Yesterday marked my first treck onto the hardwater for the 2012-2013 season and it sure felt good! Watching the screen of the LX-7 was long overdue to say the least!
Panfish were the name of the game as my walleye areas are still unfishable, but not for long. In back bays and other non-main lake areas, bodies of water such as the St Louis River and fish lake have ice that is very fishable. I found 3 to 4 inches in both areas of clear, solid ice.
I had to work a little to find fish, as i drilled over 120 holes total with the new 4 stroke strikemaster, but there were fish to be had. Small sledner spoons with waxies, and small ratso’s in pink caught fish. I found 7 to 10 feet of water to be the most productive, with the fish being glued to bottom a lot of the time. This is when the chart mode on the LX-7 becomes absolutely priceless. With the chart mode storing information for you to look at for 5 plus seconds, and seeing the bottom move up a 1/2 an inch gives you a huge advantage in my opinion. You are no longer second guessing yourself on whether or not you saw the bottom move a little on your flasher display.
I will be out more in the days to come so stay tuned for more reports and ice conditions!
Yes the ice was only 4 inches, but still!