Pool 8 Ice Update

  • cade-laufenberg
    Winona,MN/La Crosse, WI
    Posts: 3667
    #1303193

    I’ve had the luxury of being on the ice for 4 straight days on pool 8. Sunday I fished with Cody Croteau (fishbitemyhook) and his brother Jake at an area community hole. Stepping onto 4-5″ of ice and a short walk out over some brush put us on a hot bite in 17-20 ft of water. Bluegills loaded up the water column in the bottom 10 feet, while crappies would roll through at 6-10 feet below the ice. Though I recognized that I could be catching fish after fish by using live bait and smaller lures, I still chose to employ a 1/8 oz jigging spoon to do my dirty work and the results were good Using an agressive presentation with no bait added to the trebel, you catch only the most agressive fish from the school, and I’ve found that often times they are the biggest fish too. When targeting the crappies, I would start my spoon at 5 feet and slowly wiggle it down to about 12 feet. On a fairly consistant basis, marks would appear below my spoon shortly before whacking the snot out of it! The biggest ones were in that 11 to 11-1/2″ range with one brute going 12-1/2″ The next two days were more of the same, only I didn’t keep any fish. Justin and I played catch and release with easily 15-20 keeper panfish each on Monday, with a bonus perch bite coming into play later in the outing. We found those fish relating to a flat on the edge of deep water. We were actually catching the fish out of less than 3 feet of water on top of the flat, and if you missed a fish, your spoon would fly out of the hole! Though the perch were abundant on this area, only a few of them were of decent size (pictured below). Another highlight of the Sun., Mon., Tues. series of outings was the bass action! All you needed to do to hook up with a feisty bass was to drop the spoon to the bottom and give a couple of quick jigs. I caught my biggest bass of the outings, however, on a perch colored lindy darter. I was getting fewer bites on that bait when targeting the bass, but the ones I was getting were typically bigger. The biggest largemouth I caught was a solid 18″er.

    Last night and today I found myself chasing a bit of a different bite. I was hoping to get on some saugers and walleyes last night after work, but was unsure of what the ice conditions would be like in the area of interest. A buddy and I headed out and checked the ice, finding a good 3 inches covering the area of interest, with a visible layer of 1.5 inch ice just yards away. The walleyes and saugers didn’t cooperate, but a few nice perch did. Those fish were just enough to make up my mind where to go today, on my day off from work I spent about 4 hours out there today and found the perch to still be hanging out where they left off last night in 22 feet of water. I used a jigging spoon with a waxie and also caught some on minnow heads. The bite was not fast and furious but the majority of the fish were solid 10 to 11-1/2″ perch. I also caught some dink crappies and a handful of 9″ perch that I let go for another year, but had fun icing 9 good eaters for the pan Overall, fishing on pool 8 has been good, and it’s only going to get better for me as the year progresses. The warm weather is keeping ice from forming in a lot of really good areas, but remember it also means that much more time that the anglers can’t access those areas. When I can get on the ice at my “Plan A” Locations, i expect the bite to be absolutely lights out!!

    big ol’ suspending crappies

    Eric Pomplun
    janesville, wisconsin
    Posts: 480
    #1020235

    Nice fish you got there cade! wish i had some ice around here to fish on instead of driving 4 hours north to fish but i always enjoy a trip up to the cabin

    icenutz
    Aniwa, WI
    Posts: 2540
    #1020273

    Great job and very nice report. I love the Lacrosse area and hope to retire down there one day, so many areas to fish and the beauty of the hills is amazing.

    ozzyky
    On water
    Posts: 817
    #1020471

    Nice perch! Still open water fishing on the mississippi up here. Bites been unbelievable so I’m not too disappointed to not be on the ice yet. Lakes around here are good to go for the most part but I’m not ready yet.

    cade-laufenberg
    Winona,MN/La Crosse, WI
    Posts: 3667
    #1021007

    Tried a couple areas on pool 8 again today with tough results. The weather was a little less than ideal with the clipper coming through.. Tried an area I haven’t been in a couple years with minimal results. A dink crappie and equally dink bass. This is just a few days after raving reports of a hot bite for crappies/perch/gills. I know I marked probably 25 perch throughout the morning but they just wouldn’t hit- or at least they wouldn’t hit my spoons or diamond jig/plastic combos, and if they don’t hit that, I don’t even want to bother. Packed up and headed to another area that put us on some agressive perch. Problem was they were moving like mad. If you popped a new hole you’d catch one or 2 right away then they’d be gone for up to 20 minutes. I tried hole hopping but couldn’t put anything consistant together. Not to mention all of the perch were between 5 and 8″ long, way too small for me. If I can get this body to rise up tomorrow morning, then I’ll be out there somewhere…. But keep in mind today was my 5th consecutive day up at dawn heading for ice….

    bret_clark
    Sparta, WI
    Posts: 9362
    #1021068

    It was my third on pool 8 and the front had some magnum gills showing up and smacking plastics

    cade-laufenberg
    Winona,MN/La Crosse, WI
    Posts: 3667
    #1021117

    If you caught them in Lawrence Lake Marina, I would say you are a God.

    bret_clark
    Sparta, WI
    Posts: 9362
    #1021124

    When do you want to kiss my feet I just stayed back in the distance away from you and Tom I was incognito

    cade-laufenberg
    Winona,MN/La Crosse, WI
    Posts: 3667
    #1021138

    Pix or it didn’t happen

    bret_clark
    Sparta, WI
    Posts: 9362
    #1021156

    Oh I Have pics
    I am jerking your chain about being on Lawrence though

    I’ll have a report up after Christmas.
    Hope Santa treats you well and Merry Christmas Cade.

    PS: Plastics were killer yesterday!

    cade-laufenberg
    Winona,MN/La Crosse, WI
    Posts: 3667
    #1021199

    I had a feeling you had to be jerking my chain lol. Those fish were just too stubborn down there! Thanks and Merry Christmas to you as well. Its going to be a rough couple of days of not being on the ice…

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