Kurt's Island Sport Shop

Not bad for moving into mid-February. Ice is good, slush nearly nonexistent and snow cover in the 4-5” range in the Lakeland Area. Easy enough for truck, UTV, ATV, snowmobile and walking traffic! The further North you go, don’t expect as easy of travel as there is more snow, but still fairly good travel is reported. Fishing picked up mid-week, faltered a little on Friday (plus it was windy) then made a slight improvement before a stall mid-day Saturday (2/7) and then a muc

Finally warmed up (highs in low 20’s) as has the fishing! Following the freakishly cold weekend prior, temps in the 20’s felt like a summer breeze on Saturday (1/31, with no breeze)! Participation picked up as did the fishing. Yellow Perch: Fair-Very Good – Once you can locate those moving bands of Perch in 14-21’ of water, good to go with a variety of fast sinking jigs (Flash Champs, Kastmaster DT, Hali jigs, Northland Tungsten Buck Shot) tipped with wigglers, red spike o

Fishing report!? Please! With morning temps of 27-33° BELOW ZERO (colder in some lower elevations) not including wind chills to 57 ° below, not many anglers brave (or kooky) enough to go drill holes and “freeze” a line. Fishing had been relatively good until the big FREEZE arrived. Actually, the lack of wind on Saturday and Sunday had a few anglers checking things out. Bluegill: Very Good-Fair – Not usually a good choice for super cold. Yet a few anglers with permanent s

Winter is arriving, so the party is over for a while. Sub-zero highs and double sub-zero lows will make almost anyone think twice before heading out on the lakes. Mid-week doesn’t look so bad, but the weekend forecast is pretty scary (Friday morning (1/23) lows to hit -23° with wind chill (-42°)). So, let’s look back at the good ol’ days (last week), temps in the 20’s and fish biting! Walleye: Very Good-Good – Still some good jigging action on Hyper Rattles, Shiver Minn

Great week weather wise for anglers as temps in the upper 20’s to mid-30’s made for comfortable fishing. Even the slush issue has started to settle down on most lakes having either gotten packed down or snow cover melted down enough to let colder nights freeze it down. Despite such good conditions, it seems ice fishing traffic has been lighter than expected (I get that Sunday (1/11) was a day of mourning here in Packer Nation). To be fair, fishing fell off some on Saturda

I hesitated a day to see what the effects of the forecasted snow of Jan 4 th would do to the lake ice…turns out, the 6-10” forecasted never landed! Bad for snowmobilers, but good for anglers as this week’s mild temps may help mash down the slush a little, we hope. Northern Pike: Very Good – With the largest reported at 38 ½” this week ad lots of good reports on action and size. River shiners and gold shiners in the large size as well as 5-6” suckers fished in 8-12’ weed

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Last report of 2025…Looks like the easy stuff is over for a while! Last week’s mild temps and lack of snow on the ice coupled with a 7-10” ice thickness average (some up to 12”-others still in the 5-6” range) made for great fishing and catching! Biggest concern was staying upright. The warmth and rain made it critical to have creepers on the snowless ice – but that should end by the time this report gets out! Lots of warm snow will most likely create a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Wild swings in the weather, last weekend’s sub teens to midweek warm up and rain, to sub temps and incredibly high winds have really made for a fish when you can “challenge”. Action picked up nicely after the weekend of arctic blast. Then Saturdays (12/20) front, by mid-morning, slammed the bite OFF! Winds and swirling snow kept most anglers away, those that did tough it out had little to nothing to show for their bravery (foolishness)! Walleye: Good-F

We survived an early season artic blast (sub-teen temps) over the weekend. Not good for getting on the ice when wind chills hit 30 below and lower. Good part is ice building and except for some areas covered with snow mounds (not good ice below) and some larger lakes (only 4” or so). Most reports coming in have thickness of 6-8” and building. Walleye: Very Good-Good – Still shallow and weed related. Shiners, both golden and river, working best in water as little as 4’

OK, It’s getting started!! Not all lakes yet! Trout, Fence and parts of similar large, deep lakes still not iced. Yet enough 3-6” of good walkable ice to allow foot traffic on many of the popular, easy access ice season favorites. Walleye: Very Good – Shallow weeds of 4-8’, especially after dark, using medium shiners in standing cabbage. Fish of the short week – 27 ½” caught and released by Even of Newbold, caught during the middle of the day! Bluegill: Very Good –