With strong winds on the main channel Wednesday morning, I realized I just wasn’t going to be able to pull off fishing for smallies with light hair jigs. That’s why I’m glad I brought a jigging spoon (ice) rod rigged with a northland tackle forage minnow and a bucket to sit on just in case. Watching the forcast, I was afraid this would happen, but I knew I had the chance to make something out of the day anyway. I picked up Justin and we went out to do some scouting around for where we want to begin the season on the ice this year. One of our areas was just loaded with fish but the wind was making it tough to stay right on them, even with an anchor, we couldn’t seem to get right where we wanted to. We abandoned the spot, knowing exactly where to hit it when the water turns hard..
Our goal for the day was to check out some areas further south that we have never ice fished before. We looked at some deep flats and deep drop offs anywhere from 13-29 ft of water. They were all holding fish, although we didn’t bother to try to hook them, once again we knew where abouts to go come ice time. We settled in on a different spot that allowed us plenty of protection and really got into the crappies good. I cannot even imagine the size of the school of crappies that has to be on this area. There are a series of brush piles, as well as a rock/sand to muck transition. The fish are all over that transition hanging on the drop off in about 14 ft of water that heads into 20+. Justin and I didn’t mark much of anything in that deeper water, But I suspect that in a few weeks that a lot of these fish we have up shallow will be suspending over that deeper stuff. I think we have a real solid shot at blowing last year out of the water with the scouting we’ve been doing this year. It’s only a matter of time. using the Jigging spoons, and playing with a little bit of plastic, I’m sure we each caught well over 60 crappies each. I’m putting 60 out just to be Modest, but the figure could have easily been greater than that. Although numbers were there, Size came with work. We decided to release all fish under 10″ and I ended up going home with 13 of these 10″ plus fish. The big fish of the day was a 12″ slab, what a thick fish that was. I think the next time I decide to keep fish though, We might be keeping limits of fish under 10″ instead. I think the size ratio is a little off, there are just a ton of those 9″ buggers in there. Overall, a fun day on the ic…I mean in the boat. 
Good luck on the ice!! 
PS- I found out the garage is a bad place to take pictures with a cell phone. And another thing- don’t have your little sister be the camera person! i did my best to clean this second pic up.
