Well Here is a little report from our weekend of fishing.
We have been on ice chasing the bite pretty hard since Nov 25th. Most of our early ice spots that were producing size and numbers have been fished very hard by large numbers of people these past two weeks burning the area out. So to the drawing board we went for our Sat and Sunday Burlap outing. My brother had been fishing everyday this week and finding a few here and there but nothing holding great promise. After brain storming where to start we agreed on an ice shelf off of a channel that often produces nice crappies. After taking the kid to hockey sat morning we headed out to the spot to find a decent number of guys fishing the shelf. Spoke with a few guys leaving saying they couldn’t get them to bite but there were fish to be had. After combing the area and drilling 10 to 15 holes we found a spot that looked decent. We set up in 17 fow and the crappies were working from 17 ft up to 5 to 10 ft. We started out fishing what had worked prior, a light colored cecil and some slender spoons. The spoons were hot but the fish changed preferences quick. After changing jig styles and color as well as plastics we found what they wanted. My brother was using a purple tungsten jig from CJS and I was using a Purple Mini-mert from custom jigs and spins. For a while they were hitting purple plastics but not all were biting, once we switched to black plastics it was game over. From 2:30 all the way to 5:45 we iced 50+ crappies. Sadley the size was not there but we had a good time. Largest one of the evening was a mere 11.5″.
Sunday rolled around and we had Slabs on our minds, so the hunt was on. Rolled up to a back lake area where in prior years we have caught some nice slabs. Again we drilled a good number of holes finding a shelf 19′ down in a basin that runs in the 24′ range. This morning the spoon was hot and my brother landed 6 crappies in short order with myself only icing a few small perch. We were gonna try to hole hop and chase them but high winds and cold temps put a damper on that idea very quickly. We packed up and headed to another spot to get out of that wind. Set up on another back water slough in 24fow on the edge of a shelf. Not many fish were being marked but we still landed some. Landed a nice crappie just shy of 12″ and also iced a few nice gills just under 9″. I took a purple little cecil and a rasto tail in purple sparkle. On the two off hooks of the treble I cut two of the bulges if you will off of the ratso and tipped those hooks and used the rest of the plastic on the hook that was facing the color side of the cecil. Worked like a champ, every fish I iced gulped that plastic. I was iffey on whether or not that concoction would work but it did.
Well this area dried up for us so back on the move we went. we rolled up to the area we fished sat even and went to the same area. Dropped my cecil with the pastic down the hole and got smashed by a Sauger, was nothing of large size to rant about, but my first thru ice so it was a treat. That fish was followed up by a few perch and a couple gills. My brother got itchy and started making cheese of the ice further out into the channel and good thing he did. He found a nice school of white bass and we finished out this sunday putting a spanking on them. No trophies were had but we ice some nice fish in that 10″ to 16″ range. I must say them fellas are fun to fight, The first one that hit my cecil I thought I had on a 16″ crappie to find a 10″ white bass tugging for his life. We fished them just like perch. My brother had great success using slender spoons while I stuck to my purple cecil concoction.
It was a long weekend but as always good times were had by the Burlap Brothers and the friends that we took with. Happy fishing and be safe, heard of a few accidents over the weekend in WI waters.
I’ll post some pictures once I find time to upload them,
