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| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Monday | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eve6° | Night6° | Dawn9° | Mid14° | Eve11° | Night10° | Dawn11° | Mid16° | Eve14° | Night13° | |
| ★Perch | 57 | 65 | 81 | 81 | 78 | 65 | 81 | 85 | 83 | 69 |
| ★Pike | 65 | 72 | 88 | 88 | 86 | 75 | 88 | 90 | 90 | 78 |
| ★Crappie | 8 | 18 | 36 | 41 | 39 | 24 | 38 | 52 | 50 | 34 |
| ★Largemouth | – | – | 6 | 16 | 2 | – | 5 | 24 | 21 | – |
WHERE: Target 8–15ft on the southeast shoreline, wind push is stacking perch there right now. Late-ice Cooks Bay perch run small, so work the shallower end of that range first. Pre-spawn fish are schooling tight; find one, find fifty. Hut access via Cooks Bay Marina in Gilford puts you roughly 2km out with shuttle service.
WHAT: Small tungsten jig, 1/16–1/8oz, in gold or chartreuse, those colours cut through late-ice low-light under clear skies. Tip it with a 1–2" white or chartreuse soft plastic grub or tube on a #4–#1 hook. Keep the profile tiny; Cooks Bay perch are running small and a big bait will get ignored or stolen by undersized fish.
HOW: Dead-stick 80% of the time, with short 2–3" lifts every 8–10 seconds. Rising pressure and a stable baro trend means perch are more active than they've been in days, don't over-jig it. Let it hang. When you get a tap, pause 3 seconds before setting. At dusk, drop to 15–21ft as the school moves slightly deeper with fading light.
WARNING: Ice conditions are unpredictable this late in the season. We do not suggest going out today. If you choose to go regardless, bring a buddy, never alone. Carry a throw rope, hand picks around your neck, and wear a float suit. Spud the ice before every step forward. A safe-looking surface can be paper-thin underneath from solar melt. Do not let a good forecast give you a false sense of security. The ice does not care about the barometer. Only keep the bigger fish, the bay is loaded with small perch and selectively harvesting protects the fishery.
Late ice Cook's Bay pike are stacking in 4–12ft along weed edges and the southeast shoreline, wind push is concentrating baitfish there right now. Rising pressure at 1032 hPa and cold water mean these fish are lethargic. They want an easy meal, not a chase.
Ice conditions are unpredictable this late in the season. We do not suggest going out today. If you choose to go regardless, bring a buddy, never alone. Carry a throw rope, hand picks around your neck, and wear a float suit. Spud the ice before every step forward. A safe-looking surface can be paper-thin underneath from solar melt. Do not let a good forecast give you a false sense of security. The ice does not care about the barometer.
Your highest-percentage play is a tip-up rigged with a live sucker set at 6–8ft over or just inside the last green weed edge. Dead-bait presentation, sucker suspended mid-depth, zero movement, is brutally effective on slow cold-water pike. Run a second hole with a jigging rod: a 3–4" flutter spoon or jigging spoon in a gold or chartreuse family, worked with 6-inch lifts and 8–12 second dead pauses on a semi-slack line. Let it flutter back down, that falling action triggers followers that won't chase. Hit 8–10ft first, then push to 12ft if you're not marking fish in the shallower zone.
Cold, clear, low-wind conditions mean pike will spook easier than mid-season. Drill your holes quietly, stay off the ice surface near your tip-ups, and give each hole 20–30 minutes before moving. Don't over-jig, if you're lifting more than once every 15 seconds, you're working too hard for this bite.
WHERE: Post ice-out crappie are stacking near marinas and river mouths on Cook's Bay right now. Southeast shoreline is your primary zone, light wind is pushing baitfish and crappie against that bank. Target 8–12ft at dawn and dusk, sliding to 12–16ft midday when light penetrates clear water. Dock pilings, flooded brush, and any hard bottom transition near soft structure are holding fish.
WHAT: Light jig head in the 1/16–1/8oz range paired with a 2–3" soft plastic, tube, grub, or minnow-style body. Clear water demands natural colours: white, pearl, or light grey with a chartreuse tail is a high-percentage combination under these sky-clear, high-pressure conditions. Keep the profile small, crappie in cold water are not chasing big meals.
HOW: Vertical presentation is most productive at this water temp. Drop to the bottom, lift 6 inches, hold 3–4 seconds, drop back. Repeat. Lateral retrieve works but slow it down dramatically, one crank per 2 seconds maximum. High pressure and cold water equal lethargic fish. Rising barometer should improve the bite window, but dusk is your best window today, that's when these fish feed hardest. Soft mouth means a gentle hookset, lift the rod, don't snap it.
WARNING: Ice conditions are unpredictable this late in the season. We do not suggest going out on the ice today. If you choose to go regardless, bring a buddy, never alone. Carry a throw rope, hand picks around your neck, and wear a float suit. Spud the ice before every step forward. A safe-looking surface can be paper-thin underneath from solar melt. Do not let clear skies and a rising barometer give you a false sense of security. The ice does not care about the barometer.
Largemouth Bass, Cook's Bay, Late Ice/Cold Water, Right Now
Water at 6°C means these bass are barely moving. Their metabolism is near-shutdown below 10°C, expect one short feeding window, likely dusk, and zero aggression. Southeast shoreline is your only real target: wind push is concentrating baitfish there, and that's the warmest, shallowest water in the bay. Work 3–8ft over last season's dead weeds and any remaining structure.
