Well i hit stoddard today for about 5 hours and had a pretty good time. I got on the ice with absolutely no problems from the boathouse, and i walked over to an area where i fished last weekend. The closest people were about 2-300 yards away from me. i drilled a few holes and started marking fish so I got started. It did not take long to ice the first keeper, and then i iced a pig. This fish was absolutely huge and measured 9-1/2.” I went and talked to a guy that had moved to within 200 yards of me and i asked him how he was doing. He said he caught 2 and then i showed him mine. Well he came over by me and it wasn’t long before he came over to show me a 10″ bluegill that he had caught! It was even bigger than mine and what a monster. He ended up giving me that fish and one more, and then my dad showed up, and he left. I caught several more keepers and my dad caught 1 keeper and a few small ones, and then we realized we were the only ones left out there. It was wierd being at Stoddard of all places and being the only ones out there. I think most people think the ice is too thin, but we were still on 8-9 inches of ice. It was isolated though, there was open water south of us and soft ice to the north. You have to watch out and i would recomend using a spud, although i did not have one with me today 
It was a great day out and i can’t wait for tomorrow. Oh yah, one funny moment of the day was that i caught a shiner. I couldn’t believe it. It came in on the flasher and inhaled my bait and i thought it was a small gill, and then whoa what the heck is that? Turned out to be about a 6″ shiner, looked just like tip up bait 
well good luck and stay safe. 
January 14, 2006 at 11:39 pm
#1297562
too bad i didn’t catch that one, it would be tough to beat a friggen 10-1/2 incher 
