McBride Report-Fished 01/08 AM

This week saw a return to the daily grind, after the all-too short plant shutdown. On my way through the long hall way to get some Java Friday morning, a familar figure sporting a stylish fur-trimmed Parka (Chinese dog?) stopped me in the corridor.

Mr. Gianni mumbled something about giving McBride a try Saturday morning, so I checked in with home base and got the necessary clearance.

The group met at Cleppe’s (sp?) bait shop ~7ish. I got lost on my way over , so I was the late one. We fished in the cove out from the main ramp at McBride hoping for some slab crappies in 20-30′ of water over some fish attractors.

In general, the ice conditions were marginal. The ice was barely 4″ thick towards the deeper water in this area and closer to 6″ nearer to shore. If you go out, be especially careful.

A few crappies were caught by some of the group, but nothing of major consequence. Gianni and I took turns catching the same 6″ bluegill. Orange jigs tipped with waxies were the ticket for the gills. In general, action was very slow. The gills, when found, did hit pretty hard. Crappies were hitting very slow and required a fair amount of jigging to arouse interest. Gianni’s electronics marked plenty of active fish every so often, but we were unable to get very many to commit. In additon to the waxies, we used minnows, some prepared crapppie turds (power-bait) and I tried a rat-tail for a spell.

The newest addition to my family is due in about 5 weeks. Presently, I am under a restraining order limiting my travel to within a 25 mile radiius of home. So, until my mother-in-law makes it out to help for a few weeks after the baby comes, I will be staying close to home and limited to hitting the “metro CR” lakes when able. It was great time with a great bunch of guys. I hope to make it out again soon. It was a reinforcement of what this southerner learned last year, fishing the hard-water is a good time.

Regards,

Joe “CarHartt” Jiacinto

Two guys seemed to be pretty safe, but there were several instances where a third would walk over to see what was goin on and then scatter like rabbits when the ice started cracking. It was a lesson we thought worth repeating several times throughout the day.

Fishing was sloooooow… we did finally find a good brushpile, and you could see on Bob’s vex that the fish were stacked on it. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t put it together. Next time, as usual.

I’ve fished Macbride countless times in open water but never ice fished it. Can I ask for some advice on general areas to try ice fishing? I don’t need specific secret hotspots, just general areas. Thanks.

I think it’s one of the harder lakes to pattern, personally, but then I’m not a very good fisherman.

From year to year, my ‘hot spot’ moves dramatically. Two years ago, it was the power lines. The year before that the bay to the North of the main park. Before that out on the South arm. By the dam. The North arm. The main ramp. It seems that there’s noplace on that lake where I haven’t had a 50 fish day at least once, and there’s noplace where I’ve had a 50 fish day where I didn’t go back and get skunked at least once.

The most consistent producers, this time of year, are probably the power lines (Northeast of the beach, around the corner) and the area between the main ramp and the boat rental. Under the power lines, there’s a pipe that runs across the lake. It’s set atop a rock pile, and the bottom goes from about 25′ up to 10′ on top of the pipe, then back down.

BE CAREFUL – that pipe sucks up a lot of sun(guess), or for some other unknown reason that’s always the last place with safe ice (other than the springs scattered throughout the lake as booby-traps). With only a few inches last week by the main ramp, I’d be mindful of swimming in this -10 weather.

I fished off the west shore of the “short arm” connecting the north and south arms of Macbride this afternoon. I was on a brush pile in 25′, and caught a bunch of very small bluegills, with a few small crappies thrown in.

There was about 6″ of ice where I was fishing–it looked like there had been some people out by the power lines, but no one was there today. In past years, when there was about 6″ of ice where I was fishing today, the ice under the power lines wasn’t safe yet, so I stayed away. The ice was popping and heaving, but not as much as I would have expected.