Am Fk harbor

[perchinski]

Did a two-fer yesterday, fishing Am Fk boat harbor & visiting Cabela's. 4" of solid ice. Minimal snow cover, so will be slippery when it warms. Only 4' deep, if that. 10 parties of about 17 guys total. A few fish here & there, mostly white bass in either 4" or 8" size, and medium gills. A few perch, too. Sunny, but hole froze if no action. Always nice to get out that first time of the season.
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[albinotrout]

Thanks for the report.
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[BHuij]

This seems like a good place to post my AF harbor report from this morning.

We got there at 9. There were plenty of other anglers on the ice but it wasn't hard to find a spot.

Moved around a few times. I was fishing a 1/8oz chartreuse leadhead with Gulp! Alive maggots. I also tried tipping with earthworm, and got a nibble or two, but the maggots seemed more popular. My buddy was fishing a little orange ice bug also tipped with Gulp.

The biting was slow, so we were moving around a fair bit and punching new holes. Best action was around the docks. I caught 2 whities and missed two more, he caught one and missed 1 or 2 as well. I'm thinking bright colors are the ticket. All my bites came while I was deadsticking or just holding the pole as stationary as possible, so I stopped jigging after the first hour or so. We both fished about 3-4 inches off the bottom in roughly 5-6' of water (just estimates). The ice was plenty thick enough to walk around the harbor, and almost no snow on top of it made for pretty pleasant conditions.

We fished for 3 hours and called it good around noon. I know 3 white bass in 3 hours is a pretty poor outcome, but frankly I was just happy not to get skunked on my first try ever ice fishing, especially considering my lack of electronics. I will definitely be investing more in the sport now that I've tried it out and loved it.

One question—aren't white bass schooling fish? It seems like we were catching them very spaced out, and hooking one in one spot didn't seem to increase the chances of hooking more in the same spot much. Something we're doing wrong?
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[americanforkdude]

White bass are a lot easier to locate and school closer together during the warmer months. On the hard deck, the whole harbor will be covered w white bass, its just a matter of using the right thing or finding fish that want to play.
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