Had a few hours to wet a line last night. Conditions were tough on Lake Champlain. I was greeted on arrival by a steady 15-20 mph North wind. Normally, this isn’t an issue since you can position the boat in a way that the wind can aid you, this outing however was from shore and I was fishing I had to cast directly into the wind. Apparently, the fishing had been slow until I got there, guess I brought the lucky horseshoe.
We were casting to about 8-9 feet of water, well if you could reach it with the wind blowing. I could find no reason of why these fish were here other then the bait was there. The fish were cold when you brought them in meaning that they are just starting to make their move into warmer water. There was no need to jig the bobber in yesterday because the chop on the water did that for it. I had a hard time at first getting bites. I tried different retrieves and finally hit on a keeper. I was getting bite more frequently on a slow retrieve, enough that the bobber remained on the surface. Bait selection was tricking. The best bet was a 1/16 oz jig head in fire tiger, tipped with a Berkley Gulp Minnow in their smelt pattern. I ended the night with 21 nice fish in my bucket.
This is the word to the wise part. When the weather is still cold and there is no need for a cooler I use my ice fishing bucket to hold my fish. Nothing more than a bucket with a seat and a crappie checker on it. Well in our rush to leave and attempt to move all of our gear in one trip. We managed to get everything between the two of us but I made a huge mistake! I proceeded to carry my bucket with 21 slab crappie in it by the seat, which is always a pain to get off so I thought it would hold. Guess what? It didn’t. In one fell swoop the bucket crashes to the dock and 8 nice crappie which are still alive get a second chance at life. Lesson learned! Still had a great time for only a few hours of fishing, Thanks to Scott and Dody!
The bucket of live fish after the disaster!
D & B Ice Adventures 