South Central Lower Peninsula Area Fishing Report

January 26th, 2022

I was finally able to break away from work and outdoor shows and all the other things that have slowed my start to the 2022 ice season this week and hit the ice Monday after work. I typically fish on average 4-5 days a week during the ice season but it always feels like I hit the same 8-10 lakes. This year I decided I was going to try and fish a different lake every time out. Monday I started off on a very familiar lake, a great friend lives on. He had been out a few times and just couldn’t get them going or locate them. I worked a few common spots but realized this shallow weed flat was just a ghost town. We moved around and finally got them going deeper. Knowing where I fished Tuesday, I took that knowledge of fish being deeper and found them deeper in the lake I went too. What I think is going on is we’ve had no snow cover on the crystal clear ice and it kept the fish deeper in the lakes. Thursday was also the same when I fished a new lake. Using Navionics, I was looking for deeper flats or gentle slopes on inside and outside points. I found the gills on the deeper edges of them. The last few days of the week were the same. Working points on the bottom edges of the basin is where the fish were located. My best setups were 5mm tungsten jigs from Fatboy Jigs, plastic J-Spikes and Wing Dings from Judge’s Jaw Jackers, and spring bobbers from Ice Strong Outdoors. All of these were very handy with the light finicky bites!