Ice fishing off to quick start as anglers benefit from early freeze

As wind and snow blew hard across White Bear Lake on Dec. 31, Mark Walker was keeping to his winter clock. This time of year, he, his wife and his daughter make time for ice fishing.

Walker worked a bucket of crappie minnows over two holes from inside a heated ice house. He already had hauled in a 24-inch northern pike and a crappie or two in a few short hours as the mercury dropped outside.

“It’s therapeutic,” said the Cottage Grove electrician. “Some people are into snowshoeing, downhill skiing, and some people want to sit on a couch and jig a rod, you know?”

According to guides and other players in the sport, Minnesotans are snapping up gear, booking trips and winter fishing earlier than recent seasons because of ice-making weather that began in early December. Like Walker’s, the collective mood is upbeat and hopeful for the weeks ahead despite a run of fluctuating temperatures, including daily highs in the 40s in the metro in mid-December.

Matt Johnson recalled enthusiastic crowds a month ago at the St. Paul Ice Fishing and Winter Sports Show in St. Paul. The gathering coincided with excellent conditions outdoors.

“Everyone got super excited,” said Johnson, who is guiding trips daily on Lake Minnetonka. His January is all but booked, too, he said.

In general, Lake Minnetonka has 7 to 12 inches of ice: Not vehicle-ready, he warned, but depths that are a bit ahead of schedule

Some manufacturers have kept lower inventories owing to economy jitters over U.S. tariffs and even the recent mild winters, he said.

“It’s the first time in a few years where we are selling out of product early,” Schneider said, singling out K-Drill electric augers and Vexilar sonar fish finders. Certain sizes and colors of popular panfish lures are selling out, too.

“Anglers should look to make their purchases sooner than later,” he said.

No doubt many are hauling their electronics and other gear to Lake Mille Lacs, one of the state’s most popular fisheries in any season.

Fishing guide Tony Roach said he expects winter fishing vehicle and wheelhouse traffic to intensify, with the lake’s 132,000 acres currently encased in 15 to 17 inches of ice in most spots. Anglers are finding robust numbers of the walleye class that hatched in Mille Lacs in the spring of 2024. The fish now measure 9 to 12 inches.

The jumbo perch bite is also picking up and is expected to improve this month, he said. The daily limit is 10, down from 20 a year ago.

As for walleye, anglers can keep three longer than 17 inches. Only one can be longer than 20 inches. Roach has been pulling them recently with gold VMC Tingler Spoon baits.

To the far north, the reports are equally positive. Overall ice conditions are excellent on Lake of the Woods, said Joe Henry, who runs Lake of the Woods Tourism. He added that some ice roads are allowing one-ton trucks pulling wheelhouses. Still, he advised anglers to check ahead with resorts and outfitters about conditions.

Day houses have been out since Dec. 8, two days earlier than the traditional start. Also, the 22-mile ice road to Minnesota’s Northwest Angle, the state’s northernmost point, is open, reaching to resorts on Flag and Oak islands.

“Fishing has been very, very good,” Henry said, noting that anglers are getting the best action from jigging spoons or jigs tipped with a minnow. They also are “dead-sticking,” or letting a plain hook or small ice jig with a live minnow sit just off the bottom to entice less active fish.

The ice roads along nearby Upper Red Lake are holding up despite the intense pressure of anglers during the holidays, said Scott Waldo, who, with his brother Kevin, runs West Wind Resort on the lake’s eastern shore, in Washkish.

Some roads have needed rerouting and Waldo recently removed a bridge over a crack a mile out. Still, he said the current subzero overnight temperatures bode well for future travel. Currently, there is about 20 inches of ice.

Slower days after the holidays will mean less pressure on fish, too, which should improve the bite.

“When you have everybody with an Ice Castle coming up here, you can’t expect to catch 100 fish a day,” Waldo joked.

Back on White Bear Lake, Jeff Cavett and his son Cameron, 14, were augering and checking water depth Dec. 31 before popping their portable shelter.

Until now, they’ve kept the fishing close to home in Oakdale. Tanners Lake is convenient for Cameron to drop a line after school.

“He could sit out here all day,” said Jeff as his son drilled a hole and then readied a rod.

The day just was beginning.