By this I respectively am referring to Ice, Chubs, and Oversized Predators. Late ice is great ice, this most of us are keenly aware of. And, it goes hand in hand with fishing big chubs for the heftiest fish any body of water has to offer. I generally target walleye’s, but you will also undoubtedly encounter some huge pike as well. This system works equally well for both, just need to beef up your leaders if you target the slimy ones.

As we near the end of the Hardwater Season, (from late February till Ice Out) we’ve typically experienced: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The good being at first ice when Walleye’s are generally conducive to biting and the results are favorable for numbers, with a few good fish mixed in.

As we begin to enter the second half of the hard-water fishing season-and in my mind at least, the better half-we’ve experienced both good and bad. The good part being, we had favorable ice conditions form early on this year, and as is often the case-made for some fine fishing opportunities.

I’m not talking about the quality of the ice itself but the about your opportunity to enjoy some of the best fishing of the hard water season. Once the calendar roles around to late February or early March a lot of the enthusiasm for ice fishing has waned. Just as you begin to notice less and less anglers out, all species of fish activity will be increasing proportionally

In my neck of the woods (Northeastern South Dakota) I consider late ice, to be the period from mid February until you can no longer safely venture out. By this stage in the game most of the enthusiasm for drilling holes has greatly diminished.