The first day of my survey of ice fishing lakes up north took me to Curlew Lake, a few miles from Republic. I had good roads most of way. I made a couple of stops for coffee and fuel, and it took me just over 3 ½ hours to get to Republic, where I met my friend James. Joined by his buddy, J.R. we headed for Curlew. Anglers access the lake from the State Park at the southern end of the lake. The parking lot was pretty full and there were lots of folks out on the ice. We drilled a few holes, James with his gas-powered drill and I with my electric drill, and we put down some baits. We were watching the other anglers closely to see if they were catching anything, and they weren’t. I got one 12-inch rainbow and we saw a one perch and one other rainbow caught. Later on, I ran up to Tiffany’s and found a group doing really well in 40 feet of water. They were getting some 12-inch perch. Curlew does produce big perch after all. My next stop was Bonaparte Lake. I will tell you how I did in my next report.
I cut a corner too closely and got stuck. Thanks to Eric Walker of Black Beach Resort I got out. Resort is closed but Eric came to my rescue.