Mantua 12/12

[Jig-fisher]

Looks like you both had a good day.   I bet those fish tacos tasted extra good after all the work to catch and then clean those small gills.   

Forest, the tacos were amazing.  We had the whole crew plus one for dinner (9) and we finished off nearly every piece of fish.  Homemade pico, guacamole, dill lime dressing, mango, cabbage and salsa.  Fantastic!

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"I put 10 on the ice in about 1/2 hour. It wasn't fast, but it was steady."

Three per minute sounds fast to me!

We were there as well, did almost the same thing.  I ad never accessed from the west side and the shallower water and min-beaches with sand had ice on that side thinned down, so we tried again from the south dike.

We went out about 300 yards to where everybody else had stopped, fished 8 feet of water for a while, caught some trout, including an almost 18" bow, and a 4" perch.  Ice was over 5".

Went out another 100 yards, ice was more like 4.5, and only a little action. Then my brother made a bigger move, about 200 yards north as if heading west of the Point, and immediately caught a nice bluegill in 14' depth.  There was a large open, or at least dark, patch we skirted way around, and by that time he was farther "out" than most people, and some a gone home.

But, the ice was still a bit over 4", so we drilled and dropped.  Picked up a few here and there, drilled a little more. My brother left with that one gill.  Overall, it was slow, with a an hour here and an hour there faster.  I fished about 9 hours, and caught 20 or so, putting some back, while Bblake98 did about the same, or slightly better.  Together, 32 keeper gills, four 9" perch.  Called it a day just after sundown.

That is a lot of time on the ice.  32 gills is a good number though.  I love catching gills through the ice.

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Sounds like a fun day... How is parking this year?  Can you park along the south dike again?  Are they charging a fee now? I may have to go try and catch my gill for the contest...  Thanks for the great report... J

I don't know about the south dike.  We just parked next to the restrooms near the boat ramp.  There was no fee as of yet that I could see.  By the way, the restroom was open and heated.