Is there any better way to bring in the new year other than with some fish on the ice? We don’t think so! We left home shortly after 7 am and over the next 11 hours we set foot on 4 different bodies of water.
The first spot we got on was not good. Walking on was no issue and revealed 5″ of ice. Once out on the body of water, the amount of ice varied from the initial 5″ less than 2″ in spots that were snow covered. It was easy to read what sections of water were fine to walk on by their appearance. If it wasn’t wet or snow covered it was fine. The problem was that accessing the majority of the water wasn’t possible because of the lack of ice over the majority of the water. Unsatisfied with only catching perch, we packed up the car and headed to the second spot.
We didn’t even unload our sled at the second spot. There was a few people out there but in the past we haven’t had great luck. We went out and checked the ice and talked to the people on the ice. They had been having a slow morning and needed some bait. After giving them some maggots to suffice them through the morning we watched them catch a nice sized perch before we decided to keep on trucking.
The third spot was a gamble. We had no idea what we would find for ice but we went anyway. Driving up we saw pop-up shanties and tip-ups everywhere! Good news for us. We rushed out to find a good 6″ of ice. Half was black and the other was white. In spots the slush on top was deep but was able to be surpassed by sticking to past trails out that had since hardened. The walking was better than the fishing though. We punched lots of holes in all types of depth and habitats. In the end we only caught a few perch and bluegill. The fish were fairly spooky to the sound of augers and having others caught around them. With the poor fishing we packed it up once again and kept moving!
The final spot we hit was the best we found all day for fish and probably the worst for ice. When we arrived we talked to a few people. Their reports were that the fishing was poor and that the ice was worse. We had to check for ourselves though as there was still people out there. The first few holes we punched revealed 3-4″ of ice but only about 1.5″ of good black ice. As soon as our baits hit the water, our minds went from a lack of ice to a lit up flasher screen!
Fish were coming off the bottom to meet our presentations as fast as we could drop them. We caught crappie, bluegill, perch, and pumpkinseed. The fish were aggressive for the most part until the sun set. Although we caught crappie on the bottom the better sized fish came suspended about half way between the top and bottom. We knew it was time to go once the sun set. The wind picked up and the fish all but disappeared. With enough fish for a family friend in the pail, we called it for the day as a good welcoming for us into the new year! We are looking forward to sharing with you all! Thanks for reading!
D & B Ice Adventures 