Fishing Forum

We had 3 generations of Renegades on the ice this morning.
My son and one of his sons joined me on our first ice fishing trip of the year.
We got on the ice just as it was getting light.
There were already about 10 people out fishing when we took our first steps on the hard water.
The shoreline was solid and when we drilled the first hole, it was 3 1/2" thick.
We started about 100 yards from the shore on the North side of the reservoir.

First drop down, my son picked up a nice 14" Rainbow.
He didn't even have bait on the jig yet.

The rest of the morning was on and off fishing for Perch, with fish swimming past us for fast action for 3 or 4 fish at a time and then slow fishing for about 10 minutes or so, before the Perch came back.

I tried several of the old standby jigs with little success and then set up one of the new Maniac Gizzy Bugs on a 1/32 oz jig head. I used a small spoon below the jig for weight.
The Gizzy Bug in a sparkle brown color was the hot lure for the day, tipped with wax worm.
For some unknown reason, larger jigs like Paddle Bugs or tube jigs didn't produce at all for us today.

We met up with several other BFT members and talked to a few more on the radio.

Most reports were showing slow action for the morning but a few Perch and Trout being iced by most everyone.

I moved out to the East for a while, but the ice was only 2 1/2" thick there and the fish were not showing up on the finder, so I moved back to our starting spot.

It was a great first trip for the season and we brought home about 25 Perch that ranged from 8" to 11" in size.
We also caught 7 Trout with one being a very nice 16" Cutthroat and the rest Rainbows.
Looks like we will be eating some Perch Chowder tomorrow!!

There were about 80 to 100 people one the ice today.
A light powdering of snow on the ice made walking around very easy.

If you don't already have some Gizzy Bugs, you will want to get some.
I think that they are going to be the hot lure this year.
Be sure to use very small jig heads with them, painted or not.
I did use a few with a new Dace Diver jig head that is made locally and that combo worked very well together.
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I bet the lake lookes like swiss cheese an that NW end [].

Any ice reports from other areas of the lake? I really like to be able to get away from the ice cities , but the marginal ice precludes that at this point. Maybe the ice will be better lake-wide next week.
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Dale that is a great report! Where were you? I checked on the radio (channel 7) and you never responded; Geoff said you were out and about somewheres but I couldn't find ya.

Anyways, my report: It seems I had a bit of the Geoffrey Luck with me HAHA....my boys and I only iced 3 total. But one was a nice fat perch that measured 10 1/2 inches. My 7 yr old caught the first perchie and he was thrilled. The last fish I caught was a nice little rainbow...bout time I caught a trout out of that pond! Caught them all on one of Tubedude's specialties.

We didn't get there until just after 9:00, so kind of a late start and that is probably why we didn't catch much. But the bite was sure slow, and not many (that I saw anyway) were catching anything. Half the battle is locating the fishies, and after drilling about 13 holes, we decided enough was enough. We ended up leaving around 1:30.

Geoff said he and his lone Perch were maybe heading to Willard on his way home, and he swore to me that he'd not come back to the cursed lake of Mantua until he could bring along his float tube. We shall see.

Not bad, but could've been a lot better action. But it was still fun to hang out with my boys and out-fish my buddy Geoffrey!

[red]Edited for picture size. [/red]
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[cool][#0000ff]So-so report. I shoulda been there. Good pictures but WAAAAAY too big. You should know better.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Glad you got your troutski. There will be more.[/#0000ff]
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Derek,
I'm not sure why the radios wern't working.
I did talk to several people on mine.
Looks like the Perch are holding to the normal pattern of
shuting down around 11:00am. We were doing good till then.
Be on the ice at daylight next time and things should be better.
Also be sure to use very small jigs for the Perch.
Now if Pineview will just get about 4" of ice in the Narrows, you know where I'll be!
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Sorry Pat. Thank you for re-sizing them. I'll do better next time.
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Glad you all got out. Ill be up there tomorrow.
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I started out on the southwest end right out from th eboat docks. Only had about 3-4 bites and iced 2 small perch in the 5-6 inch range. Went over to the northwest end around 1030 and picked up 3 in the first 15 minutes of fishing up there then nothing until almost 2. Then picked up a 8 inch perch and one trout around 12 inches and that was it for the day. I tried wax worms, meal worms, crawlers,eyes and cut perch and caught one on eyes one on cut perch and the other 4 and the trout on waxies. I caught most of my fish on an orange tear drop. Wish I could have found some maggots some where that is what I catch 90% of my fish on up there most of the time. Heading to Scofield in the morning.
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[cool]I've heard that Smith and Edwards sells maggots (spikes). Never used them, but have heard they do well at Mantua.
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Hey Geoff, did you hit Willard on your way home?
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[cool]Yeah, I did. Not good. Drilled a hole off the last slip in the boat doc in the N. Marina. 2.5 inches of good clear ice (held me) but 1.5 ft. of water then mud.
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Nice report Dale, sounds like you and yours had a great day on the ice. Do you have a picture of these Gizzy bugs?
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Here is a picture of a Gizzy Bug. I have already used them and they worked well.

[inline "gizzy_bug[1].jpg"]
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Thanks Kent, now I'll know what to look for on my next trip to Sportsmans[].
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Yeah normally they do but haven't got any in yet this year as of last time I called
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