A Season in the Life of an Ice Fisherman

Skip Sommerfeldt, a longtime DNR fish biologist and northern Wisconsin resident, keeps a diary of all the fish he catches during the hard water season. The winter of 2006-2007 was one for his record books.

Skip Sommerfeldt, a longtime DNR fish biologist and northern Wisconsin resident.

The winter of 2006-07 was my best ice fishing season on Butternut Lake in 10 years. I had good consistent action throughout the winter, caught good numbers of walleye and the average size was up about 2 inches from the previous bunch of years.

It did seem that certain areas were 'hotspots' and I had to fish those to consistently catch fish, mainly in 8 to 10 feet of water. Weather was unseasonably warm until mid-January, with relatively thin ice (8 to 10 inches) and a low amount of snow. Then temperatures were colder than average from late-January to late February, with travel being excellent with a continued low snow depth. The last two weeks of the season, February 25 to March 3, saw 20 inches of snow and very restricted travel on the lake, with a bit of slush in the last couple days.

Now, the gory numbers and totals from the season. I fished a total of 79 days out of a possible 91 (Dec. 4 to March 4). All of the trips were to Butternut Lake and with tip-ups, mainly for walleye. I put in a total of 148.7 hours of actual fishing time, with most being short trips during 'prime time,' the hour or so before dark. I had 297 flags and caught a total of 113 fish, which included 103 walleye, two northern pike, one musky, six perch and one rock bass. Most of the walleye were in the 12 to 15-inch size, 26 (25%) were greater than 15 inches, and my biggest was a 24.2-inch walleye caught on Feb. 3. I released 64 of the 103 walleye caught (62%), and didn't keep any greater than 15 inches in length.