Kabetogama area fishing and outdoors report/ice update
December 14th, 2019
Poor ice conditions remain throughout the area. Fishing has been up and down with the recent weather fronts with most anglers reporting similar success regardless of your destination on Kab.
Not much has changed in the last few weeks. With ice conditions continuing to be slushy, fishing and snowmobiling activities remain limited to snow packed areas. Some trails are being groomed within Voyageurs National Park, but vehicle traffic is totally non-existent as the government shutdown is keeping park personnel from plowing the ice road and limiting the extent of trail grooming. The good news is the official nonprofit friends group of the park is providing special funding assistance to sustain partial winter operations for visitor safety at Voyageurs National Park during the partial government shutdown. Additionally, the park has received approval to utilize a portion of recreation fee revenue to sustain reasonable safe operations.
Snowmobile trails beyond the park are in excellent condition though and being groomed regularly making for a great ride throughout the area. We are seeing an uptick in snowmobile traffic as we are one of the few areas in the Midwest with good trail conditions. Within the park, any travel off the packed areas are extremely slushy keeping most from exploring off the beaten path. The local ice fishing guides are keeping busy most weekends as they are your best way to get on and off the lake. They all have well packed trails to and from their houses. Casey from Voyageur Park Lodge is moving his houses hoping to find some deeper water and more fish as the cold weather moving in will most likely push the fish deeper. Snyder’s Guide Service reported a good perch bite last week over mud in 30ft. If you want a consistent bite, stick to soft bottom areas in deep water in excess of 28ft. For a decent early morning and evening bite move to the edges of reefs. Some days a shiner under a bobber is working best and other days using a jigging rap or buckshot spoon tipped with a minnow head is working. Come prepared to change things up if what you are presenting isn’t producing.
Everyone is hoping this next wave of extremely cold weather will firm the slushy areas and make more ice and we are crossing our fingers the government shutdown will come to end and we will have an ice road sometime soon! Any way you look at, it has been a much quieter winter on Kab but that doesn’t mean we don’t have excellent opportunities for most outdoor activities. Check with Gateway General or the Voyageur National Park Facebook page for local conditions and they can point you in the right direction.
Don’t forget we have the Arrowhead 135 coming up on the 28th of January. It is known to be one of the hardest races in the world! Gateway General is the first checkpoint so mark it on your calendar and come cheer on the brave participants in this amazing race!