Got up there around 5:15, group joined me around 6:30-7:00. The bite was pretty slow all morning, but I managed two pull out two crappie on a Hali jig tipped with waxworm, my dad got two on a green glow jig tipped with waxworm, and a buddy of mine got one on a ratfinkee with waxworm. We had several nibbles and bites, but 5 crappie were all we were able to land.
I missed several bites early on when i just had my jig (forgot my worms in the fridge like the amateur i am
), and things completely died as far as nibbles and bites shortly after 9:00.
I was mostly out looking for perch, but my cheap fish finder decided not to work (surprise), and so we stuck with what we could find. Anyone had any sucess with the "fish hunter" fish finder? I think i may try that one next.
Today marked a couple of firsts for me though which was fun. It was the first time i had ever caught a crappie, the first time i have ever filleted a fish (need a ton of work on that one) and the first time i had eaten a fresh fish other than trout. all in all a very good day.
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A few fish is always better than no fish.
I too was on the lake last night got there @4:30 fished till 9:00, slow also with a very light bite even with my noodle rods and strike indicators. Just not seing the crappie stacked up like in the past. I was able to catch them on a couple different tandem jigs and even a small perch rattle trap, seemed like the difficult thing was coaxing them to bite.
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ISDA -- where did you put in at Pineview? The eve. before I hit 'em hard from 4:30 to 7:30, same time you were there it sounds...
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Sorry, my mistake. We were there from 5:20 to 10 this morning, not last night. We were just off cemetery point where the water was about 40 feet deep.
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that's where we were, but P.M. sure made a difference for us, as I'd also been there 3 days earlier, same place, but A.M., and did lousy that morning..go figure...I'll be trying again Mon. or Tues. P.M., same area...
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I parked at cemetery parking and hiked to the center in between browning and cemetery. I tried to get away from tent city.
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Did you find any slush up there?
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I was there last night, and the slush is awful. Even in pac boots we all froze.
I knew it had been snowing up there just like down here, but the accumulation in the valleys has been so sparse I didn't at all expect almost knee-deep snow all over the ice, with 3-4 inches of dense, not watery, slush under that. Soon as you drill a hole water starts percolating up, and in minutes you are standing in either 3-4" of watewr, or 10" deep watery slush.
NOT a good time to take small kids or people without good boots. We eventually had one guy sitting in the sled like a boat trying to warm his bare feet over a lantern.
Caught a few last night, but it wasn't fast.
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We put in right where all the foot tracks are going out, North side, about 200 yds off shore, 40' water, close to where tent city is during the day...but now I'm not liking the sound of the slush layer, and Sunday sounds like a pretty warm day again...maybe it's time for Strawberry 'til it gets colder again...then again,...those 'pies were sure lit up on my Showdown...hhmm ..
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You can probably avoid the slushy water mess if you pack all that snow down where your fishing instead of clearing the area of it. This works really well for me.
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3" of water with 4" of snow is not packable and no matter what I did it seemed to be impossible to stay dry. I have a really great pair of waterproof boots and my feet still got wet.
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I'm sorry to hear that, try the Arctic pro muck boots, easy on and off and very warm I know you won't get wet in them unless you fall down. Good luck!
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Just curious, Has anybody tried wearing snowshoes, to deal with the slush? Do you think they would keep you up out of it?
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