It has been an interesting few weeks on the lake. I am starting to get a feel for what the patterns are with the fish, at least for now. Overall it has been a steady bite, we didn’t see the usual early ice frenzy that some years bring. The perch seem to be following the same pattern as last year, roaming in smaller schools and feeding on shrimp and mayfly larva. I have heard that there are some schools chasing shad on different parts of the river, and we may see that trend as the season moves along depending on the shrimp population this year. It’s hard to know long term what the population of shrimp will be but if we continue to see high numbers it will only make the perch fishery better once the population catches up to the food source.

Northern have been a bit elusive so far. I expect as the winter progresses and the ice thickens we will see the flags pop.

The only other trend that I have noticed is the bluegill population and size structure seems to be very good. The bite has been off and on depending on the day, but there are plenty of nice sized fish.

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