Shirley's Bay 2022 Ice season

[scarkner]

That’s interesting…I thought I’d have a good shot at some tonight, but only caught walleye and perch tonight! Maybe you are right…

Hmmmmm....

[canam04]

went out tonight and tried several different spots/depths but had no luck.

I lived up with a bun of the permashelters at around 10-12' but couldn't mark or attract anything...then went more shallow... drilled holes and fished all the way down to 8'

no marks
no fish

to the guys having success.. are you guys going deeper than the majority of shelters out there?

Im not asking for spots.. just some depth advice.

Hey Levitch, I was there tonight and we did well. 6 walleye and a Ling. Was in 11 FOW just past the shacks. I had the sled with eskimo flip over if you happen to see us. I think the best thing I can tell you is try changing lures and presentation. If using full minnow and nothing then try just the head. Tonight was a minnow head night for me and had good action.
Goodluck

[smitty55]

In my experience you need to be right along the shelf where the depth changes from 8-12 feet. If you are on the flat above or below the slope there is less traffic. If you go to last year's thread you will see the maps I posted. Even better when rock is present.
Cheers

[Walker]

Smitty, on your map, from last year, where is the boat ramp located ?

[smitty55]

Smitty, on your map, from last year, where is the boat ramp located ?

It says ramp on the map and there is an icon too.

[Fordpodolski]

After a few slow days this past week- finally pushed out a bit farther than most people were set up yesterday.. was sitting in 11.5 ft. Prett non-stop walleye action. Most dinks- 10-13” long. With one probably topping 15”. Still tons of fun. Almost where on the map you guys have been talking about from last years thread.

[SirCatfish]

Went out on Friday afternoon, pushed out a bit past most of the permanent shacks in roughly 12 ft. landed 16 walleye/sauger. Non stop action, a couple nice 16 inch keepers and a bunch in the 10-12 inch range.

I've never had the bite be on like that at Shirley's, usually would only catch a couple at prime time, but the bite was non stop from 1:30 to 7 pm. Finally had to call it when my buddy heater died. I ran out of minnows pretty quick and they were still munching the Frostbite Tantrum.

[smitty55]

After a few slow days this past week- finally pushed out a bit farther than most people were set up yesterday.. was sitting in 11.5 ft. Prett non-stop walleye action. Most dinks- 10-13” long. With one probably topping 15”. Still tons of fun. Almost where on the map you guys have been talking about from last years thread.

Back in the day that's where many of the permanent shacks were. Also further out to the right along that same line. No GPS back then, the general areas were found by landmarks and triangulation and then holes were drilled to find the edge and set up there. I had buds with shacks and on the inside was 10-11 ft and outside on the shallow side would be 8ft and 12-13ft on the deep side.

[CCLad]

Well we finally managed to get the hut set up on sat... way over due! Great ice this season! Any ways ended up catching 8 on sat and 7 sun. all about 12" minus 2 around 15". We are going to move the hut a ways out tomorrow to where we usually set up for the second half of the season. I'll post the results and info when done...

[CCLad]

So we pulled the hut and headed north... about 1.8 km north towards point with the old observatory (old white building, well past the mouth of the causeway)

There is about 15 inches of solid clear, and I mean clear ice. I have never seen the ice at the bay as good as this. The picture doesn't do justice but you can clearly see the ager wholes as if it was a glass case.

Super clear ice.jpg (258.26 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Which was super cool as my buddy hooked into a sturgeon, guessing it was a solid 20lbs as we got a great look at it through the ice. It swam off after a 15 min or so tussle but not before it got into the three other lines and even pulled a rod down a hole. Which we pulled up through another whole post fight.

We both ended up with our limit 10 walleye total but there was some quality fish. We decided to take home dinner tonight (first time I've kept a walleye from the bay in probably 4 years) Cant wait to get back out there!!

Walleye dinner.jpg (544.58 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Cheers
CCLad.

[Mav]

Wow! What a day to remember!!

[canam04]

Best night ever at Shirley's. We caught 23 walleye between two guys. We were just past the huts in 11'.7" FOW. We were setup by 2pm and had movement immediately. They started out just looking but at 3pm it all started. We dialed it in and they started biting. Lots of action on minnow heads to start but at 5pm it was all about the live minnow. Had about 9 that were under 11" but the rest were all from 12" and bigger. I have been fishing shirleys since 2011 and I have never had a day like today, Yes have had some good days out at the point and with a little better size but today was just fun.
Tight lines everyone .

[CCLad]

Great Fishing man, gotta love action like that!

I wondered to myself if the original Covid lock down a couple years ago coupled with the flooding on the Ottawa river before that (2017 and 2019) would have an effect on fish numbers/population a few years later due to the lack of fishing pressure - 2 springs in a row (and 3 in 4 years) as spring, is by far the easiest time to target walleye. Particularly the bigger breeding sized fish. So far certainly seems to be looking like the numbers are up across the board from what I caught last year and this as well as what is being reported.
The ave. size of a 2 - 2.5 year old walleye is 13" (from what I just looked up) which allot of people are catching now in good numbers. If true it's a great outlook for the walleye fishery at the bay!
CCLad

[Ragehunter]

Folks, I have fished Shirley's for several years now. Also followed along on this forum every year when ice season opens. One thing I have noticed is that nobody seems to fish Shirley's at daybreak, including myself. For you more seasoned Shirley's anglers, is there a reason for this besides the cold morning temp's? Is the bite not so good at that time? Like I said, I always fish the evenings as well. But that got me to thinking, why don't I go out for a daybreak trip some day. Thoughts??

[CCLad]

For me, I like sleeping at that time But I have, and some of my fishing buddies have, tried first light at the bay. We all had very little success. That said, not a large number os tries to base the out come on, maybe 4-5 times. In the soft water season, I find the bite to kick in around 9am ish, but again for ice fishing - I'm stating a small sample size. Steve maybe able to weigh in, I think his spent some over nights..

That said, fishing yesterday was a PB fish for me numbers wise. I ended up with 17 walleye, a northern and a ling. Couldn't keep a rod in the water for quite some time. What a fish!