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.

Ice Fishing at Big Creek Lake, 1-11-2014

Big Creek Lake, 1/11/14
Time Fished: 9:30a-5:15p
Ice Thickness: 10"+
Species Sought: White Bass & whatever
Fish caught: 10 Bluegills, 2 Walleyes, (1 White Bass, almost)

Everybody else is having a great ice season, and with the Yin and Yang of things...I'm struggling.
Jay and I hit the north end of Big Creek in the morning.  Marked few fish and caught even fewer.  I landed one small walleye, and had a nice (est. 12"-14") White Bass all the way up to the hole, but it tangled around my transducer, and while I untangled that it managed to hang the hook on the edge of the bottom of the ice hole and shake loose.  Used a spoon tipped with a WAXIE!  Yep, you read that right.  Jay bought the bait.  :)

Next we fished the south end of the lake.  Lots of people everywhere else on the lake, but nobody else in the southern part.  That soon changed, of course...it was an extremely BUSY DAY for icefishing on Big Creek!
We fished a few areas.  Its amazing how much difference there is in just a few feet.  Although water clarity was good, fish would be under one hole, but wouldn't move 4' away to chase a lure/bait!
We found mainly Bluegills..decent ones.  At first they would be very aggressive, I had a few that took nearly the entire spoon into their mouths!  They probably averaged 8.5", and my biggest of the day was 9.25"...I think Jay said he landed a 9.5-incher.  Again, the spoon with a Waxie caught the fish, although I did catch one on a spoon tipped with Gulp! instead of live bait.

I also landed another small Walleye.

Overall, I would rate the fishing as POOR once again.  For a full day of fishing, I caught just 8 Bluegills and the 2 Walleyes.
We didn't fish any brushpiles...I don't know how much difference that made.  One guy who was running and gunning (on foot) walked by and talked for a bit...and hadn't caught anything all day.

12-28-2013--Last (Ice) Fishing Outing of 2013

Locally, ice has been thick enough for safe ice-fishing for several weeks.  I just haven't bothered to do it.  My buddy Jay and I finally fixed that when we went ice-fishing on Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013.

The weather was actually really nice...the high temperature exceeded 50 degrees F on the day, which was a really nice change from the sub-zero weather we had been having.   That is Iowa for you!

Typically this pond has some nice bluegills, extremely few crappies, and a few smallish bass.  It is also notoriously difficult to find fish on it during ice season.  One day a year or two ago, Ron, Jim, Jay and I drilled at LEAST 50 holes in this pond and just couldn't find fish anywhere.  Well...Jim found a few fish in one hole.

Anyway...long story short, neither Jay nor I caught a single Bluegill, although I'm sure there were a few around.  I ended up catching 10 Crappies from 9"-11", which is absolutely uncharacteristic for this pond.  And I caught 5 bass up to 13".

Jay also caught crappies and bass, neither of us used any live bait.

Ice-Fishing, February 3, 2013

My buddy Jay and I headed to Big Creek Lake on Sunday morning.  We fished from 8am to 2pm.  Weather was decent, mostly cloudy and high temperatures in the lower 20's Fahrenheit.  Ice thickness was a solid 12" of quality clear ice.

Jay used his handheld GPS to locate an old brushpile.  We drilled several holes in the area before locating the brush, then drilled more holes to cover the length of the brushpile, which topped out near 12' of water, and was placed on a slope that dropped down into around 27' of water.

I fished a great hole, and the fish were active.  I had plenty of good solid strikes on jigging spoons tipped with plastic, and tungsten jigheads tipped with plastic.  I could not hook any of these fish!  At most, I had fish on for less than 2 seconds, or two feet of vertical reeling, before they shook free.  It was fun to be getting so many strikes, but frustrating not be able to land any of them.  Jay used a jighead and waxworm, and landed a half-dozen bluegills, mostly chunky 7.5"-8" fish.

The bite died there for both of us...the fish seemed to just disappear.  So, we headed across the lake to look for some other fish.  The first think I noticed was that the water clarity on the west side of the lake was excellent.  I could see my jig down at least 10'.  We drilled a lot of holes, and found some good-looking structure, but no fish.  We drilled some holes in featureless areas, and actually saw some fish that would move in, and quickly move back out again.  We suspected these were White Bass, which can be a lot of fun to catch while ice-fishing.  I used a jigging spoon tipped with plastic, and Jay used a jigging spoon tipped with a waxworm.  I caught two White Bass, and missed several other good strikes.  Jay landed at least 3 White Bass, before these hyper-active fish disappeared.  My biggest White Bass measured 10".

Before we left, we stopped by the brushpile where we had started the day, to see if any fish had shown back up on it.  I didn't find any fish, but Jay managed to catch one or two more nice bluegills.

