Thread: Cuttin holes and catchin crappie

With the arrival of good ice has anyone been out cuttin and catchin? Work has kept me off the ice but my CI's (confidential informants) tell me they are catching fish on Morrison near Lake Odessa. Also got a report from a small lake near Hastings thats giving up fish. Hoping to get out on either Townline (Six Lakes area) or Chippewa this weekend

I fished solo out at Williamsville lake on Friday. Someone had been in the area I normal fish and had cut a ton of holes. They were a little north of my usual area so I checked them, found nothing and continued on. I cut 20 holes to start (at 3pm). Out of all the holes, only 1 had fish in them. I caught 7 before they scattered. I cut 7 more holes closer to this one and then another line of holes out deeper. I like to cut a line of holes so it slowly cuts across the drop off. My first line was in 12 to 14 feet. My second line was 13 to 15 feet, my third line was a solid 16 feet and my fourth line stretched over 18 feet of water.

Caught 5 more out of another hole and then moved deeper. Found one had that was stacked with gills. 18 feet of water and the fish were up to 9 feet. I ended up catching 32 gills by 5pm. Left with my limit of 25. Biggest fish was 9.25 inches and the smallest I kept was 7 1/2 inches.

Saturday, I took Abby with me. The visitor from the day before was back and cut holes right next to his old ones. He might have been on to something. Spudded out my original holes and did not mark one fish in any of the honey holes from the day before. Moved over to the leftover holes and found that the fish had moved in to 10 to 12 feet of water. Proceeded to keep 23 over the next 2 hours. I released 7 on this trip. Gills were again the same size as above but we did manage two red ears. One over 8 and one a shy under 9.

Originally, the goal was 25 fish and then head to McDonald's. We needed six more fish so I made a deal. I said, lets start at the beginning, and we will check every hole as we pick up our fish. We will leave when we get to the end. I don't have to catch my limit to have fun. The goal was for her to have fun. She did tell me that she loves to ice fish!

On a side note. Gill fishing is about hole hoping. You have to cut tons of holes and move with the fish. When fishing by myself, I leave my fish next to the holes I catch them out of. It gives me a picture of where the fish are and how they are moving. Shows me the productive areas and allows me to take a mental note. I am able to fine tune my location and move back and forth to catch the fish.

No crappies were harmed in the making of this. I did however mark a ton of what I assumed to be Crappies. Next time I'm bringing a dozen or so minnows just to find out. I've never killed the crappies on this lake but the ones I have caught have been monsters.