Late Winter Early Spring Fishing

Ice fishing has remained good all throughout February. On Lake Michigan the ice fishing at McKinley Marina is still excellent. Some guys are jigging with #6 Genz worms tipped with a spawn sack. This bait emerged as an excellent producer for both Brown Trout and early arriving steelhead. Jigging spoons tipped with with a piece of a minnow have also been very good. Other fisherman have been fishing with tip-ups or the automatic fisherman using spawn sacks or medium golden shiners for bait. On a normal winter the ice fishing comes to an end at the end of Feb.

The river launch at the end of National Ave. usually remains open most of the winter. South shore boat launch is pretty much open at the end of Feb also. As soon as the harbor is free of ice, fisherman will find excellent fishing opportunities.

At the MMSD discharge just south of the river mouth, hundreds of brown trout are taken every day. Many of the fishing guides tie up to the wall and catch lots of fish for their customers. Usually they fish with spawn sacks and skein using a very simple rig. Just a beak hook and split shot with a spinning rod and 8lb. monofliament. Walleye jigs tipped with a minnow also producesome nice brown trout.

Berkley Gulp 3" and 4" minnows and shads on 3/8 oz darter jigs or shad head jigs made for verticle jigging are also excellent bait for brown trout and steelhead. 3/8 salt water shad heads are the best and you can get them in different colors.

Fisherman also start trolling in Milwaukee harbor once the ice is gone. This can be some of the best fishing of the year. Diving shad lures on flatlines with boards are excellent. Bagley's 3" diving shad lures, Lindy shadlings, Storm Thundercranks, Berkley Flicker shads, Rapala shad raps and Cordell CC shads are killers. Most of these baits dive to about 10' with 100' of 10lb. Trilene Big Game line out behind a board. Perfect depth for these fish. 2 and 3 color leadcore with small spoons and boards also are super baits. Standard Stinger Spoons, Dreamweaver Super Slims samll size Moonshine spoons and the new small size Sooperfly Spoons are killer. The Sooperfly spoons are available in both silver and gold blanks. Gold is a tremendous Brown Trout Spoon.

Another late winter early spring fishing opportunity is walley fishingbelow the dams on the Wisconsin and the Mississippi Rivers. Minnows on Lindy rigs have been favorite of walleye fisherman for 40 years. Jigs and minnows are also very popular. Dressed jigs are a bit more bouyant than plain leadhead and can be fished more slowly. Lighter jigs also catch more walleye especially in shallow water, 8' and less. The new spinning jigs tipped with live minnows or with plastics have been super. Gulp 3" and 4" minnows and 3" twister tails are killers for these early walleye.

Best of Luck to you all!