Nice Morning On The Ice

[franklin fisher]

It's been a couple months since I have brought home any Crappie. It was a real cold fall here and open water possibilities ended a little earlier than other years. I have been able to ice fish since the Saturday after Thanksgiving but mostly on bodies of water that don't have Crappie. Today was finally the day I was waiting for.

My buddy, his young son and I hit the ice about an hour before sunrise this morning. We got set into position and as the sun was coming up the bite came on. Those two got onto the fish first and were able to stay on them. I tried to give them space but was able to get on some myself pretty early also. It was quite a flurry of activity on the jig rods for a while.

He and his son caught a good bunch to bring home. I caught a little less than them but still plenty to bring home. We all released a few plus other species we caught. Great morning and headed off the ice by 10 am.

P.S. All my fish were caught on a Bobby Garland Baby Shad Blue Ice which Santa left in my stocking.

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[ET Fish]

Great report and pictures! I wanna try that some day!

[JET4]

Thanks for the report and pictures

[Central Minn]

Nice,how deep is the ice?

[franklin fisher]

Nice,how deep is the ice?

11 inches so far.

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[Central Minn]

11 inches so far.

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12-15 here, pick-up trucks driving everywhere for the last two weeks.

[6poundtest]

Sounds like a great morning. Just curious, I've read over and over about down sizing in the winter due to the slower metabolism and not using "summer sized" baits. Do you feel this to be true or are you able to use the various 2" sized shad imitations with good results throughout the winter?

We had some good ice going here but the warm weather has taken it all away; we're back to open water on many of the ponds around here and what little ice we do have is rotten and unsafe.

I've got the itch this year to ice fish and this warm weather is a bummer!

[franklin fisher]

12-15 here, pick-up trucks driving everywhere for the last two weeks.

We had rain and a warm spell a week ago that didn't do the ice any favors but, things are doing ok. A little bit of snow on the ice from yesterday so next time out snowmobiles will be the ticket.

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[franklin fisher]

Sounds like a great morning. Just curious, I've read over and over about down sizing in the winter due to the slower metabolism and not using "summer sized" baits. Do you feel this to be true or are you able to use the various 2" sized shad imitations with good results throughout the winter?

We had some good ice going here but the warm weather has taken it all away; we're back to open water on many of the ponds around here and what little ice we do have is rotten and unsafe.

I've got the itch this year to ice fish and this warm weather is a bummer!

Usually I have had luck on downsized baits. Today however a full size shad bait on a 1/16 oz jig head was no problem. They were giving it a good thump. I also was using Slab Sauce by the way, I forgot to mention that in the original post. For downsized baits I will use a tungsten jig head with just the tail of a shad bait that I cut off. Works great.

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[6poundtest]

Thanks for the info. I've cut a few of the tails off of some of my baits as well to try on the smaller tungsten jigs I've bought. I also bought some ice specific plastics to try. And a bottle of Slab Sauce to take along, too!