First and foremost, no ice is ever safe ice.
I know everyone has been watching this cold spell waiting and itching to get their boots and ice suit on
and hit the ice.
There are finally areas of fishable ice on Green Bay.
With that said extreme caution should be used on any of this early ice on Green Bay no matter what the
location. You should plan on limiting your travel to walking for your first adventures out. Just because
you may see other people out and they may have a shack out or even a snowmobile never assume you
can just drive out onto the area. Check the ice yourself and use caution.
As far as locations the Fox river has reports of 6”-8” of ice. Some Whitefish and a few walleyes are being
caught with your typical vertical jigging tactics and baits.
The lower bay areas like Volks and Bay Shore all have walkable ice and reports are the ice is rough, so be
prepared also reports are those locations have a lot of slush under the rough ice. Fishing for Whitefish
in those areas form most early reports has been slow. You can get a limit if you are patient and work at
it.
Perch folks are venturing into Deadhorse Bay and Suamico but no real reports of great action as of yet.
The Door County ice areas like Sugar Creek, Lime Kiln, Big Rock, Sherwood Point all may have ice but
should be considered suspect and with open water out on the bay wind and current shifts could present
even more danger for those locations. Some reports of light Whitefish Acton have come on from those
areas.
Little Sturgeon has had a good amount of traffic even some ATV and light UTV traffic but continue to use
caution if planning to head there. Currents and rock areas can leave soft spots and thin spots even in
protected bays like Little Sturgeon. Reports of light Perch action and a few Pike catches have come in
but not hot and heavy.
Sawyer harbor has had a fair amount of folks venturing out but again the action for Perch and Pike has
not been hot and heavy.
No one should be attempting to venture out to any of the areas on Larsons reef as that is spotted with
pockets of open water and not at all safe for travel.
Reports off the west shore areas around Oconto are similar with some light Perch action from Oconto
and Park 2.
The strong winds on Sunday have moved some of the northern skim ice on Green Bay and left some
holes. Couple that with the warmup in the forecast and the fact that boat traffic on Green Bay
continues conditions will keep things unstable for a few weeks it looks like
If you are headed to Green Bay to get your ice use extreme caution, pay attention to wind direction
Green Bay is not locked in and potential for movement is high.
Yah, only at Smokeys!!!
.
Capt. Robert Claus
FinFanatic Charters
920-360-2904
finfanaticcahrters@yahoo.com
