Stoddard 12/30/06

Things are starting to get dangerous on the ice around Pool 8. Yesterday, ice conditions were great most places that I was at. However, over the course of the night, and today, we have lost about 2 inches of ice since yesterday morning areas with 6″ yesterday are getting to the point of being dangerous now, and places that were running a little thin yesterday, should be pretty much skim or open water in a few days with this weather . The fishing at Stoddard was very slow with a few good keepers coming in every once in a while. We started the day at goose island and i was able to coax a few nice 8+” gills in while site fishing. There were some guys with nice crappies and gills down there, but I’m assuming that they were hitting them early as there wasn’t a lot of action there when we got there. We headed south to Stoddard and got on the ice. Fish were around and biting but you’d have to weed through small ones and action was spotty. Hole hopping was a must. A lot of guys stayed put and caught good numbers of fish, but I felt the need to keep hopping around and I did OK. A few gills that could almost be classified as “bulls” kept me busy on the ultralight. A small verticle jig tipped with a red worm, a black shrimpo tipped with chena bait, or a olive hair jig tipped with chena bait all produced the most fish for me today. I probably could have gone home with around 20 nice gills (i’m not the kind of guy to keep 6″ gills like many of the other guys there, if so, I could have probably caught well over a limit ) Later in the afternoon, Guys started to vacate the area. The ice was getting spongy and wet on top and it wasn’t hard to put the spud through the ice with one hit, even in areas with 5″ of ice I’d like to try my luck on some crappies tomorrow if its not raining, but I think we will be stuck sitting on the docks again, because this ice is no good. The boat will most likely see some h20 next weekend

-Cade

heres a nice fish around 8-3/4″

the key was definitely to pound the bottom and raise it up about 6″ and they would cruise in to take a look. Too much work on too thin of ice though!

Nice gills Cade

AmWatson, Mike C and myself experienced the same ice conditions. We were on the ice a little after 6am. It was softer on top than just the night before. The bite for us was a lot of dink crappies in the morning. After a move (glad we stopped at one point and turned around ) we found a little nicer fish. This toothy hit a pike minnow hangin’ on a #12 treble tied on with 8lb mono. It was a hoot playing it out without breaking off. Shortly after Wats left, Mike and I had some good sized fish hit the jig sticks only to come unbuttoned after some runs or at the hole Made for some fun on the light tackle Swedish Pimple was working just fine for me all day. You had to jig aggressive to call them in and then as they would appear on my Lx-5 I would give them a slow drop for the hit.

On the way off tonight the ice moved under our feet and water boiled through open holes. The ice is to the point now that water is finding its way through making for dreaded honeycomb conditions. As Cade said, what looks like 4 inches of ice you can drive a spud through, there is not that crisp smack sound anymore I’m done on the ice around here for awhile

Be safe and good luck fishing!

Bret

Goose island produced alot of nice sized crappies around 2pm yesterday in about 2fow a long rod is a must there to keep from spooking them. Gonna brave it one last time tomorrow. I would like to think I have a 50/50 chance of staying dry but in reality with this weather its probably more like 80/20 of getting wet. Good times and good luck to all.

welcome to the site glad to hear you found the crappies at goose, to bad there is not enough ice to fish for them. good luck if you make it out tomorrow(you have more guts then i do, i don’t feel like going for a swim) and stay dry

Yeah its funny because nobody was out fishing in that slough for crappies on thursday until i moved out there. Looked like nobody had been over there in a while…I got on them and no sooner did i find the fish, when the crowds came…Needless to say, they’ve been over there pounding that slough for the last few days Get out of the crowds and catch em up. I agree, you gotta be carefull not to spook them. Throw some ice shavings in your hole and create a peep hole (1″ diameter) to watch your jig when it disappears.

Went back to goose at 6:30 this morining but waited until there was enough light to see to try the ice. Somehow I managed to get on the ice dry except for the rain. the first 5 times down the hole produced 5 crappies 3 dinks and 2 decent 10 inchers. Imapatience on my part led to alot of nice crappies getting off at the hole. I stayed until about 11:30 and left with 13 big gills and 5 crappies of 13″ 11″ and 3 10″ers. Wasn’t so lucky getting off the ice though went for a swim twice. Crappies in that slough are no secret I have been catching them there for 20 years. Good times and Good luck

wow, sounds like you had a great day. yeah I know they aren’t a secret, Just that nobody has been over there much this year until recently… “went for a swim twice” was this right at shore or what? The way I was getting out was down that little drive way next to that lagoon and then crossing over to the slough from there.

getting on there was not an option on sunday and monday so I walked through the woods out onto that point to get on. monday was slower just two very fat crappies in two hours. Tried it today for an hour and didnt even get a bite. I could get on from that little drive way with my hip waders though its pretty thin through there.

yeah you might have noticed some cracked spots and broken ice over there..we tried to get on it on monday but turned around. good Idea walking out off the point! This weather sucks!