Outdoors: Tips to catch fish during first and last ice

"If You're Not First, You're Last"

Outdoor enthusiasts are always looking forward to the next big event.

When fishing is in your blood, opening day is a big deal.

All across the Algoma region there are a host of opening days angler's can look forward to enjoying.

First ice isn't officially an opening day, but it is the first opportunity ice fishing enthusiasts get to practice their craft.

It doesn't hurt that first ice also produces some of the best ice fishing of the season!

The next best option for ice fishing takes place months later on last ice.

WHY FIRST AND LAST ICE?

I'm often asked why fish like perch, walleye, northern pike, lake trout and brook trout bite so well early in the winter and late in the winter, but during the middle of winter the bite seems to taper off.

The short answer to this phenomenon can be summed up in just one word -- oxygen.

Early in the winter lakes all across Algoma Country have lots of dissolved oxygen.

The abundance of oxygen comes from photosynthesis which is the process by which aquatic plants consume carbon dioxide and generate oxygen.

The photosynthesis process requires energy from the sun, so this process only occurs during the daylight.

At night, plants actually absorb some of the oxygen they produce.

Thankfully for the fish that need this dissolved oxygen, plants produce about 10 times more oxygen than they consume.

Unfortunately, as the daylight periods in late fall and winter become shorter, plants start to slowly die and the amount of oxygen produced by aquatic plants and the process of photosynthesis also dwindles.

Decomposition of organic matter also consumes oxygen from the water compounding the problem.

By late winter collectively the dissolved oxygen in the water is less so fish naturally become less active.

Fortunately this annual process starts to reverse as the hours of daylight slowly begin increasing, plant life rebounds and oxygen levels start to spike again.

This is precisely why the best ice fishing of the season occurs on first and last ice.

All the dissolved oxygen in a body of water isn't produced by plants.

Flowing water, springs and wave action also oxygenate the water.

The best fishing lakes however are classified as mesotrophic bodies of water that have lots of aquatic weeds, plenty of plankton and a rich forage base of aquatic insects, minnows and crustaceans.

- Mark Romanack

Read the full article about the first and last ice.