Friday, Gianni and I took a break from the usual daily routine of being part of a real-life Dilbert cartoon! 
(ouch! 
Just heard on the weather radio that 10-16” of total snow are now expected, with a blizzard warning! Is that right? I thought -that was all going be up north near the Cities-I’d rather take the snow than the ice, for sure)
We headed north, but not that far north-instead fishing that pit where I have permission to fish. Best bite for us was in the first part of the morning, but then she pretty much shut down. Thanks mostly to Gianni, we managed a nice bucket of panfish, with only one throw-back; predominantly large, fat gills, with a couple of nice healthy crappies thrown in. We forgot to bring the camera, otherwise we would have had some nice pictures to share.
Its too bad we weren’t there earlier-to cash in on that hot bite, but SOMEONE forgot to wake up at 5am, as planned! 
I am blaming my youngest son, Xavier, for that one! I know I set the darn alarm clock, but he’s a scrappy 2 year old that likes to play with gadgets, especially the alarm clock, and I know he was up after I hit the hay. Not many guys would wait 45 minutes for their bozo friend to show up late like that…Gianni is a class act! 
The bite died at 10am or so, we had a couple of tappy-taps, but decided to bag it at 11:30, since we were low on bait and hungry. After getting some waxworms and finding a fish sandwich for lunch, we decided to head south towards Central Park in Jones county, where I had some good luck last weekend for big ‘gills-but it was in that last hour of daylight.
We marked a few fish over the stake beds, but they pretty much had lockjaw. I got one nice bite that pulled my jig into some brush (lost the jig and fish!) but that was the extent of the action. We tried just about every jig in the box, but nothing would get them going. The 6” of snow on the ice at that lake was all melted, so Gianni thought maybe the brighter light during mid-day (even though it was cloudy) might have shut them off. That low-pressure was blaring through too, by mid afternoon. Usually weather changes are really hot or really bad, in my experience-but a low pressure coming in usually spells a decent bite…who knows?
Gianni’s wife called about 3pm to let us know the sleet and freezing rain was coming (thank’s Gianni’s wife 
), so at 3:30pm, we packed it up and headed back to Linn county, mostly beating the storm.
During the morning bite, a small green or chartreuse glow jig (style didn’t seem to matter, as long as it was green and small) tipped with a wax worm was the ticket. We caught the gills in deep water (nearly 20’) and the crappies in a shallower spot with some structure (10’). When the bite got slow, I tried tipping my jig instead with a thin, white plastic tail, and got lots of looks, but no takes.
Ice was plenty thick, with 10” or more at both at the pit and Central Park. I think I’m going to wait this storm out (unless it doesn’t materialize)until late Sunday or maybe Monday night. Good luck out there and stay safe!
Joe