Weekend Ice-Fishing Report - January 26-27, 2013

I got out to do some ice-fishing both days this weekend!

On Saturday, my friend Jay and I visited a local public pond.  We fished from 8:15am to 11:45am.  The fishing dropped off noticeably after 10:30am.

Using a 4mm tungsten jighead tipped with a Micro Nuggie plastic, my first fish of the day was a 13" Crappie!

I ended up catching 5 Crappies, total, and the others were all in the 10" +/- range.

I also caught at least 14 Bluegills (nothing big...up to 7.5").

Using a Swedish Pimple jigging spoon tipped with a green Micro Nuggie plastic, I landed 4 Largemouth Bass (chunky 13-inchers).

A couple bigger bass got off at the hole after some really long and excellent battles.  I got to see two of those bigger ones, since the ice was clear, and both shook the hook just under the hole, or even up into the hole.  I guessed one to be at at LEAST 17”, and the other one was just enormous…easily a 4lb fish, possibly 6lb range, which is pretty darn big for Iowa, especially in a public pond.   

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On Sunday, Jay and I braved the ice-covered roads and fished the same pond again.  Overall fishing seemed just a little slower, and once again the fish seemed to noticeably hit less frequently after 10:30am.  I used the same gear as on Saturday.

This time, I caught a couple tiny Bluegills before hooking my biggest Crappie of the day, another 13-incher!

I caught a total of at least 6 Crappies (including one on the jigging spoon), and the others were in that 10" range again.

I also landed at least 13 Bluegills.  The bigger ones showed up under my ice-hole about 3'-5' deep over 9' of water.

I only caught 3 Largemouth Bass on Sunday, but the biggest one was a healthy 17-incher.  The others were the chunky 13-inch fish.

I enjoy smoking a cigar while I am fishing.  I don't inhale the smoke (at least, not on purpose), I just enjoy the flavor.  Sometimes when icefishing, the enjoyment factor is marginal.  When icefishing inside a pull-over portable ice-shack, even with the ventilation flaps open, the smoke can get rather painful on the eyes.  Several times, it just got to be too much, and my eyes were just stinging and streaming tears, making my nose run like a faucet.  What a guy will endure just to enjoy a good cigar!  I smoked 2 cigars on Sunday.  During the second one, I saw something large swim under the relatively clear ice.  It was moving towards my ice-hole.  And then it swam UP the icehole, and the MUSKRAT poked his head up and perched his front feet on the lip of the ice, facing right towards me.  It was comical.  After swimming around under the ice, it must have needed a few breaths of fresh air.  Unfortunately, it probably got a lungful of smoke and stinging eyes for his efforts.  He only stuck around for 5-10 seconds before diving back down and swimming away under the ice again.

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I thought I’d share a gear review.

For the last couple of seasons, using fly-fishing reels for ice-fishing has started to become very popular.  The fly reels don't coil line nearly as bad as spinning reels do, so there is less lure-spin down in the water below the ice.  I’d bought the Black Betty ice-fishing fly reel, and mounted it on a used St. Croix ice rod I bought from my friend Mike G.  That Black Betty reel sucks.  I absolutely hated it.  Even with the spool loosened as far as I could, the reel needed too much effort to reel backwards to let line out.  Its an attractive reel, it just isn't for me.  I will be getting rid of that reel at my earliest opportunity.

As a replacement, I bought the Ice Hopper Tight-Liner reel from Sportsman’s Direct.  (I just looked, and it appears to have been taken off the website?  Must be out-of-stock?)  I unspooled the line off the Black Betty, and respooled all that backing and line onto the Tight Liner reel…and mounted the reel on the St. Croix rod.  I put a Swedish Pimple jigging spoon on it, tipped with a green Micro Nuggie.  I used it Saturday and Sunday this past weekend.  Both days I caught bass on it, which all went on some amazing runs.  Even the one crappie I caught on the spoon fought well!

(See the top picture of this thread to see a picture of reel, along with a bass caught on it.)

I LOVE that reel!   Its exactly what  I was hoping for.  Fits great in the hand.  To let line out, you just reel backwards.  Sometimes the mono sticks on the reel (gets wedged between other line wraps, or whatever), so you have to manage the line a bit so you don’t end up reeling it backwards back onto the reel!  That’s not the reel’s fault, though…it would happen to any fly reel.   When a fish takes off running, you palm the reel to put some pressure on it (I had the drag set pretty light, but those bass were pretty strong.)  I landed 7 chunky bass, the biggest was a 17-incher.  Lost a couple larger ones (see the report above from Saturday).  Also caught at least one crappie on that set-up.