Can any of you WI guys help out some MN fellas???

[Sudhorse44]

Myself and 3 friends are coming to the Hayward area Feb 20 - 23, we'll be ice fishing the area for the first time ever. Can any of you guys help us find some fish? We would be happy with any species... walleye, perch, panfish, bass. We are staying at a cabin just north of Ojibwa, so we were thinking about fishing the Flowage, LCO, grindstone, maybe round, or anywhere else close by where we can find some cooperative fish. If you would rather e-mail than post a reply shoot me a message at [email protected]

Thanks for any help, we're looking forward to a fun trip to the WI northwoods!!

[vman59]

there are special regs on the flowage and all game fish including crappie is closed.

[Sudhorse44]

Thanks vman, we'll scratch the Flowage then. Do you have any suggestions where we can fish, just give us general direction. We have all the gear, Lowrance GPS with the Navionics lake chip, Marcum flasher, Underwater camera... we could just use a little direction, there is so much water in that area, we don't even know where to start.

Thanks again!

[vman59]

well this is what I have heard and it isn't much. Big Siss for crappies and northern and the occasional eye, Grindstone, LCO just about anything. Big Chetac eyes , northern and panfish, I would work the area around and north of the islands. The flats north of the island usually hold perch or gills and the bays to the east are shallow and the outside holds northern. The long point to the east of the flat north of the island there is a nice weed bed and a nice drop off off the point itself. This area holds eyes and is where I get them on opening weekend. Hope this kind of helps.

[Sudhorse44]

Thank you for the info vman, have you been out ice fishing? what is the condition of the ice around Hayward. We mainly fish on Lake Pepin (wide spot on the Mississippi River) near Lake City, MN - last weeks warm weather made our ice pretty poor.

[vman59]

the ice is fine but as always use common sense when venturing onto a new body of water.

[Sudhorse44]

Vman,

Well, we fishied one of the lakes you suggested, thanks for the tips. One day we fished Big Siss, the other we fished Lake Winter. We did OK - caught several crappies & sunfish, and also got a few northerns on tip-ups, I attached a picture of the biggest one.

[snoozebutton]

Wow, nice northern!!! Glad to hear you had some success.

[vman59]

anytime no problem ...GREAT Northern !!!!

[DonBo]

Nice tips there vman, that norton is huge!

Way to go guys.

[vman59]

who's who in the photo. The guy on the right looks familiar.

[Sudhorse44]

I'm on the left holding the fish, on the right is a guy named Jim from Rochester, MN.

[vman59]

Jim looks very familiar.

[Sudhorse44]

vman,

You don't own a bait shop just outside of Stone Lake on county BB do you? On our way to Big Siss, we stopped there to buy waxies.