Hey everyone, I’m sure like you we are anxious to get on the ice. We are experiencing some really mild temperature and currently have no ice. We are optimistic we will be out there mid to late January. The long range forecasts look promising! We have very limited weekend availability, week days are still fairly open. We Will post updates as conditions allow!
Looking forward to seeing everyone
captain JJ
Here are some pictures of the ice leading up to the ice blowing out on 2-7-23. I have the schedule open for the 2024 season,thanks everyone for understanding and I’ll see ya next year!
I have never in my 13 years of guiding seen such poor ice conditions on Green Bay. Heading into winter it looked very optimistic for an earlier than usual start to our guide season. This idea quickly faded as we had a record warm January for our area. There was virtually no ice made the entire month of January. Fast forward to the end of January where we did receive some cold air. This was unfortunately not enough and to late for what we needed going into February. The area did not get cold long enough. We tried to stay optimistic going into February in hopes we would get the cold we needed.
The past week myself and a network of guides have exhausted every possible resource to checking the ice pack on Green Bay. We walked numerous miles on the ice every day, drilled hundreds of holes, marked roads, and created back up plans to evolving conditions. Myself and another guide chartered a airplane twice in the last week to physically see the condition of the ice on the bay. This proved to be invaluable information to help us predict and foresee what happened today. The strong southerly winds today in combination with the vast amount of open water allowed the ice to peel away from the eastern side of the bay where we are located. Leading up to this we could see the signs and triggers for this to happen.
The ice pack is beyond repair at this point to access our off shore whitefish locations given the current conditions and forecast for the next two weeks.
This is a really tough decision, but a calculated one. There are many things that go on behind the scenes leading up taking people out on the ice. The amount of time, effort and handwork are all done to ensure safety for everyone out there. It has to be this way, and it will always be that way. Safety is always first.
This is one of my most favorite times of the year, and I really am going to miss it. Over the past years I have made so many lasting relationships with all my customers and I consider most of them friends. I thank all of you for taking a chance on that “kid” 13 years ago and booking a ice fishing trip, your what keep me and my team going! We look forward to getting out deep next year, lots of whitefish lives will be spared this year!
Captain JJ Malvitz
JJs Guide Service
We are on track with colder temperatures predicted beginning later in the upcoming weekend. We are hopeful to begin guiding operations for the 2023 season later next week. The main challenge is trying to figure out with the predicted temperatures when we will exactly begin our guiding operations. Like every year we will monitor it daily and walk the ice to ensure safe passage. We have all of our equipment ready to go. The ice shacks are ready, and the rods are tied. Just need the bay to freeze across and lock into the islands in the northern half of Green Bay.
Here is a aerial shot from today 
There finally appears to be some cold in the near future. We have a lot of ground to make up in regards to our ice formation on the bay. This next cold snap appears to arrive over the next weekend. The anticipated cold will accelerate the much-needed ice formation on the bay. We are very hopeful that we will be able to begin guiding operations the first week of February. This all depends on how cold it gets and the amount of wind. This will be the latest start I’ve had in my guiding career. Myself and my team are really looking forward to seeing everyone and a successful season.
We are almost to the middle of January and the cold air that greeted us at the beginning of the year has come and gone. We have been in a very mild pattern since the first week of January. There is some ice on the bay of Green Bay and the inner harbors. We are optimistic and hopeful we will be starting the last week of January with an anticipated colder temperatures. This is the latest aerial shot of the bay as of 1-10-23.
thanks captain jj
Merry Christmas! Like most of the country we have experienced a major Arctic blast of cold air. This intrusion of cold air has made some ice in the far southern bay of Green Bay and some of the inner harbors of Door County. Unfortunately when we get this big blast ofcold its accompanied by strong winds, that was the case. We had sustained winds of 40mph with gusts above 50. That greatly reduces ice formation. We will hopefully be out in the later half of January. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We have had a very successful ice season this far. The ice remains at a solid 22” and the ice pack nearly covers the entire bay. We will extend our season through the 15 of March. If your looking for one last fishing trip, this will be the last opportunity for the 2022 season.
We have made the move out to our deeper spots over the past couple days. It’s been a long process to carve roads and make travel possible due to the rough ice. We have a couple more shacks to get on the ice and will begin guiding operations later this week. We are finding most areas with 12-16” with a couple isolated spots of 8. We came up with some ingenious ways to make rods this winter, was a lot of work, but we made it happen.
While I was moving shacks I let Ashley fish and she caught us a couple for dinner! Looking forward to my 12th season on the ice!
capt.JJ
We are again getting some attic air over the weekend. This past week we spend checking ice on our traditional fishing grounds, we still need some cold air for consecutive days. Judging from the conditions I feel we are a 7-10 days before we can safely get out there. This time frame can be sooner or later depending on multiple weather factors. We are in much better shape than we were last year at this time. In the meantime we have been putting the finishing touches on gear, building ice ramps and doing a little perchin’