Ice Fishing Report – Grand Traverse Bay 3/5/26

This trip was doomed from the start. A 4 hour delay in departing from down south should have been the first indicator (and then it got cut short later in the night). But we aren’t that smart and we desperately wanted some bay burbot. This was an East Bay exploratory mission. Maybe we would find the mother load or maybe we would crash and burn. The weather was nice, the ice was holding, and we just had to give it one last shot. We were going to settle in on a couple mile stretch that used to be a burbot hot zone many years ago. A few points, some inside turns, grass in 35-80 feet. But despite our best efforts the burbs were no where to be found. We lost one and marked just a few more. I sure would have thought with a couple miles of water and the determination to cut a lot of ice that we would have found something.

The ice was holding up pretty well except at big pressure cracks. The rain today is not going to help any of that but if I lived up there, I would absolutely be pushing the fishing a little longer (although it seems that most gave up after the first warm up). That being said I’m out of time for exploring up there and I’m ready for the boat. Once I get a taste of the Bay, no other ice fishing compares. This years burbot fishing was really a struggle for my crew. We’ve got a lot more questions than answers and we’ll be crossing our fingers for bay ice in 2027.