02/23/07 Delavan Lake sunny 30 degrees. Winds east 5-10 mph. Barometric Pressure 30.37S. Ice thickness 12". Fished for perch in 12-42 feet of water. Drilled around 30 holes and moved about the same. I ended up catching an 8" walleye in 19 feet of water. Marked a few fish but no perch to speak of.

Como Lake sunny 32 degrees. Winds east/northeast 10 mph. Barometric Pressure 30.37S. Ice thickness 15". I decided to jig for bass/pike on Como for the afternoon. I drilled around 15 holes. I ended up with a healthy 26" pike caught on a jigging rapala in 5 feet of water near a bull rush patch.

02/24/07 Delavan Lake snow 32 degrees. Winds 20-40 mph. east/southeast. Barometric Pressure 30.37S. Ice thickness 14". A big thanks goes out to Shane and Joel for venturing out on quite a stormy day. It definitely paid off to make the trip. We ended up catching quite a few pan fish, and Joel caught a nice pike around 34" on a tip-up. We decided to head in when the snow started coming down hard and our visibility was difficult. There were quite a few brave souls out on the lake today. It looks like we are going to get a few inches of snow in the next few days. Good Luck All!

02/22/07 Delavan Lake partly cloudy 38 degrees. Winds north/northwest 10-20 mph. Barometric Pressure 30.17R. Ice thickness 14". The lake lost a few inches yesterday. The lake is safe for travel yet, the shorelines are getting soft, but it should firm up every night. Took out two clients today Steve and Karl. We had a blast on the ice. The guys caught a nice mess of Gills and Crappies. All caught on small jigs with spikes in 4-5 feet of water. We set flags, had two that were constantly popping. The fish would be running out line, we set the hook and would either miss or pull the bait from the fish or the bait would get dropped. So we waited longer each flag we had. But the fish kept dropping the bait, or would have only the bait, not the hook in its mouth. Must have been that notorious one eyed pike that is still swimming. Maybe we'll get him in our next outing! Unfortunately I cleaned the fish before we took a picture, but I have a good pic of the guys having fun on great day spent on the water.

02/21/07 Delavan Lake sunny 48 degrees. Winds light and variable. Barometric Pressure 29.79F. Ice thickness 16". Fished for Bluegills and Pike early in the day. Caught a nice meal of Gills ranging between 8-9". A few crappies mixed in 7-8" range. One flag, but dropped the bait. Fished walleyes later until around 9:00 p.m. No luck tonight.

02/20/07 Delavan Lake overcast/fog 24 degrees. Winds light and variable. Barometric Pressure 29.74R. Ice thickness 18". Fished walleyes in 3-5 feet of water over as healthy weeds I could find. I ended up with two eyes, one 18 1/4" the other 19". Both caught on dead stick tip-ups, (shown in picture), on large fatheads.

02/19/07 Silver Lake, Kenosha County, Cloudy becoming clear 38 degrees. Winds West 10 mph. Barometric Pressure 29.51R. Ice thickness 16". Fished 6-22 feet of water. Set tip ups along a shallow weed line with small suckers and lake shiners. Caught two healthy Northern Pike, one 26" the other 28". Had a few flags which a few feet of line was taken out and the bait dropped. Caught around six nice crappies suspended 10 feet below the ice on small lake shiners on both a single hook rig and a small spoon/minnow combination. In the four hours or so I was on the lake, the snow cover diminished quickly. Be safe and keep in tune with the ice conditions on area lakes in the next week due to mild temperatures. Good Luck!

01/15/07 Geneva Lake sunny 5 degrees. Winds North/Northwest 5-25 mph. Barometric Pressure 30.17F. Ice thickness 18". Fished Geneva Bay in 10-12 Feet of water. Set tip ups and jigged for bluegills. Very slow, no flags and only a few small gills. Not many people were having much luck today. The conditions were pretty brutal with the stiff wind today. Even with the heaters, the holes were still freezing over inside the shelter.

02/13/07 Geneva Lake snowing and blowing once again! 10-15 degrees. Winds north/northeast 10-20mph. Gusting to 35mph. Barometric Pressure 30.00 spiking to 30.22. Ice 18" in Geneva Bay. I had the opportunity to fish with outdoor columnist Bob Reipenhoff from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today. Bob ventured out in some pretty nasty weather, so I was fortunate he made it safely after such a difficult trip to spend time fishing with me today. We decided to take advantage of one of my colleagues permanent ice shelters out of the weather. Within a few seconds Bob had a perch on the line. We had some good action the first hour and the bite slowed quite a bit. The highlight of the trip was a Northern Pike caught on a jig rod. It was a slow day of fishing, but we had some good conversation and a classic Wisconsin Brat Fry. Thanks again Bob for the opportunity to spend time with you on the water. As you can see in the pictures the drifting snow was out of control. At times we experienced blizzard like conditions. We had to dig out the tip ups several times.

