Bagley,pool 10

The bite around river of lakes was good today,if any of you are familiar with this area then you know that its a backwater haven. The panfish still haven’t moved into the main harbor areas as much this year but are still positioned in the feeder cut below the docks. They have been spread out but the school is large giving a person a chance to separate from the crowd and ice some nice un- pressured gills . Started at 6am. Drilled holes for the weeds then set up the shanty to get out of the wind. Started off pretty slow in the shack but a friend was hitting good fish all around me. My sister opted to stay in the shack while I went outside to hole hop. From 9am until noon the bite was hot having iced 20 good gills in that time with plenty of smaller fish to keep you busy. Now for the all too familiar part,while getting bit all around the shack not one decent fish was caught inside! . The ice was bare of snow in our area which created to big of a shadow under the hut. I’ve seen this time and time again in this shallow water bite. Has anyone else come to this conclusion with there shacks? When there is snow cover it’s not a problem but like I stated I’ve seen this too many times not to believe those fish avoid that dark area. Any thoughts on this?

Jeff,

I would have to agree. When there is little to no snow you may have an issue with the house. The same can go for early season Ice when fishing eyes at night. I use a propane lantern that seems to cause problems from time to time. For these nights I carry a piece of cardboard to deflect some of the light.

However, I have found just the opposite when fishing shallow WITH snow cover. It seams as though the house will keep the hole from developing a shaft of light that plays the same roll.

Great question/thought for the day.

You are right when you say just the opposite happens with cover,especially in shallows,darker is better with snow cover. Good point and another thought for the day

Some interesting thoughts there. A week ago in the same area I was nailing some nice crappies and a few bluegills at the break of day. At that time there was plenty of snow on the ice. When the sun came up the bite evaporated like right now. I usually just figure it’s just an early bite but maybe something as simple as shading your hole might make a difference. I know on thursday morning the bite continued throughout the morning when there was hardly any snow.
An “old timers” trick was to leave slush in a hole while fishing it. I always thought the reason was so fish couldn’t see you but maybe less light transmission may be the key why that works some time.