Slow bite January

Its has been a little more difficult to get out every waking moment but I suppose that is a good thing. We have however managed to catch some nice fish in the last couple of weeks. We have struggled to find quantity, and frankly it has been a tough bite but we still have found fish. An afternoon on Indian proved really slow but a couple of pike found their way onto the ice.

The walleyes have been difficult to catch, or even find for that matter. Once we found the waldos on Cottonwood it has been a cat and mouse game since. Weekend of the 14th Paul, Adam, and Cathie came up and we struggled to find much. I did manage to find a waldo, and while Adam was chasing his tail around I took one of his tippers and caught the largest perch I have ever seen. 14.5 inches and 2 pounds!!!

I eventually convinced Dad to come join us as he was coming up later to help with the dishwasher but we needed to get him out on the ice! Shortly after his arrival he was able to pull in one of the nicer pike we caught that day.

As seems to be the case on that lake, about 20 minutes before dark, the walleyes starting biting. In a little under an hour we managed 12 walleyes. None of them were very big, but they were eaters indeed!


We packed up and took some pics back home.

The next day Dad and I installed our new dishwasher and we did so without flooding the house or damaging anything horribly. We were granted a quick afternoon fish so back out to Cottonwood we headed. The fishing was slow, and we only managed to catch a few pike, none of which came on the tippers. Dad did help with another limit of walleyes though!




Monday the 16th was another one of government-workers-free-day and I took advantage and yet again, headed straight out to Cottonwood. I walked all the way out to the island to see if I could find a pike larger than the snot rockets we had been catching. I knew they were in the lake, but I was struggling to find anything of any size. Even out at the island I only found small fish. I could tell this was not going to be the day so I headed back towards the bay opening. I drilled some quick holes and set up for the last couple of hours of daylight. In less than 20 minutes I had my first walleye. As I was taking it to the cooler, my tipper went off and I had my first decent pike of the season at 32 inches!

I did not end up catching another pike the rest of the afternoon, but I made short order of my four walleye limit and stuck around to see if I could catch more. I ended my evening at 15 more walleyes, again none that big but a blast to catch anyway.


Hopefully I can find one of these illusive giants, but until then:




Stay Tuned