Muskegon Ice Fishing Report
Muskegon Ice Fishing Report
I can’t tell you how awesome it is to be able to run a quad on Muskegon Lake in January! Travel was awesome this weekend as we have had cold temps with little to no snow. That is all changing right now as we have been getting some snow which will inevitably create some slush out there. That makes travel much more difficult on a quad.
The tug boat has really made things a challenge this season as they have cut multiple paths on the west end of the lake. A bunch of my favorite perch spots are sandwiched in between the cracks. The north crack actually has quite a bit of open water as of 1/23. With some snow on the ice that can definitely make things dangerous for anyone who doesn’t know the layout of things out there. My 2 previous perching expeditions produced nothing exciting. So we switched it up this weekend and headed out from Snug Harbor to the Bear Lake Channel area.
Who knew if we would find the right stuff out there but it is always a fun adventure. We cut some serious ice throughout the day. The first couple areas yielded nothing but small resident perch and the spot I really wanted to get to was inaccessible. But we kept poking around until the Humminbird Helix 7 lit up with the right ones. You can immediately tell when you are around the right perch. The marks are much more defined and larger. If all you are marking are thin fading marks it is time to move no matter how many are down there (school of small resident perch).
A couple perch in and I noticed a mark on my Clam Speed spoon as it was dropping. Cisco! I stopped the spoon and it was game on. Cisco are even more important this year because we are actually doing a project on them with the Michigan DNR. Upon catching the fish I had to take a fin clip and preserve it in ethanol for genetics and get some specific measurements (22 ¾ inches and 3.62 lbs, it was a big one). I will actually have to devote some work time this winter searching for them and I am not disappointed about that. I have a feeling I’m narrowing down some places where they are a little less random. The hope is to get these details from 20 or so fish to determine where they are coming from. Cisco continue to expand southward in Lake Michigan. If this is successful there will be some tracking done on fish next season to determine when they are coming and going from Muskegon Lake. I feel very strongly that there will be a really good winter fishery in Muskegon Lake in the next 5-10 years.
We ended up having a good day on the perch even though it was a tough bite. The schools were pretty spread out and despite continually exploring while the guys picked away at them I never came up with anything great. I’m just excited to get back out there and explore some more. I’ve seen enough to know there is a really awesome school out there. It is just going to take a bunch more holes to find it. The satisfaction of finding those fish with no one else around is what excites me the most about deep water perch. We were far enough away that we even had a coyote on the ice with us.
I couldn’t get away from the pike even out there in 50 feet. On my last couple trips for walleyes I have been coming home with a pike every time. Going to try the famous pickled pike recipe and see how that turns out. I may get a chance to explore some new waters this weekend so we will see how that goes!