Shirley's Bay 2024 Ice season

[heystripes]

Hey all

Has anyone been out to the bay? I doubt there is much ice if any at all, but I thought I would ask and get this thread started for the year.

It looks like I picked a bad time to get into ice fishing: https://phys.org/news/2023-11-brace-pot ... tering.amp

[Fordpodolski]

Drove by the bay Thursday. First few feet of shoreline is frozen, but still a long ways to go. Feels like a repeat start to last season so far..

[CCLad]

Hi all! Just logged in to start this thread for the season again and press - a - daisy, here it is lol. Hope everyone had a good summer. I'm guessing (looking at the extended weather forecast) that our hut will be out front of the parking lot for the early season set up around the 2nd weekend in Jan. hopefully sooner .... but probably not. Any who, if you have a chance put in a post here so we can get a head count as to who's back on here for the season.
Cheers, CCLad.

[The Captain]

Hey all, been a while since I was on the boards much but had a renewed effort at Shirley's last year - and I'm sure ran into a few 'locals' in the process - looking to refine my tactics and have a good year this year once we eventually get some ice! (Records show my first outing wasn't until 20-Jan last year, surely we can do better than that!)

[Riotralph]

Hey, was fortunate enough to get my first hardwater session in last Sunday on about 3" of ice at Petrie Island. Pulled up ancouple dozen Crappie/Sunfish. Looking forward to getting out to Shirley's asap and will watch for ice reports so keep em coming. Cheers

[CCLad]

Looking at the extended forecast, going to be warm pretty much all next week. Things look to chill out getting into Jan. I was hoping to be out (set the hut up) on the weekend of Jan 13 but it looks like the 20th again this year... Crappy!

[Seus]

I was by there yesterday, only a light skim of ice out about 100 feet looks like it will be a while. I fish there every year but mostly in a flip over or tent. This year I am going tp put a small structure out for the duration. I would like to meet more people out there and get a little community going. I grew up with this type of culture on lake Simcoe and I am envious of the Petrie Island community. Lets see what happens this year for Shirleys.

[FishEyes]

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

polar-bear-waiting-for-sea-ice-HERO-Kt-Miller-1066814.jpg (52.48 KiB) Viewed 3690 times

[Mav]

Hey! Yeah this weather stinks!! I didn’t have my shack out there last year due to the slow start to the season and some family health issues…I don’t care when we finally get out there, I’m definately gonna have the shack setup see y’all on the bay!!

[CCLad]

Hey Mav, glad you are getting the shake back out there!

Looking at the long range forecast on accuweather, it will be tight to get the hut out on the ice by the weekend of the 20th. Night time lows are looking ok but the day time temps certainly won't speed thing's up! &&& Definitely don't need a large dump of snow after (well.... errr, if) it freezes up.

[Papaclaude]

Are there any crappie or bluegills on Shirley's or Constance Bays? I'm looking for a spot other than Petrie - too many people there keeping every single thing they catch - drives me nuts and doesn't help the fishery. Hard to teach the grandkids to respect the resource when you see guys tossing 2" sunfish in their creels.

[smitty55]

Never caught either on Shirleys and have always stayed until well after dark and never had Crappies come in late into the bay.

[Fisherman89]

No crappie or gills at Shirleys as far as I know. Mostly 8" to 14" sauger and walleye with the odd larger one and burbot after dark.

[The Captain]

To the owner of the little shack just sitting there on the bare rocky beach . . . The image of that shack sums my feelings up perfectly right now - sad, but hopeful! Hope to meet a few folks out there sooner (but safely) than later

[smitty55]

Should be making good ice over the next week, good cold night time temps and no snow for the most part.