Posts are looking very bleak here in the forum, so I’ll try to get things rolling for the upcoming ice season…
Well I ended up meeting up with my buddy,Ray, to chase some panfish on another unusually warm December day. Hard to believe we are nearly to Christmas and the ice is only about 10″. 
Ice is still in good shape to run ATV’s. Snowmobiles, unless studded, are useless right now with no snow cover.
We headed out, on foot, to chase some bluegills and crappies. We got to the first spot, punched some holes and started to fish. It didn’t take long to figure out that we were in dinky perch infested waters. I dropped to camera down in a couple holes and there were no other fish than the perch and one northern.
We headed to a little different area with the auger and camera. First hole we checked did not show any fish, next hole had gills in it with a few crappies mixed in. We punched a few more holes and fished this area the remainder of the day.
The fish were definitely still sensitive to the noise above and would cycle thru the area on a consistent basis. We both would catch a fish here and there before having to move or wait for the fish to come back thru.
We moved a bit deeper as the sun hit the trees, but the crappies didn’t move to where we thought they would be. We ended up getting a few, with Ray catching a couple that pushed 13″.
The camera(Marcum VS625sd) definitely came in handy today. A guy could see what he was working with below the ice and how the fish were reacting to presentations.
I couldn’t buy a bite on a spoon today, though Ray could. My best lure was the Bumblebee Diamond Jig as I was getting gills and crappies, with many of the gills engulfing the jig. Biggest gill for me went right at 9″ and Ray had top honors with the 13″+ crappies.
Overall it was a fun day out and you couldn’t beat the weather for late December. It would be nice to get a little snow cover, but the glare ice made for easy pulling.
