For the Tomahawk Leader

SPIDER LAKE – Just north of the busy tourist town of Minocqua, Wis., located just a few miles northwest of Arbor Vitae, lies the 223-acre, sprawling Spider Lake. It’s a very clear, 23-ft. maximum depth lake with nearly all varieties of northern Wisconsin fish in it, highly praised as a premier musky lake.

The last weekend of January, I was able to spend a couple days punching holes around a few of the long, narrow bays that give this lake its name.

First of all: an ice report. No worries, that burst of Arctic air that hit the Midwest recently with temps well below negative 20 and colder has frozen up the northern Wisconsin lakes very well. We saw ice depths of over 25-30 inches thick. In fact, you may need an auger extension if you find yourself trying to fish a more hard-packed area that has seen other fishing pressure of snowmobiles that have packed it down.

Surprisingly, though, we still found pockets of slush on the ice; nothing too concerning and not too much of it. In fact, travel on most lakes is pretty good. 4×4 trucks are having no issues at all getting around. ATVs and UTVs are moving almost at will, barring a slush encounter or snowdrift, but we didn’t see anyone with any problem getting out to where they wanted to be.

But, as always, safety first. Check ice thickness before going into unknown areas, creek inlets or channels between bays and other lakes.

Most of our fishing time was during the mid-day hours, typically not considered ideal times, but nonetheless we caught a wide variety: perch, crappie, bluegill, sunfish, rock bass, borthern pike and walleye. I’d say size was not great; however, we caught a lot of smaller fish, borderline keepers, all of which were returned to the lake. But it was a great fishing outing during a rather dull time of year otherwise.

As for the type of fishing we did, nothing fancy here, folks. We set a couple tip ups with medium-sized walleye minnows, a half dozen tip downs with crappie minnows and a few guys on jig poles with waxies. Nothing earth-shattering.

Moral of this story is to just get out and fish, enjoy the outdoors, and if you catch some fish along the way, then that is the icing on the cake.

Stay safe, and good luck fishing.