FISHING WITH WILLY 2023

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Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Last ice

Steve, Dave, Frank and I started fishing in 10 foot of water to the north of the breakwall. Steve was already set up and had seen a fish on his depth finder so that sounded encouraging. Dave and I set up not too far from him and started fishing. In an hour I had one fish swim by, not good. I thought, what would Willie do, and the answer would be to start drilling holes. I took my auger and started drilling. It wasn't too far and the ice conditions changed from old pack ice about ten inches thick to newer ice that was 5 inches of slush ice on top of 1 inch of black ice. That was as far as I went.

Dave moved out and saw some fish on the finder. I moved out by him. Frank was close too. It didn't help, there were just not a lot of fish around. I did have one fish stick around and actually bit. I missed it. Dave missed one, Frank missed one and I missed one. We fished from 9 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon and we did not put a fish on the ice.

Ice conditions are not good so this will be it for the 2023 ice fishing season on Green Bay.

River ice is going fast

Still looks like ice in the bay but it is not thick and going fast.

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Fishing on a Saturday?

I normally don't fish on a Saturday but the ice conditions aren't getting any better. Whitefish Willy had checked the ice the day before and I couldn't stand it I had to go. I hit the ice about 9 in the morning and found my old holes. I drilled my hole and found that the ice was only 8 inches thick. It was 18 inches thick the week before.

The sun was shining so I didn't put my tent up. I sat out in the sun so I could keep an eye on the the crack. There was an open water crack about 10 feet from me. There was a slight off shore wind so I wanted to watch it. I kept everything in my sleigh so I could run to shore if I needed too.

Soon a fish came in and it hit. No skunk today. There were not as many fish around but it seemed that they were pretty aggressive. I ended up with three fish by 2:00. The ice held and I didn't have to run for shore. Another good trip on the ice.

10 feet from open water. Keep an eye on the crack.

Three whitefish in the sink. 19 to 21 inch fish.

Thursday, February 9, 2023

First Trip in 2023

Dave and I headed down to Green Bay for the first trip of the winter. Ice conditions have not been good as we have only had one week of below zero weather. There was a shore crack where we were going to go out. Plans changed and we checked out the conditions on the other side of the pier. We were very cautious as we picked our way out onto the ice. The ice turned out to be about 15 inches thick where we set up. There were two cracks between us and open water so we figured we could run for shore if any cracks opened up.

The fish finders showed about 10 feet of water and Dave saw a fish go by, a good sign. I didn't take a tent and was sitting outside in the sunshine. It took a while but a fish finally hit my lure and ended up on the ice. Dave and I were 15 feet apart but the fish seemed to be under my hole. I had two on the ice before the fish moved under Dave and he caught one. Dave hooked another one and he foolishly asked for my help to land it. Of course I knocked it off while trying to gaff it. We ended up with five fish. A nice sunny day on the ice.

View of first crack.

The crack looks ugly

Open water is not far away

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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