Houston's fishing reports

[Lee Borgersen]

      Houston's fishing report

By Jarrid Houston,  Today at 5:54 a.m.
 
The lakes all around the Twin Ports have fishable ice, but as always use caution.

The inland-lakes bite continues and will continue to be the best for staying busy. The crappies have moved off the shallower areas into deep basins, and bluegills are also staying a bit deeper. Electronics are key to targeting these fish and feeling out their mood.

If you can't get fish to commit consistently, you may want to move to find a more active and aggressive school. Tip-ups are still getting pike and bass and the occasional walleye. Setting up near structure or shallow vegetation edges will pay off, especially during the feeding windows of dawn and dusk.

The St. Louis River continues to be a tough bite. Anglers are working extra hard to land a few fish. The best bite has been after sundown for about a 40-minute window. Jigging smaller blade spoons tipped with chubs will bring fish into your area. Most often they are hitting the dead stick with nothing but a small red hook, sinker and fathead under a float.

Lake Superior continues to have a good bite in the Chequamegon Bay area. Jigging with tungsten spoons in UV colors and tipped with a lake shiner minnow has produced fish — brown trout, splake, whitefish, a few coho salmon. Depths of 25 to 55 feet of water have been most productive. Tip-ups with shiners halfway to the bottom or jigging aggressively off the bottom have been preferred methods. When marking a lot of smelt on the graph, be aggressive with your cadence and when the baitfish disappear, get ready for a fish.

Shore anglers are still seeing mixed success on the North Shore for 'Loopers and the occasional coho salmon. Long-rodding spoons, 'Looper bugs or floating wax worms continues to be a good approach.

Jarrid Houston of South Range is a fishing guide (houstonsguideservice.com) on Minnesota and Wisconsin inland waters, the St. Louis River and, in winter, on Lake Superior.