Ice Reports - Ottawa River - Shirley's Bay

[cprince]

.

December 21 - 9am
Shirley's bay ice is in GREAT SHAPE with 6-8 inches of consistent, pure black, ice out as far as I could walk. River frozen out as far as the eye can see.

Two huts in place and several people out fishing.

DETAILS:
Parking Lot - Excellent, plowed and sanded.
Ramp to Ice - NOT PASSABLE, about 1 inch of ice with several inches of water underneath (see pics)
Snow Cover - Knee deep over most of the ice surface, it is VERY hard walking due to perfectly smooth black ice underneath.
Fishing - Well, I did OK.

Picture of the ramp. The "channel" you see is where a skidoo broke through the ice and had a tough time of it.


Example of the perfectly clear ice that covers the bay.

[Gord]

Time of Day : late afternoon, December 8, 2013.

[tbone1088]

Seen the ice lately gord? It's been colder and temp is still dropping. Hopefully a week or two and we will be out there once again

[Gord]

I'm sure within' the next couple of weeks it'll be good.......but it sure wasn't on Sunday!!

[Seaweed]

Shirleys is always a nice spot to start out the year... if you can find the fish. See you out there.

[Duper]

Shirley's Bay was frozen over out pretty far yesterday. I drove over there around 3pm but there was nobody fishing so I am assuming it must still need some time to thicken up.

[jesse.page]

Shirley's Bay was frozen over out pretty far yesterday. I drove over there around 3pm but there was nobody fishing so I am assuming it must still need some time to thicken up.

Thanks for sharing, I was a little curious as to what it would be like after the cold snap we had!

Cheers

[scarkner]

December 21 - 9am
Shirley's bay ice is in GREAT SHAPE with 6-8 inches of consistent, pure black, ice out as far as I could walk. River frozen out as far as the eye can see.

Two huts in place and several people out fishing.

DETAILS:
Parking Lot - Excellent, plowed and sanded.
Ramp to Ice - NOT PASSABLE, about 1 inch of ice with several inches of water underneath (see pics)
Snow Cover - Knee deep over most of the ice surface, it is VERY hard walking due to perfectly smooth black ice underneath.
Fishing - Well, I did OK.

Picture of the ramp. The "channel" you see is where a skidoo broke through the ice and had a tough time of it.


Example of the perfectly clear ice that covers the bay.

[tbone1088]

we went out to shirley's bay last night and caught one walleye and 2 perch. Went to the point close to oneof the shacks out there and started marking fish right away, we didn't have live bait so it took awhile to get them to hit, but we got there 7 inches of good black ice every spot we tried, the season is FINALLY HERE!!!

[scarkner]

Do you mind sharing what time they hit?

I too was without live bait. I was using artificial white grubs, they worked OK. I drill around 20 holes, found perch in two of them (side by side). Ended up with about a dozen (released). Caught from 9am until noon (basically the whole time I was there).

[Gord]

If you're after walleye, one hour before sunset to one hour after is your window on Shirley's. Unless you want to do the morning bite......get there just before the sun comes up!

[scarkner]

Lots of people reporting strong "middle of the night" bites in the bay too, 1am-3am.

But you gotta be one heck of a dedicated fisher to be out at those hours... although with enough beer and a good heater...

[Gord]

I always thought of putting my trailer out there to take advantage of that, but never did. The access on and off the ice there is very sketchy......and it's isolated there.....nobody around at 2am. Prime time for vandals and thieves to strike.

[smitty55]

If you're after walleye, one hour before sunset to one hour after is your window on Shirley's. Unless you want to do the morning bite......get there just before the sun comes up!

scarkner Gord knows. Sometimes you can almost set your watch over a period of days with the evening run. It's a large bay with different local habits depending where you fish. I highly recommend emerald shiners for your set lines and jig rods. Champs and Pimps always worked fine, but there are so many newer walleye jigs nowadays.

Good pic of the ice. Is it passable by quad out there??

Cheers

[scarkner]

Quad and skidoo would be fine, just drive off to the side of the ramp, it's easy to see where the ice is weak there.

wish I had one, slogging through the snow is brutal.