Went out for day number two of sight fishing for bluegill and pumpkinseed around 6am on an inland pond. First thing, the bite was on. Fish were suspended over the weeds in every hole. There were plenty of small fish mixed in with a few larger ones. I fished until they shut off around 9 and only the pickerel, pike, and bass seemed to be interested in any jig I tried. At this point I had been bit off by 6 pickerel/pike so I wasn’t too thrilled about fishing for them so I grabbed my camera and started scouting. I cut holes in both directions along the weed bed parallel with shore. The results proved to be no different so I cut shallower and deeper.
These new holes held fish because I could see them using my Aqua Vu underwater camera but they were tucked into the ones that had the thickest weeds. I decided I should at least try to punch through them to get after the fish. I only found two holes that I was able to get through but they were productive. I caught 5 nice keepers between the two. I kept looking for holes that held fish. Although many did, it was practically impossible to get through to them. I kept returning to the two holes that I was able to fish but production slowed as the fish were fairly inactive. Around noon the fish started to move around below the weed line and I started catching them a bit more regularly but still slow.
Right around the time the fish started to move I had a buddy show up. We talked for a bit, ate lunch, watched an eagle eat some fish that people had left on the ice earlier in the day, then got back to fishing. It was around 1:3opm when the fish started to come out of the weed bed in search of food. We both started pulling them pretty good at this point. There were a few holes that fell into “the honey hole” category so it felt good to have go to spots rather than keep fishing dead holes.
The best hole we had was completely different from the others that produced. The weeds were alive and low, about 1.5 feet high, and had no dead weeds floating above them. The other hot holes were completely filled with dead weeds that floated back and forth the entire time with alive weeds below them. Obviously, the clean hole was pure sight fishing especially when the Clam flip over was used to dark everything out. The other holes were a bit tougher to fish. Sight fishing was not possible for the most part. I found a good rhythm for fishing them after a bit of experimentation. Because the dead weeds swayed back and forth I constantly got tangled up in them and my jig would get covered in slime. I learned to fish up and down the water column and only drop down into the weeds when an opening was made in the top layer of weeds. I found that most hits came when dropped after a long pause of waiting for the weeds to move.
Ended up quitting for the day just before 6pm. It was a long day on the ice but it was a very good one to be out there. The fishing slowed as the sun set below the trees so we didn’t feel the need to stick around and waste time. After packing up, we made the long walk back to the car and headed home to get prepared for another day on the ice tomorrow!
Come back tomorrow for another report!
D & B Ice Adventures 