01-15-2014, 11:09 PM
[#0000FF]Been awhile since us old retired guys fished together. Last time was in his boat last summer. Caught a few and had a good time. Planned for a meetup at daybreak at the north marina.
Couldn't help noticing the big wheel of cheese in the western sky...reflecting off the slick ice of Willard. We wondered if we might get "mooned". Willard has not been too friendly to ice holers this year so far. But we went fer it.
No snow on the ground so we had a long ways to pull the ice sleds over first grass then gravel before we reached safe ice edges. Not nearly as bad going down though...with some frost on the grass and gravel early. Coming back later was a killer.
Under current low water conditions we knew that we would have to hunt for water deeper than 9 or 10 feet. Much of the depth due west of the north marina facilities ranges from 8-10 feet. We were looking for a depression of 11-12 feet that I found and fished (successfully) from my float tube before iceup. We covered a lot of water (ice)...shooting down through the refrozen slush to test for depths. My showdown was up to the task but there was so much interference with the lousy ice that it was difficult to see if there were any fish.
We arbitrarily made a couple of stops, drilling and dunking long enough to determine if there were at least any fish coming through the area. We did see a few coming through both on the bottom and at mid depth...5-6 feet. The suspenders turned out to be crappies. Some would bite. Most would not. I ended up catching two for the day.
The fish on the bottom could have been anything. But I caught one perch and one catfish...and had a few more missed inquiries fishing the bottom with a whole small minnow on a jighead.
Both crappies and one smaller perch came on small baitbugs fished with a bit of crawler. I rigged two in tandem...one white and one chartreuse...about 2 feet apart. I raised and lowered them according to what I was seeing on sonar. The bite was very light. Without sonar and being able to detect a slight change in the "force" I would not have caught the ones I did.
I kept moving around...looking for more active fish. WH2 pretty much stayed in one spot. He did get some inquiries and saw quite a few fish coming through...from time to time. He did have one hefty tug session with an inexperienced fish that didn't know how to hang on all the way to the hole. We guessed it might have been a kitty.
One other angler came out late in the morning and fished to the north of us. Just as we were getting ready to leave he came over and inquired about my catch and for info on how to get them. He had only one bite in the spots he had fished. I gave him the remainder of my minnows and sent him to two holes from which I had taken a crappie and the largest perch. As Curt and I were straining over the dry gravel with our sleds, on the way out, I noticed the guy set the hook into something and battle it up through the hole. Don't know what it was but glad I contributed to at least some success.
Noticed open water in places along the shoreline going back in. But where we had got on the ice in the morning it was still solid. Overall, the thickness of the ice seemed to remain about 8-9 inches in all the spots we drilled. A little bit of singing and pinging but no radical upheavals.
The water inside the marina is open almost all the way to the ramp. Not a good place to get on the ice but maybe soon launchable by boat.
It was good to fish with you again Curt. Sorry the fish didn't treat you better. Maybe you need to wear more moon repellent.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
Couldn't help noticing the big wheel of cheese in the western sky...reflecting off the slick ice of Willard. We wondered if we might get "mooned". Willard has not been too friendly to ice holers this year so far. But we went fer it.
No snow on the ground so we had a long ways to pull the ice sleds over first grass then gravel before we reached safe ice edges. Not nearly as bad going down though...with some frost on the grass and gravel early. Coming back later was a killer.
Under current low water conditions we knew that we would have to hunt for water deeper than 9 or 10 feet. Much of the depth due west of the north marina facilities ranges from 8-10 feet. We were looking for a depression of 11-12 feet that I found and fished (successfully) from my float tube before iceup. We covered a lot of water (ice)...shooting down through the refrozen slush to test for depths. My showdown was up to the task but there was so much interference with the lousy ice that it was difficult to see if there were any fish.
We arbitrarily made a couple of stops, drilling and dunking long enough to determine if there were at least any fish coming through the area. We did see a few coming through both on the bottom and at mid depth...5-6 feet. The suspenders turned out to be crappies. Some would bite. Most would not. I ended up catching two for the day.
The fish on the bottom could have been anything. But I caught one perch and one catfish...and had a few more missed inquiries fishing the bottom with a whole small minnow on a jighead.
Both crappies and one smaller perch came on small baitbugs fished with a bit of crawler. I rigged two in tandem...one white and one chartreuse...about 2 feet apart. I raised and lowered them according to what I was seeing on sonar. The bite was very light. Without sonar and being able to detect a slight change in the "force" I would not have caught the ones I did.
I kept moving around...looking for more active fish. WH2 pretty much stayed in one spot. He did get some inquiries and saw quite a few fish coming through...from time to time. He did have one hefty tug session with an inexperienced fish that didn't know how to hang on all the way to the hole. We guessed it might have been a kitty.
One other angler came out late in the morning and fished to the north of us. Just as we were getting ready to leave he came over and inquired about my catch and for info on how to get them. He had only one bite in the spots he had fished. I gave him the remainder of my minnows and sent him to two holes from which I had taken a crappie and the largest perch. As Curt and I were straining over the dry gravel with our sleds, on the way out, I noticed the guy set the hook into something and battle it up through the hole. Don't know what it was but glad I contributed to at least some success.
Noticed open water in places along the shoreline going back in. But where we had got on the ice in the morning it was still solid. Overall, the thickness of the ice seemed to remain about 8-9 inches in all the spots we drilled. A little bit of singing and pinging but no radical upheavals.
The water inside the marina is open almost all the way to the ramp. Not a good place to get on the ice but maybe soon launchable by boat.
It was good to fish with you again Curt. Sorry the fish didn't treat you better. Maybe you need to wear more moon repellent.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]