Washington panfish bite

I hit Washington south of St Peter this morning in search of some nicer gills.

The fish seems to be very negative and I thought the morning might be good with the front coming in tomorrow with a chance of snow.

I hit 3 different smaller mud bottom basin’s hoping to score. I tried it from 8-10-12-16fow.

I finally located some nice schools of gills in 16fow and worked those fish with a white & red Fiska topped with a spike to no avail. I then changed to another smaller JB lure purple in color and tipped that with a spike and it was game on.

The gills would very lightly tap the bait and one had to watch the spring bobber very lightly to see if it moved. Every slight tap turned into a gill iced but the size was a bit lacking.

I did end up with a nice meal of 8″ gills and caught another couple dozen.

I guess another trip will be needed to search for those bull gills.

The gill and crappie bite should only get better in the next month.

Gills and crappie are doing pretty good at this time on Washington in 10-12fow. Crappoies are mainly the first and last hour of the day.

This should only get better in the coming weeks.

Hit the lake today and layed the smackdown on many gills from 7.5 -9 inches. I did get some of the 6″ variety but not to many.

I know I caught at a minimum of 80 gills and kept a meal for supper tomorrow.

Also caught 7 nicer crappie.

All fish came on a very small orange teardrop tipped with a spike in 12fow.

The fish bit so light one had to set the hook the minute you saw the spring bobber even move a small amount.

I fished from appro 2:30 to 6:30 and as I was leaving many were setiing up for the evening crappie bite. I was going to stay until dark but I had already had a ton of fun so off I wet.

Man, I love this late ice panfish bite.

They were very finicky but one could ice them when you got it all figured out.

Great day on the ice.

Hit the lake this am to seek out some panfish for supper.

It was a tough bite as the fish were very negative but I did end up with a nice meal.

Marked many fish in 11-12fow but they were negative to say the least.

here I thought it was going to be a crazy day on the ice fishing.

It did beat sitting at home though for suree in weather like this.

The lake does have some water under the snow but there was still plenty of ice. The landing was getting soupy to say the least.