Go finesse or go home. A 3" natural-coloured paddle tail on a 1/8oz swimbait head is the highest-percentage play, slow-roll it just above bottom at roughly 0.5 mph, dead stop for 3–4 seconds every few cranks. A ned-style bait on a 1/16oz finesse head fished on a dead-slow drag-and-pause retrieve also produces in cold water. White or light goby/shad colouration in this clear-sky, low-wind clarity. Do not upsize, cold bass won't chase.
High pressure at 1032 hPa and rising means bass are likely hugging bottom tight and reluctant. Hit the bite window hard at dusk when pressure influence eases slightly and ambient light drops. Focus casts parallel to the southeast bank, keeping the bait in that 3–8ft zone the entire retrieve. One slow retrieve beats ten fast ones today.
Ice conditions are unpredictable this late in the season. We do not suggest going out on ice today. If you are targeting these fish from shore or open water access, that's the right call. If any ice remains at your launch point, treat it as unsafe, spud before every step, carry hand picks around your neck, and bring a buddy.
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Monday | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eve5° | Night4° | Dawn8° | Mid15° | Eve12° | Night9° | Dawn12° | Mid18° | Eve13° | Night14° | |
| Smallmouth | – | – | 22 | 31 | 17 | – | 24 | 39 | 32 | 8 |
| Perch | 20 | 22 | 78 | 78 | 72 | 55 | 78 | 82 | 80 | 66 |
| Pike | 22 | 23 | 77 | 77 | 74 | 57 | 77 | 79 | 79 | 69 |
| Species | Today | Tomorrow | Monday | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eve6° | Night6° | Dawn9° | Mid15° | Eve12° | Night10° | Dawn12° | Mid16° | Eve14° | Night14° | |
| ★Smallmouth | – | – | 23 | 32 | 30 | 1 | 27 | 38 | 35 | – |
| ★Perch | 57 | 65 | 81 | 81 | 80 | 65 | 81 | 83 | 83 | 61 |
| Pike | 57 | 63 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 66 | 77 | 79 | 79 | 63 |
| Largemouth | – | – | 5 | 15 | 14 | – | 5 | 20 | 17 | – |
Late-ice season, cold water, 6°C air, smallmouth are alive but slow. Rising barometer at 1032 hPa with calm wind and clear skies is about as stable as it gets; fish are catchable but won't chase hard. The southeast shoreline is your primary target right now, wind fetch has been stacking baitfish there. Work the rocky shoal edges from 10–20ft, focusing where bottom transitions from flat rock to broken rubble.
Slow a finesse jig down to a crawl. A 3–4" paddle tail or ned-style bait on a 1/8–3/16oz round ball or finesse head in natural colours, goby, green pumpkin, smoke, is the highest-percentage play in cold clear water like this. Drop to the bottom, let it sit 5–7 seconds, drag it 6 inches, pause again. Retrieve speed: near zero. Cold smallmouth will pick it up off the bottom without chasing. Match the jig weight to 15–18ft of water and let it sink on a semi-slack line, you'll often feel the bite on the fall.
A small tube bait on a 1/8oz tube head is a close second. Same depth, same natural colour family. Hop it once every 8–10 seconds across the bottom. Clear water means downsizing matters, keep plastics in the 3–3.5" range. A drop-shot rig with a 2.5–3" finesse worm fished 6–8 inches off bottom is worth the time if the jig bite goes quiet; hold it nearly stationary with just enough rod tip movement to breathe the tail.
Ice conditions are unpredictable this late in the season. We do not suggest going out today. If you choose to go regardless, bring a buddy, never alone. Carry a throw rope, hand picks around your neck, and wear a float suit. Spud the ice before every step forward. A safe-looking surface can be paper-thin underneath from solar melt. Do not let a clear sky and calm wind give you a false sense of security. The ice does not care about the barometer.
Southeast shoreline is your first stop. Wind has been pushing baitfish and zooplankton into that corner all day, perch stack tight behind the pressure. Work 11–21ft over the transition from hard bottom to soft, especially where sand meets weed edge or gravel. Late-ice perch school vertically, so position directly over them and fish straight down.
Drop a small jigging spoon, 1/8–1/4oz, gold or chartreuse, 1.5–2" profile, and work it with sharp 6-inch lifts followed by 2–3 second dead drops. Perch key on the fall. Rising pressure on a clear day typically tightens the bite window, so expect the best action in the final 90 minutes of light when the dusk window opens in that 11–21ft zone. Tip the spoon with a single waxworm or a small white/chartreuse 1.5–2" soft plastic grub on a 1/16oz round ball head, perch respond hard to a scented dropper below the spoon.
Alternatively, a small tungsten ice jig in glow or UV orange, 3–5mm, tipped with a single maggot or waxworm, fished with micro-jiggles and 4–5 second pauses, is a strong producer when perch are finicky under that high clear-sky pressure. Keep jigging motion subtle, big lifts push neutral fish off. Horizontal presentation at mid-column (stay 3–5ft off bottom) consistently outperforms bottom-dragging this time of year.
Ice conditions are unpredictable this late in the season. We do not suggest going out today. If you choose to go regardless, bring a buddy, never alone. Carry a throw rope, hand picks around your neck, and wear a float suit. Spud the ice before every step forward. A safe-looking surface can be paper-thin underneath from solar melt. Do not let a rising barometer or calm winds give you a false sense of security. The ice does not care about the forecast.