Ice fishing Brown Trout

Question
I was in Milwaukee this past week for the first time. In the past I saw a show on ice fishing Brown Trout in the Milwaukee harbor. I plan to go back next winter to stay with relatives and ice fish for these nice browns. I'm an avid fisherman but am not versed on what to use for these trout and where to fish.
I know most people use spawn and probably small jigs and/or a small hook. Is what is called the Milwaukee harber the downtown marina?? Do I use light line ( 6lb ) or so?  Is a walleye style ice fishing pole good for this? Does one usejigging motion or just let a spawn bag hang in the water? What is the best time of year? What are the odds of catching some fish? I'm an avid fisherman but mostly fresh water. Your help would be appreciated.

Answer
Hi Bernd,

The entire harbor freezes over most years but the majority is not fishable no matter how safe it looks.  The three areas that are generally safe are the McKinley Boat harbor on the north end, the Lakeshore State park Estuary (by the Summerfest Grounds, and the Southshore Yacht Club boat harbor on the south side.  Even in these places you have to use extreme caution.  Lake Michigan is full of mysterious currents, wave swells, and other things that can effect the quality and safety of the ice.  Stay away from steel seawalls and dock pilings.

If we have a cold year, safe ice starts around Jan 1.  Some years we never get good ice.  But we have the last three years now.

Yes, walleye stuff will work.  A good abrasion resistant 6# mono like Suffix (blue box) is all you need.  Spawn bags should be fished just off the bottom on tip-ups.  For jigging use small jigging spoons, jigging Rapalas, or small ice jigs tipped with a couple wax worms.  Small pearl crappie sized (1.5") tube jigs also work well.  Pearl white, or Smelt colored 2" gulp Minnows on a light jig head are also good.  For Pike, large golden shiners fished right below the surface are good.  

Use a quality reel.  Some of the small spinning reels sold for ice fishing don't have a smooth drag.  Remember that you could hook into a Brown or Steelhead in the 15+ pound range with the average being 5-8 pounds.  

What are the odds of catching something???  Well, it's a hot and cold fishery.  One day it could go nuts and then you can go two days without anything.  The lake is so big that it's almost like an ocean.  A big storm with high waves (6-8 footers) will screw things up for days and make the water muddy.  Residual waves from storms can push water into the harbor in swells.  These swells gush water in and out of the holes you drill.  But I don't want to discourage you.  We can have periods of three to four weeks where nothing happens.  I just want to make you aware that it's not like an inland lake.  There are a lot of variables that happen on Lake Michigan that don't occur on regular inland waters.  To answer your question, if you are here for a week and put some time in each day, you will catch something.  You may catch 5 one day and go three days without anything.  If you can wait till late Jan or Feb you will have the best shot at good ice and some migrating trout to push into the harbor.  The numbers increase as the winter progresses.  This year, ice went out in the main harbor about two weeks ago.  Ice in the boat harbors is still on now, but you wouldn't get me out there right now.  It's too volatile

I've seen guys ice fishing in a spot one day and a big off shore wind comes in and busts it up and blows it out in 24 hours.  

Just remember that if the ice is bad you can always fish open water here.  Check out my blog and read the one called Milwaukee's Winter Fishery.  www.thelureofthefish.blogspot.com

I also write the weekly fishing report for The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel so you can monitor that on-line as your trip gets closer.  Or drop me a note here.

Good luck,

Marc