Merritt Ice

[Mr Merritt]

  The recent cold has firmed the ice on the Snake Arm and allowed fishermen to go near (not beyond) the bird tree area.  Open water was recently seen west of there so proceed with caution.

  The bite was described as non aggressive but capable of producing limits of very nice crappies for those with persistence.  There was also some good fishing continuing in Boardman Creek on 10-14 inch crappies.  Best action continues to be during low light hours.

Warm temps move back into the area by the weekend.  It should be a great time to be outdoors weather wise and there will be adequate ice.  Odds of more really cold temps become slimmer.  In other words the fat lady will soon be singing the end of hard water.  The late ice bite for crappie is on.  Better give it a try.

  P.S.  Our bait supply is temporarily limited to night crawlers and frozen chubs.  I should have minnows and waxies by Friday.

[bdidley413]

Thanks for the updates on the ice John.  I got up there late Saturday night and left early Sunday morning.  It was a little slow but did produce some nice fish.  These are the only ones I keep.  I am hoping to get one more trip up there this weekend.  I was in the Boardman/Beed area and the ice was a solid 10 inches.

[csjohanson]

I also fished merritt at beeds this weekend, fished Saturday caught 2 12 inch crappie a decent perch and two 25+lb catfish, they were a long fight and tougher to get pulled through my hole in the ice.. crappie and perch were caught before 9am then it went dead for me except for the cats.. it was my first time fishing merritt I'll be back for sure.. Thank you Mr.Merritt for the reports very much appreciated, expecially when I drive 3.5 hours to fish

[swampdonkeyice]

Ive hit Merritt several times this year, and the fish seemed neutral, to negative all year.  Plenty of fish on the flasher, just could never get them to go.
I also noticed this pattern on other bodies of water.
Well, the fish were finally on the feedbags, and the lookers were now biters.  Even those big suspended burns on the flasher were strokin it.
Lots of slabs over 10 inches, and several fish over the 14 inch mark, with some big kitties mixed in.  The bigger slabs were coming in 10 to 15 off bottom, and they are hungry.
Now is the time to fish Merritt.

[DoctorPerch]

SwampDI, looks like one of those big crappie knocked out your son's front teeth!!!!!!  lol   Great catch!

[grizzlyhackle]

Sweet!!

[lunker hauler]

Awesome pics, are guys using atvs?

[csjohanson]

I watched one guy drive up the Boardman Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure I would tho.

[Slimdog]

Way to get the boy on some fish, swampdonkeyice!

[bdidley413]

Awesome pics, are guys using atvs?

I didn't.  The main body of water was good and solid but getting on the ice would be a little touch in my opinion.  When I got there there was a small pressure ridge between the boat docks with water on top of the ice.  I am sure the recent cold has helped thicken things up some but putting a machine through the ice is not the way you want to make the news. 

[lunker hauler]

Good deal, thanks for the heads up

[swampdonkeyice]

I would not take a 4 wheeler out there right now

[Mr Merritt]

Even though the temps have been no higher than 18* so far this week, two days of 30-40 mph winds has opened up a pretty large seam from the dam to in front of our resort.  I have no direct reports but the same thing may have happened in other areas of the lake.  Beeds should have the most ice with some shelter from the winds.  Don't get the boat out ye,t but given the forecast, this could be the seasons last ice this weekend.  And darnit they are really starting to bite!

  As always, especially late ice situations, take all precautions and have safety equipment with you.

[Mr Merritt]

  The recent cold has firmed the ice on the Snake Arm and allowed fishermen to go near (not beyond) the bird tree area.  Open water was recently seen west of there so proceed with caution.

  The bite was described as non aggressive but capable of producing limits of very nice crappies for those with persistence.  There was also some good fishing continuing in Boardman Creek on 10-14 inch crappies.  Best action continues to be during low light hours.

Warm temps move back into the area by the weekend.  It should be a great time to be outdoors weather wise and there will be adequate ice.  Odds of more really cold temps become slimmer.  In other words the fat lady will soon be singing the end of hard water.  The late ice bite for crappie is on.  Better give it a try.

  P.S.  Our bait supply is temporarily limited to night crawlers and frozen chubs.  I should have minnows and waxies by Friday.

Update: Minnows, Waxies, frozen chubs, and nightcrawlers are now all in stock.

[Mr Merritt]

Well I'm going to call it.  Ice fishing at Merritt is over.  Despite cold weather through Thursday morning, ice conditions have deteriorated very quickly, even in Boardman Creek by Beeds landing and is unsafe!!!  Around 6 PM yesterday (Saturday) an angler fell through over the channel North of Beeds landing.  Fortunately 3 local anglers were able to pull him out without further incident.  Scary stuff but all ended well.  The late ice bite was excellent for big crappies along with some magnum catfish.  Dig out your open water gear.  It is possible and even likely given the forecast that most to all ice could be gone by next weekend.

[sandhillguy]

Just wanna say thanks a bunch John!! We had a great time up fishing, glad we got on and off the ice safe!! With the cold temps the last two weeks I'm utterly dumbfounded at how quick the ice went out with only two days of warm weather. Especially for how quick the boardman went!! Glad we didnt get out well before sun-up like we had planned to. Thank god for a spud bar haha!! Glad to know the guy had fallen through got out safe and is able to go home to his family, was pretty concerned when i seen that hole out there this morning. Looking forward to seeing you in May for the walleye bite.
 

[IceHutt]

Thanks again John for keeping us all posted on the conditions at Merritt.   I didn't get time to make it up as often as I would have liked to, but plan to bring the boat up for some open water action.  Happy trails everyone!     D. Hutt