02-03-2014, 06:46 AM
First off, wanted to say thanks to everyone that spoke up and gave some solid advice about fishing here.
On to the report. We stopped at the south end and ventured out to ask a couple groups how the fishing was. The general consensus? Slow. So we headed up north and found a spot away from the main group but not out of tent city. Dropped in at about 15-18 FOW. Using tungsten jig heads tipped with wax worm, butter worm, and night crawler, (color didn't matter much) My wife (who had never successfully caught a fish) brought in the first perch for us. And continued to catch them all day long. We ended up catching about 90 of them without having to move, along with 6 or 7 skinny rainbows. The perch ranged in size from 2.5 inches (smallest fish I've ever seen caught on a hook.) To just shy of 9 inches. For most of that time it was not uncommon to have 2 or three fish on at a time. We made our first move after the fishing stopped around 1:00. Out to deeper water to target some of the bigger fish. We figured we had to be in 50-70 FOW (our depth finder being a rope with a rock tied to one end) and dropped down to 20-25 feet. Within 5 minutes my wife had her first rainbow of the day. (See attached photo) no more bites for another 15-20 minutes till another rainbow about the same size came and slammed a pole almost taking it in through the hole. By then the ladies in the group were antsy to get home so we started to pack up. Had 2 bites while cleaning up. The first snapped the tip off of the rod, throwing the hook free. The second took 6-7 shots at the bait before committing. Just before the fish came up to the hole the line snapped. I never got a look at the fish, but my brother said it didn't look like a rainbow.. guess we'll never know.
All in all, an excellent day on the ice, just enough snow to keep the ice from being slick, just enough sun to keep the tent warm, and just enough breeze to make us grateful we had tent stakes. More importantly though, just enough fish to keep me going from pole to pole re-baiting, and removing fish from the hooks.
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On to the report. We stopped at the south end and ventured out to ask a couple groups how the fishing was. The general consensus? Slow. So we headed up north and found a spot away from the main group but not out of tent city. Dropped in at about 15-18 FOW. Using tungsten jig heads tipped with wax worm, butter worm, and night crawler, (color didn't matter much) My wife (who had never successfully caught a fish) brought in the first perch for us. And continued to catch them all day long. We ended up catching about 90 of them without having to move, along with 6 or 7 skinny rainbows. The perch ranged in size from 2.5 inches (smallest fish I've ever seen caught on a hook.) To just shy of 9 inches. For most of that time it was not uncommon to have 2 or three fish on at a time. We made our first move after the fishing stopped around 1:00. Out to deeper water to target some of the bigger fish. We figured we had to be in 50-70 FOW (our depth finder being a rope with a rock tied to one end) and dropped down to 20-25 feet. Within 5 minutes my wife had her first rainbow of the day. (See attached photo) no more bites for another 15-20 minutes till another rainbow about the same size came and slammed a pole almost taking it in through the hole. By then the ladies in the group were antsy to get home so we started to pack up. Had 2 bites while cleaning up. The first snapped the tip off of the rod, throwing the hook free. The second took 6-7 shots at the bait before committing. Just before the fish came up to the hole the line snapped. I never got a look at the fish, but my brother said it didn't look like a rainbow.. guess we'll never know.
All in all, an excellent day on the ice, just enough snow to keep the ice from being slick, just enough sun to keep the tent warm, and just enough breeze to make us grateful we had tent stakes. More importantly though, just enough fish to keep me going from pole to pole re-baiting, and removing fish from the hooks.
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