02/12/07 Geneva Lake snowing 10 degrees. Winds northeast 10-20 mph. Barometric Pressure 30.10F. Ice thickness 10". Fished for Lake Trout today. Fished between 70-80 feet of water. Marked many fish which were small perch, but I finally finessed a laker to take my offering. Tried just about every presentation in the book. A swedish pimple and a small shiner was the ticket today. I was blessed with a nice 30" laker which ran around 12 pounds.

02/11/07 Delavan Lake overcast 25 degrees. Winds 5 mph. west/southwest. Barometric pressure 29.95. Ice 13-16". I did manage to find a soft spot on the lake near cedar point (near the yacht club) today. Goes to show the lake is not 100% safe. Fished from 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. today. I covered around 3 miles of water and marked very few fish. I targeted gills today. The fish I marked were in 30+ feet of water, so perch might have been the culprit. Many posts on Lake-Link have me wondering what is going on with the fish. People are frustrated with the lack of fish being caught and/or marked. The barometric pressure has been like a rollercoaster after a long stretch of steady pressure. I am hoping as we near the weekend after our warm up the fish will become active once again. Good luck all and persistence does pay off!

02/09/07 Geneva Lake sunny 15 degrees. Winds light and variable. Took time today to help set up permanent fish shelters on Geneva Bay. I did get a chance to catch a few perch to take home. Most in the 7-10" range. All caught on rocker jigs with spikes in 15-17 feet of water.

02/08/07 Delavan Lake clear 4 degrees. Winds light and variable. Barometric Pressure 30.26S. Fished 10-17 feet of water. Caught one Northern 30" on a tip-up using small suckers. Marked many fish but no takers. I did get to see a nice sunset!

02/07/07 Delavan Lake clear -2 degrees. Winds 10-15 mph. West/southwest. Barometric Pressure 30.26S. Ice thickness 10". Chased after walleyes tonight. Fished 10-35 feet of water. Marked many fish, but with the cold, feeding has been slow. I'll try it again tomorrow.

02/06/07 Delavan Lake snowing -4 degrees. Winds west/northwest 5-10mph. Fished a little deeper today on a 12' weedline. Ended up with three flags and one Northern Pike 30", using fatheads on the tip-ups. Caught around 15 nice gills in the 7-8 1/2" range, using small jigs with 2 spikes. Most of the gills were caught in 8 feet of water and less.

02/05/07 Delavan Lake, sunny -4 degrees. Winds light west/northwest. Barometric Pressure 30.48F. Ice thickness 14" in shallow bays. Fished shallow weed flats. We did well on bluegills and crappies. Most in the 7-8" range. Caught a 36 1/2" Northern pike on a tip-up using suckers in 4 foot of water. All panfish caught in 6-8 feet of water. The best method using spikes on small jigs in glow colors.

Lake-Link Jamboree

02/04/07 Delavan Lake, snowing/partly sunny 4 degrees, windchill -20. Winds west/northwest 10-20mph. Absolutely miserable! Barometric Pressure 30.03R. Ice thickness 7-8". Fished from 4:30 A.M. until 2:30 P.M. The Lake-Link Jamboree was today, many anglers braved the extreme weather. I ended up with a few nice perch, and a few gills. The tip-ups produced 7 flags in all. I caught a 31" and a 31 1/2" Northern and lost another at the hole. The other flags might have been from the gusty winds we experienced. The winning fish: 33" Northern pike, a 19" walleye, 8oz. Perch, 7oz. Bluegill and a 11 oz. Crappie. The bluegills and the crappies were won by a local family in Delavan. I wished I had taken some pictures from the water today it truly looked like Antarctica! It sounds like the Jamboree was a success, I spoke with Steve Novak from the Lake-Link site and he told me they had a great turn-out.

I posted a picture that was on the Lake-Link site thanks to noluck4eyes. Truly unbelievable conditions! Be safe and warm all!

02/02/07 Geneva Lake, Partly cloudy 5 degrees. Winds 10-20 mph. west/northwest. Barometric Pressure 26.69R. Ice 8". Fished early A.M. Today was the first time out with the ATV, and I didn't have to hoof it. It was pretty nice with the sub-zero weather. Caught around 12 nice perch and had one fish on a tip-up, but cut the mono leader.
Delavan lake, Sunny 5 degrees -10 windchill at least. Winds west/northwest 10-15 mph. Barometric Pressure 29.74R. Ice 8". Spent some time scouting the lake for the Lake-Link Fisheree tomorrow. Ended up with a few nice gills and crappies. Had two flags, but no fish. The weather was truly brutal today. I think tomorrow I will have a few more layers on. You could count the people out fishing today on your hand. It will be interesting to see how many fishermen/women actually get out tomorrow. Good Luck All!