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There's still 6-8" closer to shore middle still open/chunks of ice. Some sleds being used from guides etc but guys i knew walked.
Ill be watching this thread closely. We are coming out 2/5-2/8 and hoping I could bring my side by side (yamaha rmax with cab) . If not will have to suffer with quad outdoors
We’re in the same boat, friend. I think it’s going to be a last minute decision whether I bring my Honda pioneer or my quad. As of now it’s looking like the quad is going. Maybe things will change by Friday.
Do one guided trip, ask questions, and then you will have confidence for the rest of the times you go there. I am heading up there right now. I would recommend talking with Chaumont Masters. Louis has been very successful in getting clients on big fish over the years. He can give you insight and you can patronize a site sponsor. Not the only way, just my advice. Its a very large and potentially dangerous body of water.
Here’s a little summary of our trip. This was our first time fishing Chaumont, so we were there figuring it out. We stayed at a place very close to the guffin bay marina access. It ended up being that guffin bay was the only place we fished. I ended up bringing my quad, but it didn’t like the sub zero temperatures we had Friday night/Saturday morning. So we ended up walking out from guffins. It’s not a terrible walk. We walked about 1/2 mile out to get in 24fow. You could walk less. You could also run a machine out from there and go further. Now I’m not experienced at all with this fishery, but I’m not sure if you were to get in 20+fow if one spot would be much better than another spot in this bay. It’s a large bay with a max depth of about 30 feet and not much for structure or contours. I caught a 6 pound walleye Saturday night, and that was the only walleye that we pulled through the ice. Me and my buddy each had a heavy fish on that popped off after a couple cranks. We marked perch constantly. And did end up catching a few right around the 12 inch mark…. But, we were targeting walleye - using w7 or w9 jigging raps (and the shadow rap). We only marked a handful of decent size fish the whole weekend. There were guys getting nice walleye here and there, but I wouldn’t call it a great walleye bite by any means. I got the impression a lot of people are there perch fishing, and if you were to sit there all day with a little jig and waxie or minnow, you could probably fill a bucket with nice perch. We took a ride around Saturday to check the area out. Lots of people at long point state park. Lots of machines. Lots of parking. There were a bunch of people walking too …. Not everyone had a machine. Talked to a few guys and it seemed like the fishing was so-so. Picking up the occasional walleye. Also talked to a guy that got a big pike. Also heard of few lakers getting caught. Also quite a few people at the Chaumont public launch. This seemed to be a machine heavy access area. Lots of sleds and quads. Not sure on the bite. The center of the bay was still bad ice when we were there…. And that seemed like where everyone wanted to be. But Mother Nature is giving us a curveball this year. Hopefully the next time we go the ice will be better and can get access to the whole bay. We were cutting about a foot of clear ice Sunday at guffins. This was last weekend!!! Our trip was a little disappointing that we didn’t land more walleye, but we learned quite a bit and hopefully next time we go we’ll have better luck. Tight lines
I spent about 15 days fishing the bay this season. C&R’d some beautiful fish. The entire area has good fishing. Just always use caution. Ice conditions there change daily. A spud bar is your best friend. Good luck and enjoy