When is considered “late season ice”?

[ImmovingtoMaine,OUCH]

Northern Pike....You here fish shallow early and late season in west bays/flats but what point is it considered “late season ice”? To be more specific let’s use Lake Champlain for example, when do you think that transition from mid season to late season is? Does the passing of a full moon in February play a factor? Is the ice thickness and air temps a factor? Curious on this topic, would love to here some experience speak on this behalf

[Theshad]

End of February into March, I fish very, very shallow. Moon phases mean nothing to me, I've tried fishing the moon cycles, no difference.

[ImmovingtoMaine,OUCH]

End of February into March, I fish very, very shallow. Moon phases mean nothing to me, I've tried fishing the moon cycles, no difference.

What do you qualify end of Feb,  like now?

[PikeKing23]

All of this timing of mid to late ice (as it pertains to pike fishing) is about the spawn.  When the water hits 40 deg they will be in the spawning area and begin the process.  By 50 deg, they are done and have moved out of the shallows.  The trick is to find the spawning areas on your lake and be fishing the first drop right before water temps reach 40 deg.  They will be stacked on the edge, feeding heavily, waiting for the right temp to move up and spawn.  There are some studies that suggest photo period has a play in the timing, but I suspect that the temp swing and photo period usually coincide.

[RyanW]

It’s all about the weather. The month doesn’t matter. To me, going by a solid 4 inches of ice, the first month ice is safe is early ice. The lull of winter is mid-winter, the last month of good ice going into breakup is last ice. Determining that time frame can prove problematic during abnormal years. A few years back, most of the mid west went through several “early ice” events. The fish behave according to those conditions so “first ice bite” went on for a 6-8 weeks. A short midwinter, and an even quicker late ice. GREAT fishing if you found safe ice.

In my area, I believe late ice will creep in after next week. We have a warm up with rain and strong wind for a few days followed by normal winter temps for a week followed by sustained temp increases. If you trust meteorologists...... However, winter has to end some time and I think we are on the cusp of late ice. In central Michigan anyways.

[ImmovingtoMaine,OUCH]

All of this timing of mid to late ice (as it pertains to pike fishing) is about the spawn.  When the water hits 40 deg they will be in the spawning area and begin the process.  By 50 deg, they are done and have
moved out of the shallows.  The trick is to find the spawning areas on your lake and be fishing the first drop right before water temps reach 40 deg.  They will be stacked on the edge, feeding heavily, waiting for the right temp to move up and spawn.  There are some studies that suggest photo period has a play in the timing, but I suspect that the temp swing and photo period usually coincide.

Intriguing, that makes sense based on last years experience, during the weekend of Feb 21stish most pike were caught inside and on the edge of the bay we fished, what I thought was late ice, except there was only 8-10” last year, this is right now is 24-30” of ice, ice out was earlier last year than this year will be, we will see!!!! Thanks PK

[ImmovingtoMaine,OUCH]

It’s all about the weather. The month doesn’t matter. To me, going by a solid 4 inches of ice, the first month ice is safe is early ice. The lull of winter is mid-winter, the last month of good ice going into breakup is last ice. Determining that time frame can prove problematic during abnormal years. A few years back, most of the mid west went through several “early ice” events. The fish behave according to those conditions so “first ice bite” went on for a 6-8 weeks. A short midwinter, and an even quicker late ice. GREAT fishing if you found safe ice.

In my area, I believe late ice will creep in after next week. We have a warm up with rain and strong wind for a few days followed by normal winter temps for a week followed by sustained temp increases. If you trust meteorologists...... However, winter has to end some time and I think we are on the cusp of late ice. In central Michigan anyways.

Interesting that last year we only had 8-10” this same week in February and this years 24-30” I wonder if that affects there stage early mid winter, sounds like from you guys water temp is more important, thanks Ryan

[filetandrelease]

Last ice can be deceiving as it goes from both sides so a spud is your bud
When my spud goes through on the second or third strike I call it quits for the season

[ImmovingtoMaine,OUCH]

So to add to this thread and share an experience I had in last 2 days of pike fishing here’s what happened...

Friday....spread traps inside a bay and outside at mouth, got a few flags and small pike within first couple hours at the mouth of bay near first pt on outside of bay, the trend continued with most flags coming from same area, I moved a few traps from inside bay to where I had most of action and it produced...throughout the day we had short bursts of flags and pike, the navionics layout had our action right on the first ledge in and around a weed flat, this confirms the discussion that the pike are staging prior to entering pre spawn mode and feeding heavily at times
Saturday we set up same area but Now with our traps set earlier in the location we wanted and produced similar results, only issue was our prime bait supply had diminished from 4-6” shiners to 3-4” shiners and resulted in fewer flags the second day, any trap with a 5”+ bait set either day caught a pike as the smaller bait did not produce nearly as well

Total was about 40 pike total with 3 in the mid 30” range and 1 nice one at least 15 lbs which broke the crimp as it came out of the hole and bloop! Back down she went oh well!!!
Thanks to all for the pike tips and made the hard work of managing about 45 traps and 4 hrs of sleep each night all worth