I was unable to find a ride for open-water fishing at Red Wing so I decided I couldn’t waste a nice day …and engage plan B! I hate to admit it but I haven’t be in-touch with the ice bite so I drove around till I saw the most traffic. Not very original but it works. Much of the ice fishing on lower pool 4 is visible from the road so it’s not to hard to see what areas are hot and which ones are dead. The area I hit has deep water and a mixed bag of gills, perch and crappies. Drilling a hole with a hand auger is a pain so I opened an old hole and dropped the sonar. Lots of echo’s near the surface but nothing near the bottom, so I talk angler nearby. He’s shallower and has fish in the key zones. I honor his area and the holes he drilled. I guessed at where depth line was and hand drilled one hole and camped out for the day. From the beginning I have fish within 4 feet of the bottom and can pull fish up, but getting them to bite is another issue. With each lure change I catch fish but most are small gills. However, every so often I nice fish bites.
I kept 3 for the table and put the rest back. All I can say is they are there and if you can figure out how to trigger them you can have a fun day. The best lures for me today were a pink Purest and a purple Ratso.
February 17, 2008 at 4:24 am
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