Yesterday 1/1/11, I had planned all week on hitting the Croix on the 1st as I haven’t been out there much this winter due to poor ice conditions. When I got over to Bayport and walked out on the ice I pupped out and decided there was no way I wanted to fish in the gale force winds that were blowing straight up river so then I was scrambling around to find a nearby lake that would be out of the wind.
After cruising to a few known lakes and getting blown off them as soon as I got out of the truck I found myself on a small pond just North of Sommerset that was semi tucked into a bowl in some lowland so the wind wasn’t to fierce but made it’s presence known. The pond was new to me but I figured there had to be fish in it as I have seen a few people fishing it over the past couple of winters. Luckily when I arrived there was a local unloading to hit the pond as well, he had been fishing it for 30 years so he was able to shed some light on the fish in the pond for me but didn’t give up any spots as the pond was small enough there were no “secret spots”. He informed me that the pond was over populated with gills and crappies so the size of the fish in the pond was nothing to be desired though the chances of catching some crappies and gills over the 8″ mark was a reality and with that we said good luck to each other and parted ways.
I had my eyes set on a small point that was loaded with stumps and made the walk out to it. I am glad we got the rain we did because it melted the snow and made for some smooth ice that had the shack gliding across it a breeze. I drilled holes around the point in a staggered fashion some deep and some shallow (pond maxed out a 20′ in the past according to the local). After checking 3 holes I found 1 that was lit up with fish but of course after all that drilling I had to check ’em all to make sure that was the spot I was going to set up on. After checking all the holes I found myself back at the hole that had the flasher lit up. It was off the point in 12 FOW that was in kind of a bowl, if I went out more to the middle it got shallower to around 8 FOW and anywhere from 4-6 FOW going in all other directions. I have a really hard time getting my shack set up and more than 1 line in the water when I’m marking fish but eventually managed.
I finally got set-up and after getting the heater kicked on so my holes would stay open I was having troubles getting the fish to bite. I figured panfish = simple, a gill pill and a waxie. The fish showed interest but they would not commit so then it was a diamond jig and a waxie. Still the fish showed interest but I couldn’t get them to follow or commit all the while I was dead sticking a tiny crappie minnow on the smallest Demon jig money can buy. Still no fish would commit. So after going through the box and tying and retying approx. 30+ jigs I searched for the smallest jigging spoon I had and tipped it with a minnow head. This was the ticket cause it drew fish in like crazy but yet they still wouldn’t commit.
After marking fish for an hour and getting more to show up when jigging I had to do something to get these fish to go. I usually just jig, the old fashioned up and down with the occasional jerk up jig but this day I learned a new jigging method it wasn’t the typical lift and drop. After sitting on these fish for over an hour and not getting them to go I finally opened the door to a new to me jigging method and that was to just twitch that jig. Not moving it up or down more than a 1/2 of an inch, just keeping it at the same water level and just twitch that jig very, very erratically and with that extreme erratic twitch came immediate results. Fish on a 6″ crappie and then after that is a 5″ gill and then after that is was gills and crappies as fast as I could get that jig down there and twitching. No fish were photo worthy and I probably never broke the 7″ mark but it was sure fun catching those fish one after another. If I wasn’t marking fish I would try just jigging and still the screen was dead but as soon as that erratic twitch was made fish were immediately drawn to it. It was cool to see something new work. I think I used this method one other time while fishing Mille Lacs during a slow-dead bite and was able to get fish to go but I also had a rattling Buckshot on at that time so there was noise involved. Just goes to show it never hurts to think out of the box and try something new 
Tight lines and good fishing my friends 
