1-7-13 – Less Crowded And More Fish

I went back to the same spot that we were at yesterday. Arriving right around 6:30, later than we had hoped, we were lucky that the temperature had not dropped much and we could kick our old holes back open. Still mostly dark, the fish were pounding. It was the magic hour that only lasted 45 minutes.

As we worked our way through the day old holes, we found fish in most of them. In a good hole we would pull three fish but in a few random holes there was double or triple that! The crappie were very aggressive; charging the bait as it was worked down the water column. Most fish came from 3.5′ below the ice with no relation to weeds present. They weren’t picky about what they fed on as long as it was moving. The feeding frenzy concluded when the bluegill started to move up in the water column and the crappie moved out.

Throughout the middle of the day, we moved around a lot checking out new spots. It seemed like everywhere we moved there was fish that were on the move. We would punch holes, catch fish for half an hour, then have nothing. It went this way up until about 3:30. Mid day, we caught crappie, perch, and pumpkinseed in deeper water. When the water got shallower (4-5′), bluegill were the main fish holding up in the thick weeds. Not understanding their movements, we went back to the area we had caught the crappie in the morning.

About the time the sun started to set, the action picked back up. The crappie started charging 3-4 feet to intercept whatever we put in front of them. We could do nothing wrong again! Working our way through a long stretch of holes paralleling a weed edge we eventually found the end of the crappie and started catching only bluegill. We turned around to work back through the crappie section. At this point it seemed that the crappie disappeared mostly and not bull bluegill were the only fish around. The bluegill were hungry and aggressive. There was no issue reading the fish movement vertically in the dense weeds!

It was a great way to end two long days ice fishing!

Check out Busy Day On The Ice on our YouTube page for more action!