Had an OK trip on Peck. It was definitely a learning experience and the conditions were limiting. But we caught some fish and finally figured them out a bit on the last night and morning. Big thanks and thumbs up to Ed at Lakeridge Baitshop. We rolled in after they closed, and we were able to reach him on his cell phone from previous conversations. He and (assuming his wife) opened the shop back up and we were able to fuel up the truck, get licenses, and bait. He gave us a lot of info on current conditions and places to watch out for. Then on our way out we missed the turn and he called me right away and led us right down to the landing. Stand up guy for sure.
The lake had 11-12" of ice back in far backs of the bays, getting thinner the further out into the lake you go. Also 8-12" of snow on the ice. This combination led to a ton of slush on the lake. For whatever reason, Friday was the worst for slush, most of the snow got flooded and then froze Saturday-Sunday. Travel with ATVs with tires would be very easy now. Thinnest ice we fished was 4" about 1/2 mile out from the camel humps area around Duck Creek Bays. Water was clear about 8-10 ft visibility.
Wednesday- Got onto the lake around 830-900. Within the first 5 minutes and looking for a spot to park the Aluma Lite, I got stuck in a big slush pocket. Took us 45 minutes to pull the house back out. Ended up setting up in 18fow and put down some rattle reels for the overnight. No bites.
Thursday- We woke up right away to do some ice scouting. Tried to go NW towards the dam from Little Duck Creek Bay, found a ton of slush that we didn't want to pull the house through. Ended up going South from the Duck Creek Rec area, about a 1/4 mile out on a 16ft hump. Found some good stumps and trees on the side of the hump and parked the house there. Ice was about 10".
From there we headed out towards the area referred to as Camel Humps, a series of humps in between Little duck creek bay and Duck creek bay. We checked the ice very often as we were going, never found anything crazy thin, but it did get thinner going out toward the big water. We ended up trying for Lakers on some deeper humps around 50-60fow straight east of the camel humps on 4" of ice. No marks so we moved back onto a 22fow hump. Saw a few walleye on the camera, but tight lipped. Had a flag go up, ended up being a 10+lb laker, that I had up to the hole 2 times before he got off. After that we bumped around to some different areas scouting and went back to the skid house to fish the last couple hours before dark. No fish in the skid house.
Friday- We tried a point back in Little Duck Creek bay early morning, no fish. Then moved out to the camel hump area again and ended up settling on a long point on the south side of little duck creek bay in 16fow. Saw a ton of walleye on the camera but could only get 2 to bite, a 24" and a 17". Nice healthy walleyes. Also found a really thin ridge out from the point in 52fow that I tried for lakers for a bit. Had one up to the hole again before he got off and then had another chasing but couldn't get to bite. At the same time my partner was trying a different area and caught a 12-13lb pike. Then we moved back to the 16fow point for wallyes. Ended up catching 2 more pike around the 13-15lb range and one more around 5-6lbs.
Saturday- Tried the thin deeper ridge for lakers in the morning and caught one about 5-6lbs right away. Nothing after that. Then we spent the rest of the day bumping around the camel humps area trying to locate some fish. It was super slow and hardly saw anything. The wind came up and temp dropped. I settled on the same point we were on Friday, but up in 12fow. My partner was in 18fow on the drop off side of the point. I saw a ton of walleyes on the camera and caught 4, missing 3-4 other bites. By far the best period of the trip as far as aggressive fish. My partner only caught a 10lb pike and didn't see any walleye.
Sunday- We only had half a day to fish so went right back to the 12fow on the point. I caught 2 walleye right away, saw a lot of fish again. My partner was up in 11 fow and saw just a couple walleye, with one pretty nice one that wouldn't bite. Fish went away around 1030am, if we had more time I think we could've found them a little deeper on the point during the middle of the day.
All in all a big learning experience and we are looking forward to going back. Hopefully more ice next time and we can access more areas. Walleyes caught were about 50/50 on a smaller slender spoon with 1/2 minnow and full shiner on a 1/4oz chartuese jig. Lake trout caught on a green Storm 360 searchbait. The underwater camera was almost priceless, saw a lot more walleye with the camera then the flasher showed. It was surprising to see how many walleye were swimming around down there but would have 0 interest in your baits.
