Decided to skip out early on work today and hit the nelle on the way home. Hit the boat ramp at hailstone about 1:30. Weather and pulling conditions were perfect so I decided to take a little hike. I hiked around the first two points north of the marina. When I finally started drilling holes off of a nice rocky point I wished I had brought the wheeler and the gas auger because the ice was 9--10 inches thick. I drilled holes from 15' out to 45 feet and fished them all for the next two hours without graphing a single fish. I moved around every 15 minutes or so, but to no avail. I finally pushed out to 65' of water and started graphing fish suspended at 40' down. The fish came through pretty concistently exactly at 40'. I threw everything from a size 12 ratfinke to 4" senkos, hair jigs, tube jiges, marabou jigs, jigging spoons and got nothing, not even a bite. I tipped with mealies, waxies, minnow chunks and never even got a look.
On the way back I stopped in the bay across from the marina and picked up a couple of 4" perch to scare off the skunk, but over all it was the slowest day on the ice I've had all year. Nobody I walked past in or out had anything bigger than about a 6" perch, that made me feel a little better.
[signature]
That's discouraging[
] .... Thanks for the report. [cool]
[signature]
[cool][#0000ff]Bummer of a report. It can only get better. Right?[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I'm wondering if the schools of suspended fish you saw might have been big chubs. They were thick in the Hailstone area last year and several times when lots of fish showed up on sonar the biters turned out to be those "big baits".[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]One interesting note though is that several anglers with underwater cameras reported that some of the chub schools had brown trout mixed in with them. When the chubs came near a school of small perch, the browns would break free of their "ambush cover" and scarf up a quick meal before rejoining the chubs.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I plan to do some drillin' and chillin' up there next week my own self. But, you can bet I will have the power auger. My mama drowned all the foolish ones.[/#0000ff]
[signature]
[cool]Man Phil, that SUCKS!!! I'm really stumped now as to where I'm gonna fish tomorrow. Sounds like the fishing is slow everywhere right now for perch. I was going to go to Hailstone because of lack of successful perch reports at Rock Cliff and also at Pineview, but since Pineview is closer, I guess I might as well go get some slow fishing in there, 'cause I have to leave for other comittmemts in the p.m. Who knows?[crazy] I might not make up my mind til tonight...
Question: Phil, did you notice if out in the middle like if you were to cross over to the other side of Hailstone was the ice looking like it was thick enough to cross? I'm asking because I had pretty good success there last year up against the shore over there just north of where Rock Cliffs enters the main lake. That area holds a ton of perch usually, and I'd like to try that tomorrow but don't know if I want to be the first one to walk across it...
[signature]
The stubborn side of me is already contemplating revenge. Now that I know I can run the wheeler around the lake I may be back up on sunday to exercise a few demons (and a few lips). There has got to be some active fish somewhere on that lake, if I drill enough holes I'm bound to find them eventually.
[signature]
I fished it last weekend and it wasn't much better . Find a sunken tree and it might be better fishing but with snags . I hooked 6 bows and a bunch of tiny perch and some bait in 56' of water .
[url "http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/Hellsangler69/01_21_2007-12.jpg"]PIC ONE[/url][url "http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/Hellsangler69/01_21_2007-11.jpg"]
PIC TWO[/url]
[signature]
It's been a really funny year. Everything has fished about a month later in the year than it is. That is to say everything has fished like late in the ice season even shortly after ice up.
There has got to be some active fish somewhere on that lake. I'm not really interrested in planter bows or tiny perch, but I wouldn't mind icing a couple of those big chubs to take to the gorge in a couple of weeks though.
Thanks for the sunken tree idea. I'm ok with a snag or two if it means more active fish. I thought about walking over and fishing some of the trees that are exposed through the ice, but being by myself I was a little nervous about ice conditions right around the trees.
[signature]
Last year , I walked the ice from the boat ramp January 29th on 2.5" of ice with open holes in the ice in view , so the ice is early this year . Most trees I have GPSed are about 85' deep now because the lake level is so high . Trout I usually do better shallower . The perch in the past never had the air bladders out of there mouths when I brought them up out of 45' of water . Last week all of them did . I was going to the Gorge this weekend but will have to wait . Maybe I will go get some more bait .
[signature]
Saturday is out, but sunday I may be heading up that way. I've also got a gorge trip on the horizon, but not for a couple of weekends. There is a good chance that sunday I'll be playing guide to my power baiting inlaws which means we'll be sitting someplace shallow trying to stock the freezer with planters, but if I get out solo or hooking up with some BFT'ers I plan on doing some searching. I've got a few ideas about what to look for, plus I'll have the wheeler and gas auger with me this time to help the seaching out a little.
[signature]