WFB Conditions

[Fred_Bear]

Just looking to see what the travel conditions are on Whitefish Bay right now? I'd have to imagine there is quite a bit of slush in areas with all the snow and if they are getting the wind as well then there could be some nasty hard drifts. Man I hate drifts when riding old snowmobiles with bad suspension.

Anyway coming up in a couple weeks and starting to get excited.

[Tolens]

Fished Sunday on WFB there is SLUSH , we got about 3 inches of snow by the time we left. Morson got a good 10 inches . Will have a new update in the next couple days on the Morson/icefishing thread for the WFB.

[FishinFreaks]

How thick is the ice? Extensions needed this year? Headed up March 14.

[FishinFreaks]

Checking again...are auger extensions needed up there?

[fishnut2]

Aaron, no extensions needed around here. Lots of slush on the lakes is reported by Anglers ProShop in Nestor Falls. If you stay on paths from other sleds, you should be fine. Going to be warm again this week.

[Tolens]

Hey Aaron

Extensions not for WFB , but bring it just in case on the rest of LOW

Have a good one

Rob

[muskiebayresort]

Fishing on Whitefish today 3-3-2013.

Fishing on Whitefish this past week has been fantastic, we are fishing in 40-50 feet of water the average being 3-4 fish per person a day on the ice. The best lure is the 3 inch glow tube bounce it off the bottom.

There can be slush is some places worse than others, it has been freezing in the tracks every night makes conditions easier to manage. If you are using a tub, make tracks first with your sled packing down snow and then you can move around with your tub.

You do not need ice augar extentions, we do have about 14 inch of ice and 16 inches of snow on the ice. Be smart and you will not get stuck.

[drewbop]

Nice fish! Are you guys traveling primarily with sleds? A group of us typically target the middle to end of march for WFB, but we all have wheelers. just curious if we could try for middle of march AND end of march.

last year we targeted end of march, but the ice was to honeycomb for us to feel comfortable and we missed out, so i really have the itch to get up there this year-

[muskiebayresort]

Towards the end of March I think we will be able to use 4-wheelers. Give us a call and we will be happy to let you know the conditions. We have plenty of ice and snow. I see us ice fishing until April 1st if not later. Here are a few photos from today.3-4-2013 ice and snow conditions are good on Crow Lake and Whitefish Bay it is getting cold at night freezing things up.

[MT1636]

Just returned from Whitefish Bay and had a great trip. First time trout fishing in this area and we caught alot of fish. Travel on the lake was good for a snowmobile. There are some areas that had some slush but we were able to get around great with 2 persons on one sled pulling a large portable fish house. Just use common sense. We stayed at Muskie Bay Resort and the accomodations were excellent. Paul and Chris do a great job making sure you have what you need. We ate meals at the lodge and the food was fantastic. Can't wait to get back up there!

Mike

[muskiebayresort]

It has been a great ice fishing season. Just wanted to let everyone know that we have plenty of ice and snow and we will be ice fishing for another 3 more weeks safely. We currently have about 24 inches of snow and 14-16 inches of ice. Here are a few walleyes we caught yesterday.

[Jacob]

Freak - we are heading up as well on the 14th. Staying in Snake Bay. What are you guys riding? I'll say hello...

[muskiebayresort]

[video:youtube]http://youtu.be/HKHlrG0ZtWM

Catching a Lake Trout on White Fish Bay on 3-8-2013.

[FishinFreaks]

Freak - we are heading up as well on the 14th. Staying in Snake Bay. What are you guys riding? I'll say hello...

Jacob, there will be four of us. I'm on a black Arctic Cat Powder Special, buddy on an older Skidoo Summit, buddy on a Arctic Cat T660, and a fourth on ??

We'll look forward to seeing you. Good luck.

[Tolens]

I was in WFB Saturday most of the trails were good ... be careful if you a have a sled that is under power ... if you get off the trail in places its a LOT of SLUSH ...

