Musky Shop Northwoods Fishing Report: Late December

Hi everyone

Welcome to the Musky Shop Fishing Report.  Ice fishing has been very good with a lot of fish beging caught here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.  For ice conditions in Oneida and Vilas County, most lakes have 6-8 inches of good clear ice with minimal snow cover.  It's also going to be quite cold so ice conditions will remain very good.  We wouldn't recommend traveling with any type of motorized vehicle at this time, but as we get down the road a bit, conditions should firm up and make better ice for travel.  For now, trekking the ice on foot is perfectly fine.

Bluegill fishing has been very good.  Most of the blue gill being caught are very shallow in the 5 to 10-foot range using jigs tipped with a crappie minnow, wax worm, or a soft plastic such as the 13 Fishing Jeffery.  That is a good plastic bait to tip your jig with.  Look for any good green weeds in this range.

Walleye fishing has been really good.  They are a little bit deeper but everything has been pretty shallow right now, but the walleye have primarily been in that 5 to 12-foot range, wherever you can find green weeds.  Tip-ups with a medium golden shiner, large golden shiner, or walleye sucker have been working very well.  On the darker lakes, the time of day has been more important, so you can fish them all day long.  The clear lakes are best fished for the last few hours of light or in the dark.

For pike, pike minnows and golden shiners are working well.  Again they are successfully being caught in that 5 to 12 foot range.  Fishing in general has been very good.  Hopefully everyone will be able to join us in the Northwoods during the Christmas holiday season.  Come up and join us at the Musky Shop.  If you need anything we would be glad to be of service to you.  We've got a great supply of ice fishing gear and plenty of fresh live bait.  So stop by and we would glad to help you any way we can.  Have a Merry Christmas and God Bless.