This week's warm weather has certainly been a challenge. We have chopped down the ice heaves along shore enough to get bridges out. We are open for vehicle traffic at this time. However, we are not allowing wheel houses or trailers of any kind. The ice is still moving with the warm weather so ice conditions can change at any time. We hope the ban on trailers and wheel house will be lifted by Friday if it gets cold. Otherwise, Saturday. Call first to check.
Wednesday night was a good night along the reef with a lot of big walleyes caught and even some keepers. It had been a little slower before that so it was good to see the bite improve. Set lines continue to beat jigging, but maybe the jigging is bringing the fish in to bite on the set lines.
I have heard of a few very nice perch caught in deeper water ( 29-32'), but not a lot of numbers. Most people are still along the reef for walleyes this early so maybe we need more people trying deeper to find the perch. I think it will be like the last few years where the perch are moving all the time and if you find the schools, you will have a short burst of action and then they will be gone. They do not seem to stay in one place for long and certainly not from day to day. If you are really serious about perch, you may have to hit and run and drill a LOT of holes in a day.
