Mild Weather Means Less Ice Fishing in the UP

Mild weather the last few months means opportunities to ice fish in the Upper Peninsula are few and far between, however people are still fishing on lakes, ponds and rivers.

George Madison, a fisheries manager with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, says they’ve seen an uptick in the number of people fishing from the shoreline or from boats – which isn’t a common site in November and December.

While the weather hasn’t been cold enough to freeze over most large lakes Madison says that should change in the next few weeks when temperatures are expected to dip into the single digits overnight and only rise into the teens during the day.

Once that does happen, Madison says people fishing should use the buddy system and fish with someone else and be sure to use a spud bar to test how dense the ice is before stepping on it.