Keelers Bay

[Beatsworking]

Anybody fishing Keelers bay yet. Hoping that the cold snap made enough ice to get out and try my luck. Thanks.

[DirtyDan23]

Havent seen many out. Last I checked... before the cold snap, there was 3" around the launch. Lavigne had slightly more. I may head there in the morning so I will keep you posted!

[Sacospinner]

Fished it yesterday (yes, I also question my sanity). 4-6" of black ice with 2" of white ice on top almost all the way out to Kellogg. Small perch only although I did lose a 25-30" pike at the hole using 6 lb fluoro on my perch tod. Just enough fish for a small fish fry.

[perch bait]

Fished Keelers today from the Lavigne Rd access. There was plenty of ice (~10 inches with ATVs on it) in the small bay in the southwest corner, but once you get out a ways, you reach the freshly caught ice. In areas with exposed ice, there was still a solid 6 - 8 inches of ice, but in any area where there was snow insulating the ice, there was less. I came across a few snow patches that had a crust of slush ice, 1 inch of water and then 3 inches of black ice. I watched a group walk right out to Kellogg, but even with a spud bar I retreated to the inner bay. The deeper the snow, the less ice there was it seemed, so use caution! Fishing was slow, but I managed to get enough for dinner and landed a master angler pumpkinseed and bluegill (only two big fish I caught all day, with the exception of a largemouth).

[the_doctor]

I watched a group walk right out to Kellogg

That was me I think. Were you the guy I stopped to talk to? I dropped my glove and you brought it to me...thank you!

There were a few sketchy patches as you say with snow on top but looked like solid black ice underneath...maybe I'm just dumb, lol. Actually I must be dumb because all I found at the island was dink perch...could have caught that close to shore.
Perch seemed very finicky. I had medium shiners on bottom scattered around the area while we jigger up dunks, zero flags all afternoon so no idea where the big perch were.

[Beatsworking]

Thank you for all the good information. Glad you were able to get out and give it a try anyway. It sounds like my day at Waterbury Rez last Thursday. Pretty slow but did manage to pick up a meal of (mostly) decent size perch and 1 12" in brown.

I wonder if I'll have better luck at St Albans Bay. Either way, I'm going somewhere Weds and I'll let you know if I get into them.

[perch bait]

That was me I think. Were you the guy I stopped to talk to? I dropped my glove and you brought it to me...thank you!

Yup, that was me! Great talking with you! Glad you made it out and back ok. The sketchiest areas I found were certainly still safe to traverse, but I was spooked by the sheer variability of the ice conditions. I could just imagine a natural spring or methane bubbler overlapping with a snow covered patch and even further preventing ice formation. I did not find any sizeable perch either. Tight lines!

[DirtyDan23]

Just got back from Keelers. Found the same conditions as Perchbait. Mostly 9" or so, but I was fishing further out on some snow and it was 6". Couple trucks and a sedan out there, which was pretty crazy!! Got into some nice pumpkinseeds, but the biggest yellow of the day was 9".

[EyERipLip]

Was on keelers today. Very inconsistent ice. No holes we drilled were over 5” of ice and that wasn’t all good ice. We did have some luck but ended up fishing very close to shore. My friend checked out by the island and was not comfortable out there in any way. I won’t be going there again this season. Hope anyone venturing out there uses extreme caution. It’s not a good year for the big lake.

[TimW]

Emergency services are responding to an atv with 2 people through south of Kellogg Island
Best not to go there

[Vtperchchaser]

Sad day

[Vtperchchaser]

Hits close to home for me. I travel the ice on an atv fairly other. Just not Champlain.  I do how ever make sure before using my atv conditions are good enough. But like the saying goes crap happens quick. Prayers to the families and everyone involved

[jfp]

Terrible tragedy and I can’t believe they didn’t cancel the Islands tournament this weekend

[Vtperchchaser]

Currently canceled by local law enforcement involved in the rescue

[Light liner]

I can’t believe they even tried to have this derby. Last weekend was it for me until we get colder temps, if we do.