Have a good one

Rob

PS I posted this also on Morson Thread

[FishinFreaks]

Fished Thurs 3/14 - Saturday 3/16. Slush is crazy out there. This is our 6th season up there, and I've never seen slush like that. And the fishing was lousy for us as well. 4 guys. Three days. 2 trout. Fished from 25 - 60 FOW. Fished tubes, Vibratos, Glassy Vibes of all sizes. Moved a lot, looking for active fish. We saw fish in most spots we fished, but they were the most sluggish trout we've ever encountered.

Always fun to be on WFB, even when the fish aren't biting.

Oh, and what's up with the cold? We thought a March trip would be much nicer!

[Fred_Bear]

Fished Thurs 3/14 - Saturday 3/16. Slush is crazy out there. This is our 6th season up there, and I've never seen slush like that. And the fishing was lousy for us as well. 4 guys. Three days. 2 trout. Fished from 25 - 60 FOW. Fished tubes, Vibratos, Glassy Vibes of all sizes. Moved a lot, looking for active fish. We saw fish in most spots we fished, but they were the most sluggish trout we've ever encountered.

Always fun to be on WFB, even when the fish aren't biting.

Oh, and what's up with the cold? We thought a March trip would be much nicer!

I was up those same exact days, we may have crossed paths. I didn't pull a portable so never had issues with the slush but a couple guys in our group got buried. We had a group of 8 up there usually split into groups of 2 or 4 except for lunch.

My biggest issue was the wind! Was basically forced to fish the SW side of big islands on Friday and SE side on Saturday. I tried fishing some of our typical open lake stuff and couldn't last more than 15 minutes without running back to wind protected shorelines! Definitely felt more like a January trip than March. Last year on this same weekend it was 70 degrees on Saturday!

[Fred_Bear]

Forgot to mention that following good trails rather than breaking your own to save a little distance can keep you out of the slush. I will always take the long way around an island if I know that route is slush free.

One guy in our group couldn't figure that out and found a massive slush pocket SW of Russel and NE of Cigar. Buried his machine 3 times before he could find a good trail again. Really frustrating helping him dig out when we avoided that area for two days and on the last day he decided to try and break trail there to save a half mile of travel distance.

The area I'm talking about is about a quarter to half mile north of the ice road from Snake Bay area to "The Gap" (N side of Cigar where people are always fishing).

[FishinFreaks]

We had a guy with a four stroke do the same thing. He drove to the deepest drifted side of an island and STOPPED! 12" of water underneath 2 feet of snow. Then he kept driving back through the slush trying to get a better angle for our fishing spot and not facing the wind.

Then he drove right into another slush pocket we had struggled with earlier in the day.

Almost punched him.

How was your fishing?

[Fred_Bear]

Haha some people just don't understand slush I guess.

Fishing was ok but not great, mobility was so tough that I think it really dampened our results from other trips.

Where did you guys stay and access the lake from?

[Jacob]

I fished the 14th - the 18th. Alot slower this year, we iced about 15 fish with at least as many lost. A guy in our group caught and released a 38" that had a huge gut, we didn't get a girth but I'm guessing it weighed at least 25 pounds? Also we caught plenty of fat 34-36" pike.

[Jacob]

Here's the SOW

[Fred_Bear]

Here's the SOW

VERY NICE!! Fish of a lifetime through the ice.

[Fred_Bear]

Any one else talk to the two guys doing a creel survey on lakers for the MNR on Friday? Had a nice convo with them and got some good info as they weighed, measured, and took samples from our fish.

One last thing... if any of you are from the group that stopped to talk to my dad and I and saw us each catch a fish, then go set up on the same structure < 100 yds away... shame on you. Waaayyy too much water on WFB to do something like that.

[FishinFreaks]

Haha some people just don't understand slush I guess.

Fishing was ok but not great, mobility was so tough that I think it really dampened our results from other trips.

Where did you guys stay and access the lake from?

We stayed down on Sabaskong at a buddy's cabin off Blueberry Island and ran up through Turtle Portage. How about you's guys?