After a couple years of less than stellar bluegill action at Pelican I decided that there had to be other ponds with good bluegill action and I needed to find that pond. I know Mantua holds nice gills but it is about 3 hours away from me so that's out. I know of another lake near my home where I've caught nice gills in the summer but they are nowhere to be found in winter, only found trout. I had heard second hand rumors of good bluegill being caught in winter but reports of location were hard to come by. I decided it was time to find these elusive bluegill through the ice. Using my hard earned information we started our search in the lower portion of the reservoir near deep water. Incredible good fortune was on our side. We found bluegill in our first set of holes and never had to move. For 5 hours we caught bluegill and green sunfish nearly as fast as we could drop our baits. Would have caught more but due to deep water and light biting fish we had trouble getting hookups. Between two of us we iced over 120 bluegill averaging a very healthy 8" and ranging from 4.5" to 10". To add to that we each nailed several nice trout up to 22". Pictured are a 19" rainbow and a 22" brown. Both released to be caught again (too big and rare in this lake to kill them) and probably eaten by some other lucky angler. The lake is no secret so enjoy it!
Note to self: Keep up the catch and release principle. It takes way too long to fillet that many fish!!! I guess they will be tasty.
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wow nice catch those are some nice bluegills and trout to. I have only ice fished it a couple times and just ended up catching lots of trout in the little time I had left at the end of the day on my way home.
Its nice to see that you guys got into them. Maybe I will have to give it a try again this winter. The last 2 trips I have been on Pelican lake have been really good for me but not a lot of big bluegills thanks for sharing your pictures and report. Oh how thick is the ice getting now and how are the edges getting on the ice? thanks good luck fishing[fishin]
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Ice where we were was 13" and only a little soft right at shore due to rising water. One other thing I liked about the bluegill here was a lot fewer grubs. Did find several but not nearly the ratio Pelican has.
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Hey FishNate,
The thanks for the great report. I'm taking the family out to Pelican New Year's Day, but now you have me thinking otherwise. Are snowmobiles allowed on the lake? Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
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hey thanks for the ice info and the grubs in the bluegills to. the ones at pelican lake have quite a few even on the outsides of some of the fish we caught and released.
When I came home day before last from pelican lake the edges along the highway at steinaker looked pretty wet
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ATV's and snow machines must be allowed since there are always some running around out there.
As far as suggestions go - if you want bluegill and bass for sure I'd hit Pelican. This was the first time forme catching bluegill through the ice at Steinaker. If you want trout just find a medium slope in about 15 to 30 feet of water and fish the entire column as the trout are often suspended. Have fun.
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Can't speak for the whole lake but we got on from a steeper shoreline and had no problem in the morning. In the afternoon I went through the edge ice only a foot off the shore in about 8" of water. The lake is rising so the lower grades would likely have more soft ice further out from shore.
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Thanks...I'll let you know how we do. We'll be fishing tomorrow and Thursday.
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