We fished Pigeon on Friday, Saturday Sunday and again today. In most areas the ice is at least 16" but it was really "popping" today probably due to the cold air mass? On Friday 4 of us managed 7 whites, Saturday and Sunday there were 4 of us again and we picked up a total of 16. Today, in the bitterly cold wind, we managed another 7 whites and an 8 lb. burbot. We had a lot of incidentasl catches of Walleye, all of which were released as they were quite small and our tags are for the over 50 cm size limit.
Pigeon whites are incredible this year as they look great and are a really good size as some of the ones we landed were an honest 3 1/2 - 4 lbs. I beleive the key to Pigeon, at least at this time of the year, is mobility. We fish an area for 30 minutes max, if there's no action we're on the move. I remeber an Al Linder comment a few years ago wherein he stated "the key to ice fisihing success is mobility". We spoke to numerous anglers on all 4 days that had be in the same holes all day long and had nothing or 1 or 2 to show for the day. Early in the AM start shallow, as shallow as 2' and as the day progresses head to deeper, rock/sand bottoms up to depths of 20' and at last light head back shallow. Over the past 4 days we've pretty well covered the entire lake from Mulhurst to Crystal Springs to Connors to the Park Point never staying anywhere very long but always picking up a few at each location.
Have a great season everyone and be safe on the ice.
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