Fishing Forum

My daughter-in-law loves to fish and has been begging me to take her out. I decided on an early morning Pineview trip to see if the crappie were still on the bite. We met at 3 am and was out on the lake fishing by 4 am. We were met with 8-10 inches of snow on top of 4" of slush in the narrows. Accessed the ice from the caretakers area. Walk out was not nice with the slush. We built a platform of packed snow before drilling holes. I had to get on my knees to finish punching through that thick layer of ice/snow/slush.

Fish were there and were willing to bite. White perch talker and perch colored tingler spoon tipped with pieces of chub worked well. Also a small jig head with a tiny swimbait tipped with a wax worm put a few on the deck. I should probably clarify that they worked well for me. My poor daughter-in-law had the hardest time detecting bites. I had my limit of 20 by 630 and she had caught 2. We kept switching poles but even with the strike indicator, she just couldn't get the feel for it. With my help and instruction,  she did end up catching 9 by 9 am when we left.  That darn hill is a lung burner coming back out. Only 2 groups on arrival and one of them was leaving. Only one tent on the ice when we left.

It was cold. 7 degrees on arrival. 15 degrees when we left. Brrr. Even with the heater going we had to keep skimming the holes out. I guess I need to invest in an insulated tent.

Great report, I was wondering how PV was doing. How were the edges? About how much time did it take to build the platform of snow before you drilled your holes? Anything over 10"?

(03-04-2023, 06:53 PM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: [ -> ]Great report, I was wondering how PV was doing. How were the edges? About how much time did it take to build the platform of snow before you drilled your holes? Anything over 10"?

Edge was not an issue on or off. Took less then 10 min to build the platform. Most of the fish today were between 10 and just over 11 inches.

Not too bad, any time you can catch that many that sized is a good day. Now deep was the water you were fishing in? Any certain color work better than another, as far as the jigs you used?

We were in 45 ft of water. Color really didn't seem to matter as most fish would just ignore it anyway. It's amazing how many fish can be below you and most just don't show any interest. Those that do would follow a slow retrieve upward and either strike it on the way up or hit it on the pause.

When you talk about a slow retrieve upward, are you talking about retrieving the lure inches or feet, on the max?

The fish would not hit a dead stick presentation. Also very aggressive jigging would send them away. So slowly reeling up through the schools, or very lightly jigging the lure on the stops would get follows and then the tiny tic of a strike. Or just a little weight on the indicator showing a fish had sucked in the offering. Slow continuous reeling was most productive and easiest to notice fish following your lure and the bites. So I guess it would be inches at a time.

(03-04-2023, 11:03 PM)Jig-fisher Wrote: [ -> ]The fish would not hit a dead stick presentation. Also very aggressive jigging would send them away. So slowly reeling up through the schools, or very lightly jigging the lure on the stops would get follows and then the tiny tic of a strike. Or just a little weight on the indicator showing a fish had sucked in the offering. Slow continuous reeling was most productive and easiest to notice fish following your lure and the bites.  So I guess it would be inches at a time.

Sorry, what I meant was, what was the maximum amount of reeling in did you do before getting a bite, I understand that every bite was different but did you ever have to reel up as high as say 5 ft before getting a bite?

(03-04-2023, 11:15 PM)wiperhunter2 Wrote: [ -> ]

(03-04-2023, 11:03 PM)Jig-fisher Wrote: [ -> ]The fish would not hit a dead stick presentation. Also very aggressive jigging would send them away. So slowly reeling up through the schools, or very lightly jigging the lure on the stops would get follows and then the tiny tic of a strike. Or just a little weight on the indicator showing a fish had sucked in the offering. Slow continuous reeling was most productive and easiest to notice fish following your lure and the bites.  So I guess it would be inches at a time.

Sorry, what I meant was, what was the maximum amount of reeling in did you do before getting a bite, I understand that every bite was different but did you ever have to reel up as high as say 5 ft before getting a bite?

Fish were roaming from the bottom all the way to 20 ft off the bottom 
 We would reel all the way through the schools until the lure would come out of the top. Then drop it back down again.

Wow 20ft of reeling up, amazing, thanks for the info.

Glad to hear the crappie are still on up there. A 20 fish limit in 2.5 hours is a nice feat too. They have, for the most part, kicked my butt this year. Wherein last year a limit was expected and achieved each trip out (it was so consistent) this year has been different working twice as hard for 2/3s of the fish. Their size has been good though. Hopefully with this good water year, the spawn will put another good age class in the lake while the older ones get bigger with less competition.

One can hope!