Unseasonably warm weather limited ice fishing options around during December 2020. Being that only a few early season spots froze, they all got a crazy amount of fishing pressure compared to normal. To make matters worse, the covid shutdowns have more people than ever doing their outdoor activities all week long instead of just weekends.
I managed to get out on ice 6 times in December. First safe ice I found was on a small lake in the upper Laurentians. After enjoying some amazing bass fishing there from my float tube this summer, and catching decent numbers of perch, Ari and I had our hopes up for the outing.
We found a solid 3 to 4.5 inches of ice on most of the lake, but fishing was insanely tough. All we managed to land all day long with 3 small perch, despite drilling a good 50 or so holes, and shooting through the ice with the flasher in many other spots as well. I can safely say it was the most disproportionate ration from amazing in summer to horrible in winter that I've encountered in 20+ year of ice fishing.
The following day, I headed out for a half day outing a bit closer to home, hoping to find some crappies, perch, and possibly a shot at some decent bass. Again, I was first one out on the spot, and found a good 4-5 inches of solid ice. Unfortunately, I later found out that some guys had been there by boat just before freeze up and cleaned out a large volume of big crappies. I still maged some bass, perch, and bluegills. Nothing too big, but enough to keep me busy all morning.
Later the following week, I again planned 2 days on ice. Ari joined me for the first outing, we hit 2 spots with good ice. The first was horrible, as the water level there dropped too low to sustain any population of fish under ice. The second spot had been fished by others, we found hundreds of used ice holes. Again, only a few small perch.
Next day, I headed out solo a bit further from Montreal. Being that winter rules had kicked in a few days before, I was able to use multiple lines, as well as frozen baitfish for pike. I set out my pike lines, and kept one rod to jig for perch. Morning was very slow, so I moved the pike lines to deeper water, and jigged even deeper for perch. The moved paid off nicely, I landed a couple dozen perch after noon, as well as two nice back to back pike, half hour before I was ready to head home.
For the final week in December, I had two more outings planned. First outing fishing for pike was closer to home, no success despite having 9 pike lines out for 6 hours or so. I did manage about 15 perch jigging, but mostly small ones.
The following day, I took a client fishing for stocked trout. Outing was slow, but we managed to catch some trout by persevering and drilling holes all over the lake. Definitely got my workout to say the least.
Thus ends my 2020 fishing season. The pandemic shutdowns/restriction as well as very low water and high weeds hampered much of my fishing, but also ended up ultimately working in our favor for others.
Wishing all my blog readers and followers a safe and happy 2020.
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