Big Sandy Report 12/24/12

It was time for me to get out and spend some time on what I consider my home waters. I was finally off to McGregor! I love that Big Sandy area and the panfish are a mere bonus to the trip. On this trip we decided to head for the bush and drum up some sunfish and crappies.

Lines were finally set and we were fishing around the 8:00am mark. The wind had a pretty good howl to it so we were locked down in the ice house. We were in about 16 to 18 fow and started with hair jigs. My partner in crime landed two nice crappies one after another. There was no shortage of fish running to the jig eyeing it and backing off. It was tough to break one from the pack but if you could it would hit. I was back on the Custom Jigs and Spins kick. I cant say enough about there lures. I used the “Gill Pill” and “ 1/8th oz Slender Spoon”. As you can see in the pictures I would tip them with some Berkley power bait. Anything small with a tail works well.

Should be able to make another round this weekend and get some kids out. Enjoy the pics!

Did you check how thick the ice was? Nice gills…

There was 8-9 inches were I was. I did not travel the entire lake.

Thanks, might be heading that way comes this weekend for some panfish action.

Dying to try out the new rod this year.

Nice report and some very vivid colors.
I know that you fish Big Sandy a lot. I fished there years ago, in fact I almost stuck a seasonal trailer up there a few years back. What is your overall view of that fishery? I know fish can be hard to find. In fact I used to fish the river down past Zorba’s quite a bit. Always figured there had to be big Pike roaming that lake but could never nail them down. Just curious what you think of the lake.

I am willing to see what the new walleye/sunfish slot is going to do for the lake. I am not convinced it will ever be the next Mille Lacs. I just dont think there was that many people keeping 10-12 in walleyes to impact the population that hard. I am also not saying it didnt happen. I see it more with the panfish population. When a spot turns on it gets fished until there gone….

Big pike! Yep there in there. There is a set of guys that won the McGregor contest almost every year with pike. You just have to dedicate yourself to fishing them and cast until your arm hurts! You will weed through hundreds of snakes!

Why am I still there? Here is what a typical day goes like:

Up early and eather hit Big Sandy or something close

11ish we do a lunch unload the boat, reload the boat with tubes and floaties and head for the sandbar on Big Sandy.

Back in around 4ish start making supper unload the boat, reload the boat with walleye gear and head to a neighboring lake for walleyes.

Come back in the evening sometime pending the bite and there is a campfire on the corner and toss back a few cold ones.

Next day “Rinse and Repeat!”

The whole family can enjoy this site and area.

I went to search for some perch and crappie, and only ended up with one 13″ walleye. I checked a lot of places and was pretty much a dead sea. Found an occassional fish that was pretty much tight lipped. Would only kiss the lure.

Ice was about 13″

The curse of big sandy! What you catch one day is gone the next!