Pool 8 quick report

I made it out on the ice for a few hours this morning to see how the ice was and fish a little bit. The ice was a good 4″, but had a lot of slush on top. I didn’t have the right boots on for fishing in a swimming pool so my feet got wet in a hurry
I was fishing in 7 fow in a backwater bay. The bottom half of the water column was constantly filled with shad on the flasher. I actually hooked one in the mouth with a Forage Minnow
I found the fish to be in the 3-5 fow range. Not sure if the shad has them pushed up or what. The best bait today was a Mini Mert in perch pattern tipped with a waxie. The bite wasn’t great but I did manage to land a dozen keeper sized gills like the one pictured above. All the fish I caught today were keepers with not a single dink I plan on making another trip tomorrow but will definitely have my rubber boots with me

Nice fish wats. yeah that new snow we got really pushed the ice down..and that slush is really bad. We need a couple real cold nights and that will take care of that. I have been noticing the same exact thing as you…the shad are pushing bluegills and crappies up…Normally I catch crappies suspended anywhere from 10-15 ft over 20 ft…yesterday I was catching them in 3-7 …

I was actually thinking we need a warm day to break the snow down and then let it freeze. But, after looking at the forecast, we are going to have some real low temps at night and nothing real high during the day

The weather looks good to me

Thanks for the report! It is always nice to know what to expect for the weekend

Nice job. I almost made it out the door to meet up with you this morning and my wife called from work. She had other plans for me today . Oh well maybe tomorrow.

Thanks for the update. That’s good to know about the ice/slush for this weekend possibily. Hopefully this Clipper moving into the area on the weekend won’t cause a case of lockjaw.

Anything happening at stoddard, heading up in the morning thanks for the help.

The bite was a little tougher today The slush was much firmer today except right near the shorelines. I think we may have gotten out there just at the tail end of the morning bite. Within 5 minutes of drilling a hole I lost 2 really nice fish at the hole Landed a few fish but nothing real exciting

I stayed about 45min after you left. I got 3 medium gills in those holes by the bank. All of them on that lil’cecil loaded with spikes . Those crappies sure hit the spot when I got home I was hungry.

I looked into a really deep hole with a lot of current today. To my suprise, There was at least 4″ of ice everywhere, and some areas of 5+” I did not land a single fish…just one suspended bite about 5 ft down over 18 ft of water. I’m really guessing it was a crappie. I had a lot of suspended lookers coming up but turning there noses on a variety of different meats and 3 different jigs. I couldn’t get a small jig to the bottom..because of the current, but there were some real slabs down there I dropped down a forage minnow with a waxie, but they showed no interest Tough deal, but At least i got a bite I feel real confident after seeing the crappies..and might try back soon. For fun before I got picked up, I trekked all the way across the slough! I used my spud and found the same 4-5″ all the way across. I did put my leg in close to shore getting out…It was a bad spot that I could not see in the snow only about 3 ft from the land. Otherwise, the ice was real good.

fished stoddard this afternoon, with ok results. Caught enough fish for a meal. They were good sized fish for the most part. Not alot of really small fish. Did catch one crappie with the rest gills. Fishing in 7-8 ft of water. Waxie was better than spikes for me. 3:30 – 4 seemed about the most productive time. fished from 2:30 – 5. Great weather to be out, no gloves in January, ya gotta love it. good fishing—John

Thursday 1/25/07 Mike Watson, Andy Loos and myself set up in a sand bottom bay and caught some nice perch with a few bonus crappies. The weather was warm with no wind. The perch liked things to be changed up from a Forage Minnow with and minnow head or a Little Cecil with a waxie. The bite was very good in the morning dieing off around 1:00pm.

Mike C, neutron, JP Mason and myself set up in the same area today. All I can say is….glad I was there Thursday
The bite was tough to even tougher. We manage to put a few perch together but nowhere near Thursday’s outing.

We are fishing in a bay that holds 6 – 8fow with a sand bottom. Plenty of fish were being marked and chasing but I didn’t have what they wanted along with me A few fish takin’ on a perch mini mert with a small minnow, Cecil with minnow head and a forage minnow with head. Never really found a killer jig

Bret

I got out today from about 1-5:30. Very slow at first lil cecils with a minnow head produced a few small perch. The jig of the day turned out to be an orange sweedish pimple with a minnow head. I put that on and consistantly caught fish from about 3-5. Lots of small crappies and perch. I did catch probably about a dozen fish I could have kept but they lived to be caught another day.

Nice meeting you Bret

Checked conditions at the gravel pit Sunday AM and it sounded like the shad were still running wild there so I decided to head closer to home for Lake Onalaska and I am glad I did. I set up away from the main areas and I ended up catching 30-40 bluegills and managed to take home ten good eaters. Fished a little deeper this time (about 7-8ft of water) and used two sections of Reel Weeds which I think really helped bring in fish(I was a little skeptical at first on how effective these were). I had fish on the flasher all day. I thought it was going to be a tough bite with the cold front that moved in Friday but I was able to catch fish most of the afternoon. A glow in the dark teardrop tipped with a waxie seemed to work best for this afternoon.

Yeah we were out in the gravel pits on Sunday..found one real good verticle tree that was holding a few keeper crappies. After 3 keepers, it was all dinks again didn’t catch a fish anywhere else Anyone know anything about Stoddard?

Solid Ice on Stoddard and the bite was decent on Friday. thats all i got on that one.

Great Report Mike! At one of my favorite La Crosse Area holes theres about 14-15″ of ice. Its sopposed to warm up a little bit but not a whole lot.