Belva Deer Bucket Fulls (hehe)

Went to Belva Deer yesterday, heard reports of bucket fulls of big gills. Went out in front of the boat ramp in a few different spots from 7 am to 2 pm. To no avail, usually by the time you hear the report, the bite is over. Caught 6 big gills but had to work hard for them. Probably could have came home with a bucket full of 13 inch bass though. If you used waxworms, it seemed like you were bass fishing. Caught my 6 gills on spikes. Gave them away to another fisherman from Peoria, IL. He only had four all day and came a lot further to fish than I did. At least he could have a taste. Ice was a solid 4 to 5 inches with a little snow cover turning to slush by afternoon. Nobody was really congregated in any certain areas. Everybody was pretty well spread out. Hope you have better luck than I did if your headed to Belva Deer.

Had the same results on tuesday but I ended up with 9 coming to the knife and lost another 5 to snags. Fished from 1pm to 5pm. Lots of bass in there, and seemed all were the same length.

Herb, you been fishing without me?

I’m telling your mom.

I’ll be out on MacBride this afternoon. High skies and bright sun… should be good-n-lousy. At least there’s finally some hard water to get me out of the house.

Went back to Belva Deer again yesterday and tried the afternoon bite. There wasn’t one. Caught one fish as the front barreled in and the tempature dropped off the table. Most of the snow melted off of the ice with the previous days high of 45 degrees. Hard to hold the tent anywhere without blowing away on the slick ice.

was out ther sat, and did quite well had a total of 15 keeper gills for the frying pan. the fish I wqas able to get were in 20 fow wright on the bottom. after the front came through the just kinda stopped, although they still would bite if you bounced your jig on the bottom and then just dead stick it. I posted last night about southern Iowa gills, check it out for colors, and so forth.
Kory

Thanks for the tip Kory, I’ll have to try the bottom bounce and dead stick method if I’m just getting lookers. Got any tips on how to keep the bass off the hook though. Seems to be a lot of small bass in there. When my wife and I were out on Friday, if we hooked a bass, we had 4 lines tangled together each time. It never failed. Whats the vote on mornings vs. evenings at Belva Deer.

Got out yesterday for the morning bute. Gills went crazy for the first hour of daylight and then things went down the pooper, got about a dozen for the pan, but nothing after ten.