End of 'eye season report....

[DarterGuy]

We had guys up from NAFC over the weekend, we worked over some spots on Bemidji and scraped up 26 walleyes from Friday afternoon until 10 am on Sunday. It wasn't fast and furious, but the perch in between walleye bites kept us happy! The walleyes ranged from 7" to 18" and we caught them anywhere from 16' of water out to 38'. Moving around was the key, we had probably 50 holes drilled around our rental houses and we worked 'em all over... Best bite was from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday, with 15 of our 26 'eyes coming in that time frame. The perch seemed to die off as the weekend progressed, Friday they were on fire, and yesterday they were a tad tight lipped.

Hope everyone had a good end to the walleye season!

[bemidjiman]

Atta boy! Sounds like you all had a better weekend than me! I was out there Thursday and some of Friday. We seemed to have some good luck fishing the deep breaks but no depth was better than the other. We drilled holes all up and down the line and it seemed like chance. It didn't seem like the fish were holding, they seemed more like nomads down there but pretty tight lipped. We dropped the view down and would see them cruise through but no stopping and not a care in the world but then again who cares! The season is over

Now it is time to hit some of my backwoods crappie holes! I am taking 1 week off of fishing for work and then it is into high gear for March Crappies!

DarteGuy, being a guide in the area do you do much guiding for late ice crappies? And if you do are you more apt to hit the popular lakes or do you actually take people back in the woods? I was just thinking about that today.

[DarterGuy]

When we take out private guide trips it's usually ATV riding back to remote lakes. We have our best luck on lakes where there's as little traffic as possible.... We've got a few honey holes that we keep in the back pocket for late season guiding, but even a few of those get some other footprints from time to time. With the amount of fishermen out there and the amount of knowledge available on land and lakes, i.e. GPS chips, lakefinder, maps galore, etc... it's near impossible to have a lake ALL to yourself anymore. A lot has changed in 7 years in the world of ice fishing....

Sorry, I got off on a rant there.... Yes, we go to lakes less traveled, and try to stay off the crowded lakes...

[bemidjiman]

Do you ever worry about bringing guide trips to those areas? I have many places I will not bring my friends. Small lakes cannot handle the pressure and one good srping can wipe it out as we all know. Just looking for a guides point of view on this.

Thanks

[DarterGuy]

We go on a trip by trip basis, and every situation is different. If we have a group of guys who are hardcore ice fisherman that travel around fishing lakes hard, we won't take them to a back pocket lake. We also won't take a lot of people to those lakes who are within a reasonable distance of Bemidji, or people who have good friends or family in the area.... I once guided a group of 4 from South Africa, we took them to a lake less traveled, and we killed the giant crappies. No worries on that trip....

Lakes are becoming fragile due to pressure, and we respect the waters more than a lot of people I like to think. We do everything we can not to hurt a lake, and to try to keep it as untouched and natural as we found it. Bringing hoards of people who may spread the word is something we don't condone, nor do.