There is still some ice on the big bay but the strong southerly winds have really busted up the ice on Green Bay. There are massive pockets of open water from southern Green Bay all the way up the Peninsula.

This cold weather has really helped to cool the water off, so when the cold weather returns we should be in good shape to lock up. The next 6-9 days look normal, but seems to return to below normal close to the end of the year.

There are a couple anglers venturing out into the inner portions of Green Bay for Perch and Pike, ok catches reported.

The ice pack in the bay of Green Bay continues to grow across the open bay. There is substantial ice pack in the southern half of the bay, while the northern half gains ice daily. There are still some small pockets of open water from the Door County line south. From dykesville north there is not as large of an ice pack, but a good base that is growing. The coming week looks normal with ok temperature. We will be out checking somethings in the coming days. The current temperature is -7 in door, co and the winds are increasing.

JJ

The recent cold has really helped many of the inner bays freeze over. There are still a couple small open holes with in these bays but they are pretty much locked tight. The bay of Green Bay has been a challenge to ice up. The gale fore winds have made it very difficult to gain any ice on Green Bay. The temp is forecasted to be below zero tonight. I will check again in the morning to see how things look.

Thanks JJ

Well the temps are in our favor. Some very cold air coming next week will really fuel the ice formation in Door County. Long lead forecasts show this cold air sticking around for a very long time.

I am at the Milwaukee ice show this weekend Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Swing by and say hi! Lots of new ice products out on the market this year!!!

I hope everyone had a great summer and a fun fall. The fall has made many of us ice anglers a little nervous about when the ice will show up, but all indications point to a colder than average winter-we can only hope.

Over the summer I built a large storage building to house all of my ice fishing gear. This heaedt shop is 30×50 and will be my new headquarters. I will be able to thaw out all my gear and store all my gear in one spot. Hard to believe just 8 years ago I decided to start ice guiding on Green Bay. I am thankful for all the customers and friendships that I have foraged with my clients.

We will be up and running again this winter. A couple more houses, a new ranger are some of the new things. Alex my ice assistant who has been with me for over 5 years will be back again this year.. We look forward to fishing with you soon. More updates once it gets cold. Hope you all had a great thanksgiving…

JJ Malvitz

Well this past weekend was our last push for whitefish. A large crack developed last week thursday which made us pull most of our gear closer to shore. We finished our season on Sunday by running a lighter crew. We had a great year of whitefishing, the bite seem pretty consistent throughout the year. The biggest challenge was getting to the fish grounds. The combination of a late freeze and rough ice made it difficult, but we made it happen. We hauled the houses home this week and have been strictly targeting walleyes.

The walleye bite is starting to crank up pretty good. We have been fishing 20-30 feet of water using jigging rapala’s with minnows. Ice seems to be holding alright with this warmer weather. I am thinking we should have ice up until next weekend, all depends on the winds and rain. I am running smaller groups for walleyes to some closer shore spots. We walk out and fish a couple hours. Here are a couple pictures from some of the walleyes we have caught this week.

If your looking for a trophy, now is the time!!!

JJ
9204932953

The ice has remained very stable even through the warm weather this weekend. The warm has created a couple wet and slush sets, but most of it remains very normal. We received a little snow sunday night, so some of these wet spots are very slushy.

The fishing this weekend was a little tougher than usual. I attribute that to the weather. There was a very strong high pressure that made the fish very neutral. We still got a couple limits and every one enjoyed catching a few. Most of our fish were deeper 80-100fow using slider rigs with gulp. We have been catching a couple burbot also.

I have a couple spots of open, fir day, saturday and sunday. After that the weather looks warm… so if you want one more chance at a catching some whitefish lets go! During this warm up I will start doing my fully guided walleye trips. There have been a couple walleyes showing up as of late, the bite will only get better as we get into march. We should be able to fish walleyes till late march…. Please let me know if you would like to get on my walleye list and i can contact you if you would like to get out. call or email me jjsguideservice@live.com

The warm temps didn’t seem to hurt the ice pack, just LOTS of water on top of the ice from all the snow melt. There were areas with 12-22″ of water on top.

The fish was decent for some groups and a little more challenging for others. Changing baits and moving around seemed to be key for most groups. I attribute this to the weather change. It was a good weekend to get out other wise.

I have a couple spots that just opened for Saturday, 2 person house and a 4 person house.  Let me know.

The strong southerly winds are sure blowing up here in Door County. The ice pack seems to be holding very nice south Sturgeon Bay. There are several smaller cracks that have opened up but are not interfering with the ice guiding operations.

The groups today did very well. The slider rigs with waxes seem to be producing the most fish. Technique is super important this year, if you know what your doing you will catch fish. However it does take some groups a little while to catch on, but they still catch fish.

I am starting to take names down for late ice walleye fishing trips. Send me an email if you would like to get on the list. jjsguideservice@live.com

Still fishing deep and find good bites on the traditional whitefish rigs. The bite seems to be very consistant for anglers who know are familiar with the technique and are using the right  gear. We have about 12-18″ of ice. Travel seems to be ok, warm weekend ahead with some strong south winds. Hope we make it through this weather event!

On Monday I fished with some friends of mine from Rapala. They brought their kids along and had a blast. We did a little filming for some new products and photo work.