Weld County winter anglers

Weld County and its surrounding area offer several locations for ice fishing — whether it’s St. Vrain State Park, Boyd Lake State Park, Jackson Lake State Park or Frank State Wildlife Area. That’s not to mention the numerous lakes in the foothills and Front Range mountains within a few hours drive of Greeley and Weld County.

St. Vrain is the go-to spot for Weld County winter anglers, offering ice fishing at 10 of its 11 ponds during the winter. St. Vrain State Park Manager Scott Reffel and company stock the park’s ponds with an extensive variety of fish, including trout, walleye, catfish and pike.
A word of advice from Reffel on a successful ice fishing venture: use smaller bait.
“Smaller is usually better: Swedish pimples, meal worms or just the head of a live worm will land substantially more fish than large jigs or bait,” Reffel said. “The exception is with the trophy bass and walleye, they will usually go for medium sized jigs and anything that looks and/or smells like shad.”

Black Hawk Lake:

 Ice is variable. Most angling activity has been restricted to the area near Ice House Point boat ramp and in the bay near the inlet bridge. Ice thickness off the boat ramp of Ice House Point was 7 inches. Bluegill - Fair: Bluegills have been picked up from open water under the inlet bridge and through the ice between the Ice House Point boat ramp and Gunshot Hill. Use a small jig tipped with waxworm. Black Crappie - Fair: Crappie are being picked up through the ice in between the Ice House Point boat ramp and Gunshot Hill in about 4-5 feet of water. Use a small jig tipped with waxworm. Yellow Perch - Fair. Walleye – Fair.

fishing tournaments in Michigan

Bass and walleye fishing tournaments in Michigan, and competitive fishing events targeting muskellunge, have to register with the state starting Jan. 1. Michigan’s Natural Resources department says the events must register in the state’s Fishing Tournament Information System. Results also must be reported. Statewide registration and reporting requirements for bass fishing tournaments have been in place since 2016. More than 2,000 bass tournament registrations and reports have been received.

Brushy Creek Lake:

 Courtesy docks are removed for the season. Walleye - Fair: Use minnows or leaches in the evenings. Largemouth Bass - Fair: Catch bass along shore and near vegetation just about anywhere with traditional bass lures. There is a 15-inch minimum length limit on largemouth bass in Brushy Creek Lake. Bluegill - Fair: Try tube jigs tipped with crawlers in 5-10 feet of water.

SMITHVILLE:

 50 degrees, clear, a little high. Outlook: Burton’s Bait and Tackle reports: catfish are excellent with all of the rain water coming into the lake. The backs of the creeks where the water has been flowing in should be loaded with fish. Crawlers, shrimp, or cut bait should all be good. You want current to catch fish. White bass have been very good near windy, rocky main lake points. They can be caught from the rock jettys which are easily available for bank fisherman. Road runners or small rooster tails are effective. The more wind the better. Crappie are fair, but some really nice ones have been caught recently jigging minnows or jigs around the docks.

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LAKE OUACHITA

LAKE OUACHITA Black bass fishing is good on the west end using live crawfish, flukes and Zara Spooks. Walleye are biting C.C. Spoons near brush. Stripers are biting live bait at major creek mouths and main lake points on the eastern and central parts of the lake. Bream are biting crickets and worms at 15-25 feet near brush. Crappie are biting jigs or minnows at 15-20 feet near brush. Catfish are biting cut bait, live bait and stink bait.

Lexington to Port Sanilac

Lexington to Port Sanilac: “Anglers were getting a few pike, steelhead and one or two Atlantic salmon off the breakwall each day. More Atlantics are staging just outside the harbor and should come in soon. The bite will improve when they are done spawning. At Port Sanilac, anglers are getting the occasional steelhead or pike off the breakwall.”

LOWER NIAGARA RIVER

The Niagara River salmon action is still going strong according to reports from shoreline casters and boat drifters. From shore, Ricardo Davila of Wheatfield was doing well tossing Booker glow in the dark spinners. Rich Pisa of Kenmore was drifting egg skein under a float along the shoreline around the Whirlpool Bridge. Mike Rzucidlo of Niagara Falls was tossing No. 3 spinners to take his first lake trout of the year off of Artpark. At the Sanddocks in Lewiston, Gianni Etopio of Youngtown was using a soft splittail plastic on a jig to take some walleye and even a salmon the last week. Charter guys like Capt. Frank Campbell of Niagara Region Charters are still reporting success in Devil’s Hole drifting treated egg skein on a three-way rig. Mike Cardamone of Lewiston was 5 for 8 on salmon on Tuesday. A few steelhead are starting to show up, too. With air temperatures plummeting into the 50s this weekend, look for fishing to turn on again.