Ice-Fishing w/ Jay, 3-8-2014

Date: 3-8-2014
Time Fished: 10:00am-5:30pm
Water Clarity: From 5" to 6.5', depending on where you were
Water temp: 14" of ice
Species Sought: Any
Fish caught:  Crappies, Bluegills, Largemouth Bass

Planned to maybe hit a few ponds/lakes, but it was fun enough to keep our attention all day.  I drilled a hole and marked a couple fish.  They would come and go....more often they would be GONE than actually present.  Jay showed up after I did.  He drilled holes in usual spots, didn't mark ANY fish.  Finally had ONE show up, and caught it...a crappie that was deep.  He eventually came over by me, and I drilled some new holes as well.  The fish would come in waves, it seemed.  Most often is was a couple fish that would come in.  Occasionally the flasher would be lit up from 3' down to 14'!  The bluegills seemed to be hanging just a bit deeper, while the crappies seemed to prefer 2'-6'.  In some holes, I could see my jig down to 6'. I would sight-fish then.  THAT was FUN!  I had a few crappies that came in just a foot below the ice!  Wish I had video of that!   After awhile, we had to hole hop to keep finding fish, because they would disappear out of some holes, but might come back later.  It wasn't a stellar day by any means, but it was the funnest, most consistent action I've had this ice season.  I didn't do a good job of tracking how many I caught, so I'm underestimating to say I caught at least 23 crappies, 18 bluegills, and 1 largemouth bass.  Lost a decent bass just under the hole.
I started out with a vertical jig / waxie.  Caught a lot of fish on that.  Later in the day, I tipped with Gulp! instead...the crappies and bass liked that every bit as much, but the bluegills hit it less frequently.

Early 2013 Ice Fishing - Trip #2

Ice-fished some brushpiles on a local reservoir on Saturday, January 5th.  My buddy Jay joined me, as well as our friend Chris and his son Nathan, and another friend Jim.  The ice was 9" of  solid, clear ice, with just a dusting of snow on top in most places, and bare ice on the rest.

A Conservation Officer checked up on us, which was nice to see.  He visited for awhile, hoping to see us catch something.  We'd fished for over an hour before he arrived, and drilled plenty of holes over several brushpiles, but hadn't even SEEN a fish yet!  I finally caught a Largemouth Bass before the Officer left us.

Jim was the last to arrive, soon after the Officer left, and located a brushpile that hadn't been fished yet this season (no old holes over the top of it), and he started catching fish.  He called us over.  He caught more fish. I caught a few Crappies up to 11", another bass, and a bluegill  here.  Then the action died.

Black Crappie

White Crappie

We drilled more holes around that brushpile, but no more fish were located.  Eventually, Jim, Chris and Nathan left.

Jay  covered a large area with his electronics, and located another brushpile that hadn't been fished yet.  We were on fish immediately.  I caught another crappie or two, a couple more bass, and lost a nicer bass just under the ice when it tangled in my transducer cable.  The action here ended abruptly, just after both Jay and I had some huge 18"-2' of solid red (fish) show up, then disappear.  Whatever it was spooked the other fish away.  We couldn't find a single fish after that.

It was odd how few fish were on these brushpiles.  Last ice-season, the fish were stacked on them.

I used only jigging spoons tipped with ice-fishing plastics (no live bait), and ended up with 7 Crappies in all, plus the 4 Largemouth Bass and 1 Bluegill.  It was fun, but considering how much time we spent, the catching rate was not good at all.