Return to WhitefishTown

My ice fishing season started slowly this winter, primarily due to the lack of “good ice”. As I described in a previous post and as most of you experienced, an extended cold blast enveloped Door County and much of the country. Though many residents and visitors grumbled about the frigid temperatures, the ice anglers rejoiced. Each day below freezing created thicker and more stable ice. Soon anglers were venturing further and further out. Portable ice shelters started to pop up, then the larger, more permanent shacks began to appear. I never want to be the first guy on the ice, so early on I confined my fishing to the local inland lakes, waiting for Green Bay to form a secure ice sheet. Unfortunately, the ice, up to twenty inches, did not produce better catches.  It seemed the thicker the ice got, the smaller the fish I was hooking.  But I was catching fish, sort of. The fish I was hooking were more suited to an aquarium than a dinner plate. It was frustrating.

Finally, the ice along the bayside shoreline began to form. Several of the spots where we target whitefish near shore became accessible.  We could walk out, hauling our sleds over ice ridges and stepping over active ice cracks to get out where the whitefish are. The ice was now over two feet thick in places and it took a while to drill our holes and get set up. The sonar showed fish moving near the bottom. It was a good bet that these were whitefish. Excitedly, I dropped my Trick Shotz plastic to the bottom and commenced to rhythmically raise and lower the bait, always keeping near the bottom. The whitefish in these shallow waters (less than 50 feet), typically are fewer in number and run smaller than the fish in the larger schools out deep into the Bay. However, with some patience and a little luck, you can put some nice fish on the ice. Unfortunately, the lack of the later was testing my limited supply of the former. After a couple of empty trips, I finally caught my first whitefish of the year off Henderson Point near Sturgeon Bay. I was fishing with pals Paul and Ed. Sorry to say, they got nothing. A few days later further north along the bay Paul put five whities on the ice, but my bad luck (or lack of skill) continued. My patience and persistence were not paying off. More frustration. 

Mercifully, just as my patience was at a breaking point, I got a text from JJ Malvitz, owner of JJ’s Guide Service,. I had booked a whitefish trip with JJ for late January. It was going to be a family affair with my son Matthew, his wife Kelly and my son-in-law Jeff. I was looking forward to spending some quality fishing time with them, but well into January our chances of having good ice did not look promising. To my relief, the message from JJ confirmed that the trip was on.  An outing with JJ and his crew was just the thing I needed to turn my luck around.

We met our guides at a spot near the Sherwood Point lighthouse. It was a bitter cold Saturday morning, but not to worry. We were quickly shuttled out onto the ice in a heated Ranger ATV. I turned my eyes westward, and I could just make out small objects on the horizon. As we bumped and grinded over the ice road the four miles to the fishing grounds, the amorphous objects grew larger and more numerous.  I eventually recognized them as hundreds of fish huts. We were approaching at WhitefishTown!

I have been visiting WhitefishTown since 2015 and I was excited about sharing this experience with family. WhitefishTown is a collection of seemingly countless shacks extending from Sturgeon Bay south to Little Sturgeon Bay and beyond. You can get a good description of WhitefishTown in a post I made on a previous trip. We presently pulled up to a burgundy colored fishing shack, one of many in the area belonging to JJ. Tumbling out of the Ranger we made our way to our designated shack.  Opening the door and stepping inside, we were enveloped in warmth. A propane heater was already running. There were four open holes and four spinning rods each waiting patiently for an eager angler. We wasted no time picking up rods and dropping our lures onto the crystal clear water of Green Bay. 

Our shack was positioned over about ninety feet of water, so it took a while for our lures to settle to the bottom. Lake Whitefish are bottom dwellers (aka benthic) feeding primarily on Round Gobys. Appropriately, our lures were designed to look like a goby to the whitefish. Our job was to make the lure act like a goby. This takes a certain amount of skill and practice, and each angler develops their own technique over time.  I have been fishing whitefish through the ice for over fifteen years and I have fine-tuned my rod movements which I have described in detail previously. Whitefish can be very wary of unproperly presented offerings. Targeting them takes patience and perseverance even for experienced anglers like Matthew and Kelly but I was confident they would quickly figure it out.  Jeff, however, was a different situation. By his own admission, Jeff has little experience and, for that matter, interest in fishing. Driving out on a frozen lake and spending six hours trying to coax a finny creature to eat a piece of plastic is not his idea of a good time. Go figure. To be honest, the rest of us were not sure why Jeff agreed to come along. Perhaps it was the novelty of doing something different or to have some quality family time. Maybe it was just for the fresh air and sunshine. Whatever the reason, we were all delighted to have him along.  As the instigator of this outing, I was anxious for everyone to have a good time and catch fish including Jeff. Fortunately, JJ’s assistants Justin and Sam spent time with Jeff instructing him on the finer points of catching whitefish in deep water.  

Within minutes the first whitie hit my bait and the battle was on. Whitefish fight hard, particularly on the light ice fishing rods we were using, and getting one to surface is not a sure thing. I have lost many a fish well short of the hole. In the gin clear water, it is thrilling to see the fish thrashing violently thirty or forty feet below your feet. It was a fun contest the outcome of which was in question until I gingerly slid the thrashing silver mass on to the ice. Soon we were all catching fish, even Jeff. He seemed to catch on quick. I breathed a sigh of relief when he put his first one on the ice. Kelly proved herself an accomplished angler by bagging some of the largest fish of the day, including several over twenty inches. Matthew caught fish as well, but he also enjoyed assisting others getting their fish through the hole. It was a good morning bite, and we welcomed a break to join the other anglers at lunch for brats and chips that JJ had provided. We fished for a couple more hours after lunch, but the bite slowed down. By the time it was time to pack ourselves into the Rangers for the ride back, we had pulled over fifty whitefish from the frigid water of Green Bay. We kept about thirty of these delicious fish and stopped at Lindal’s Fisheries to have them cleaned, deboned and vacuum packed. It was a good day fishing. As we said our goodbyes before going our separate ways, we all agreed that we would love to do this again. Well, maybe not Jeff. 

Less than three weeks later, I again found myself in WhitefishTown, this time with fishing buddies, Paul and Terry. The temperatures were much warmer than the last trip, but the fishing action was like “Deja vous all over again” (Thank you, Yogi Berra.).  It was a glorious day with good friends and companions. I never take that for granted. Again, the fish cooperated. We had a few slow periods, but by the end of the day we had put nearly fifty fish on the ice. We released most of these but did take a few over to Lindals which were destined for the freezer. Nothing beats a whitefish fry in the warmth of the summer with friends, family and a cold beer.  

With renewed confidence, I ventured out on my own or with friends to satisfy my fishing “jones”. Someone once asked me why I like ice fishing. I had to be honest and tell them that I really don’t love ice fishing all that much. It’s just the only kind of fishing you can do in these parts in the winter. I much rather be sitting in the sun in T-shirt and flip flops casting for bass or walleyes rather than sitting on a chuck of ice with frozen fingers trying to get my damn heater to start. Since not fishing is NOT an option, even in the winter, then ice fishing it is. Spring will be here none too soon. 

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Bruce

Questions or comments to bsmith733@gmail.com