It Was Over Quickly

Well that is the first time I’ve experienced first and last ice within a week. We finally got that arctic blast we'd been waiting on. But it's got nothing but high temps, sunshine, and rain behind it. With no immediate deep freeze in sight our ice is toast and it might as well stay that way.

That being said I did get a few trips in before the thaw. One thing that is always a big question to me when we get extremely late “first ice” is how will it effect the fishing. Are they still going to come into those shallow quick to freeze places to feed? Or are conditions just not quite right anymore? The answer to me seems to be yes and no. Many times I’ve seen it happen just like it’s mid December and they are there and ready to party. Other times it is way different. This year the first ice place I tried happened to fall in that way different category. We arrived to find 3 inches “just ok” ice, stupid snowstorm had a big effect here and there was very little quality ice. However it was enough to get around as long as you were careful to avoid a few of the gas pockets floating around in that shallow water. Typically first ice is a gill/sunfish bite here but later in the year it can be really good for perch. We found in this spot that things had already transitioned from gills to perch. Between the 3 of us only 1 sunfish was landed despite us all getting nice limits of yellowbellies. It is always fascinating to me that every time I’m on a good yellow belly bite in the shallows that they are packed with young of year bluegills. The bluegills did get relocated a couple of days later but I was never able to make it out for one of those trips.

My heart lies with perch anyway so I’m ok with that. Bluegills and sunfish just get things going but they don’t offer the same level of adventure and mystery as big water perch. I had been optimistic all week about getting out to the middle of Muskegon Lake. There were a couple factors working against me. For one the girls were all getting crushed by the stomach bug. Friday they spent all day on the couch and despite Saturday and Sunday being the only days that held any possibility of getting out deep, I knew I’d be at home.

There were other concerns other than the actual thickness of the ice too. Big SW winds were forecasted and I’ve felt some big ice shifts out there on thin ice. Offshore winds always make me a little nervous for something happening around a crack or the ice moving out from shore. It was already all broken up and shoved at shore but the beach went quite a ways out so when I took a look it was only going through ankle deep water at best. I never ice fish without rubber boots on so it was not a big deal, cracks further out were my main concern. I wasn’t able to head that way until the afternoon and the truck was loaded with all sorts of rods. I had no idea what I was going to be able to get on but I was planning on exploring. I almost didn’t go check it since I was rolling solo at this point but I could not resist the draw of the sand docks and that perch ice. Nobody out there for miles when I arrived but I grabbed the spud and my auger since it is hard to get an actual measurement from a spud hole. It was a little thinner close to shore but I found myself on 4 inches of beautiful black ice over the deep stuff. The wind was wicked but screw it this might be my only chance to get out there. I went back to the truck and grabbed my gear.

For the record the fishing usually is a waste of time in the tourist hole right off the sand docks. So I was going to have to get a ways down. I had an area that was good out of the boat that was only 500-600 yards away. So off I went and I found consistent ice conditions the entire way. Of course it had to be the spookiest ice that I’ve ever been on. Normally there are small pressure cracks that will show how thick it is scattered about. This trip just nothing, all black and a spud was the only way to tell how thick it was. There was no getting used to that as it just looked like walking on top of the water. To my surprise it was open water over my waypoint. Something weird happened with a big pressure crack there but I popped a hole close by and they were down there. The first fish was big enough to be a slow reeler all the way to the top!

There’s been a few times over the years that I’ve had the entire west end of Muskegon Lake to myself. It is always a cool feeling to have that much unexplored ice and no one around. There is a bit of adventure in being the first one out there and I like that. It is lonely out there and I was happy to have Trevor make his way out later that afternoon. It is easier to keep exploring when you’re not alone. The perch fishing never kept pace with how it started but I did get a decent little pile. Most importantly we knew it would be fishable the next day. We did have a coyote encounter while out there. I noticed an object making its way towards us. Heading right for all the seagulls in the open water. We were a distance away from that spot at this time but we both said I hope that isn’t a dog. Not only were there concerns for it heading right into the water but there was no way we were going to leave someone’s dog out there in the middle of Muskegon Lake. The closer it got the more convinced we were it was a coyote. It finally got close enough to not really appreciate us standing there. I tried to coax it closer with some really excellent sounding howls but it didn’t work.

Onto Sunday, I rallied the troops for the last day of Muskegon perching for the year. We headed way out to where we hadn’t fished the day before and everyone got their perch. I finally got the stomach bug while I was out there too. My stomach starting hurting while I was out there sitting on my bucket and I knew this was bad. I had better finish up my limit and get home and clean these things before it set it. I got them all cleaned before I started throwing up but the rest of the night was not much fun for me. One thing to note is we never marked a single cisco, I think because the ice was so clear that they could avoid us.

I don’t think I’ll have to wait long until I can get out in the boat and try and a bucket of perch and few more ciscos!