Friday below the dam

[peculiarmike]

Met jigfisherx at his place at 0700 Friday morning and we headed to Truman planning to see what was ice free and fish a bit. Long Shoal was iced in. Drove across the dam and it was mostly ice on the lake side and iced below in the old river channel with some open on down, no water running. We put in at old city launch and there was an open trail through the ice headed toward the dam another boat had left so we followed it. Got on up to below the point where the main channel and the old river channel join and there was a big flatbottom MDC boat with 4 in it in a good size open area. They had gill nets across 3/4 of the channel and were netting, measuring, weighing and tagging spoonbill. A LOT of big spoonbill. Like one in every 5 feet of net they pulled in. Anyhow, we went on up in the old river channel breaking 1/2" ice from there to an open area around the dock.
Another boat joined us and we decided to break up the ice so both boats cruised around about 30 minutes and stirred up the worlds largest martini on the rocks. There was a light breeze and it eventually blew the ice down stream and opened the whole area.
We were fishing rigged with two jigs. Fishing depth varied from about 10' down to a couple cranks off the bottom. Color didn't seem to matter, caught fish on both and at various depths. We had 7 whites and 3 crappie. Snagged two gar. I had about a 14-15 lb. buffalo take the bottom jig and tussled with it, got it released. Jeff snagged about a 35 lb. spoonbill in a bottom fin and it was ON. He wore it out and got it to the boat and released. On 6lb. line and a crappie jig. Nice job Jeff!!!
Called it a day about 6PM and headed back. We stopped and talked a bit with the MDC folks who were still at it. They said they had tagged over 200 spoonbill.
All in all a good day. Caught a few, didn't freeze, warmed up to upper 40's, got on the water.

[love2fish]

Great report! Sounds like you had a fun day and didn't let the ice stop you.

[jigfisherx]

That spoonbill broke in a brand new Fenwick real nice. Had fun Mike. Have to go again soon.