must have tlaked to nearly a dozen other guys coming in throughout the day and only one said he had any type of luck.

Third time out for us and at least we had some nibbles. Perhaps by the thaw, we may actually lfigure out what we are doing wrong adn catch something, besides the chills.

Any pointers? I can see some discouragement in my son. He is 7 and last summer was his first full summer fishing on LSC and he loved it. I just hope he can keep interest until late spring/summer time.

I went out ice fishing Tuesday (Feb 17) in the late afternoon at Sulferidge. I had been going out on the weekends with little luck so I thought I would try a weekday. I started fishing about 4:45 p.m. and stayed out until 6:30. I caught about 25 nice size keepers. All of the perch that I kept were between 8 and 12 inches. I haven't had a good day like this in a long time; I couldn't keep my line in the water. Every type of bait was working except mousies, but I was catching the big ones on minnows. Wigglers were giving me the most action. I also caught some on wax worms. The fish seemed to prefer lively bait so I kept my bait fresh. The mousies that I purchased seemed to be dead so that could be why they were not working. I never got around to trying spikes even though I had some. I kept my bait warm which seemed to help keep them lively especially the wigglers. I haven't had good luck with dead or lethargic wigglers in the past. Wigglers seem to freeze up real quick so I keep them in an insulated pocket. It is a real trick to make sure they don't spill. A pocket full of wigglers can be real fun. When I hit the ice I started shallow and worked my way out until I started catching fish.

When I got home I put some breadcrumbs in with my spikes, mousies and wax worms and then shoved them into the fridge. Seems to help keep them alive. Depending on how fresh they are I have had them last 2 weeks in the fridge this way. I add more breadcrumbs once a week and pick out any dead ones. I use an aerator to keep the minnows alive, but I don't seem to be able to keep the wigglers alive for more then a day. Does anyone have any tricks to keep them alive? I put them in with the minnows once to get them some air, but the minnows ate them. Maybe I need to get another aerator for the wigglers.

I went out Thursday afternoon about 3:00 p.m. I got a lot of nibbles early on but no takers, and then later on the perch started biting. I ended up with 11 nice size perch but I caught and threw back about 15 to 20 small ones. I also encountered a lot of bait stealers. They would peck at the wiggler until they got it loose. A larger hook seemed to help prevent this but then it is harder to bait the wiggler without tearing it. I caught most of the keepers on wigglers with a heavy jigging action. I was catching a lot of smaller perch on wax worms with no jigging action just a line in the water (kept me busy). Minnows didn't seem to be working for me. I think I caught two on minnows. I tried mousies spikes and red salmon eggs but had no luck with them. People who were going in when I was walking out said that the perch were biting well in the early afternoon. One guy I talked to had a 14" perch.

I will be going out Saturday, although I haven't had any luck on the weekends lately. It is supposed to be real windy again on Saturday. I don't understand why it is always so windy on the weekends; it is really starting to annoy me. It would be nice to have one calm weekend; maybe I am just unlucky and I am choosing to go out on windy weekends since I haven't been out every weekend this winter. I don't know if it is the wind or all the people that make the fish so skittish on the weekends, but I am probably in denial and the problem is the location or method that I choose.

Here's my weekend fishing report. I went out Saturday at Sulferidge from 10:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. I took my wife and I caught one perch and she caught none. She got cold and forced me to bring her in. I tried to talk her into staying out but she was pretty determined to go in. The fishermen that I talked to on the ice said that they weren't catching any fish but I didn't talk to that many people.

I went out Sunday at 3:00 p.m. and I did ok. I caught about 15 keepers between 7 and 12 inches. I also caught about 15 to 20 little ones. I saw one down in the hole that had to be 14 inches or bigger, unfortunately I couldn't land it. I thought people were lying when they said the caught perch that big. My brother came with me and he seemed to be bringing them in with wax worms using a hard jigging action. They weren't biting on the wax worms; they just sat there and watched it. My brother was too stubborn to switch bait and he only ended up with one keeper. Once he brought the perch in I was catching them with wigglers. I also caught a few using minnows.

I will be going back out on Tuesday to give it another try.

I went out Tuesday and hit the ice about 3:30 p.m. I didn't have the greatest outing. I caught 7 keepers and about 7 to 10 throwbacks. The fish were even more skittish then before. The fish would pick at the bait or wrap their lips around it and then spit it back out. If you tried to set the hook it would just pop out of the fish's mouth and it would scurry away. I think the fish are getting too smart; they can grab the hook without getting hooked. Do they make teardrops with small treble hooks on them? The fish would always seem to hit from the backside of the hook and try to get the bait loose by picking at it. Being able to see down the hole can be frustrating and it's hard on the back. Everyone on the ice was having the same experience as me that I talked to. As fair as bait goes I caught the most fish on minnows, but as I stated before I didn't catch that many. I did try all type of baits (minnows, wigglers, mousies, spikes, wax worms and salmon eggs).

I also used a tip-up with a sucker and I didn't get a hit, although this time around I didn't see any walleye or pike swimming past my hole either. The most interesting thing that happened to my tip-up was that someone in a truck almost ran it over. My record with a tip-up stays perfect. I have had hits on lakes up north, but I have never been able to get a fish on the ice.