01-18-2011, 04:20 PM
I decided to finally take the plunge and head to Pelican Lake for some bluegill and bass. I picked up BigFishTaco at 3:15 AM yesterday and we headed out. We had a few goals in mind.
1. Don't die so our wives will let us go again.
2. Catch a largemouth through the ice.
3. Catch a 10 inch gill through the ice.
4. Have a good time.
We got to Pelican around 6:00 AM with 6 degree weather and stared out into the dark wondering where we should fish. After doing some exploring, we found a couple of places on the east side where we could pull off, unload, and get to fishing. Drilled a few test holes and we were in 4 feet so we moved until we found 8.5. I dropped down a teeny jig along with my sonar to see if any willing fish would show up. They did. The screen went bazonkers (technical term) marking fish. BFT punched some holes and we got to work. I kept seeing larger fish near the bottom cruising through smaller "balls" of fish on the sonar so I dropped down a jigging spoon and was rewarded with a 16.5 inch largemouth. That dude was puking baby gills as he came up through the hole. Definitely a lot of fun on a light action ice rod with 4 lb test and the drag getting a work out.
A few minutes later I hear BFT telling me to come see this bluegill. He's lipping it like a bass and yes Virginia, it is a little over 10 inch gill. We now that it was 7:20 AM we had already found what we wanted to catch so we left. Yeah right. I caught a couple more willing largies on the spoon and some nice gills too. Bigger lure, bigger gills seemed to be the formula. We used TubeDude glow worms, spoons, and bream bug plastics. You could not have asked for better weather. I really thought there would be more folks out there yesterday but we were alone on our side of the lake. When we left it was a tropical 30 degrees. Fun was had by all (yet another goal accomplished) and we didn't die...apparently[
][]
Thank you TubeDude and Packfan for all of your tips. They were essential to our success.
[signature]
1. Don't die so our wives will let us go again.
2. Catch a largemouth through the ice.
3. Catch a 10 inch gill through the ice.
4. Have a good time.
We got to Pelican around 6:00 AM with 6 degree weather and stared out into the dark wondering where we should fish. After doing some exploring, we found a couple of places on the east side where we could pull off, unload, and get to fishing. Drilled a few test holes and we were in 4 feet so we moved until we found 8.5. I dropped down a teeny jig along with my sonar to see if any willing fish would show up. They did. The screen went bazonkers (technical term) marking fish. BFT punched some holes and we got to work. I kept seeing larger fish near the bottom cruising through smaller "balls" of fish on the sonar so I dropped down a jigging spoon and was rewarded with a 16.5 inch largemouth. That dude was puking baby gills as he came up through the hole. Definitely a lot of fun on a light action ice rod with 4 lb test and the drag getting a work out.
A few minutes later I hear BFT telling me to come see this bluegill. He's lipping it like a bass and yes Virginia, it is a little over 10 inch gill. We now that it was 7:20 AM we had already found what we wanted to catch so we left. Yeah right. I caught a couple more willing largies on the spoon and some nice gills too. Bigger lure, bigger gills seemed to be the formula. We used TubeDude glow worms, spoons, and bream bug plastics. You could not have asked for better weather. I really thought there would be more folks out there yesterday but we were alone on our side of the lake. When we left it was a tropical 30 degrees. Fun was had by all (yet another goal accomplished) and we didn't die...apparently[
][]Thank you TubeDude and Packfan for all of your tips. They were essential to our success.
[signature]