As I have been quick to explain multiple times so far this ice season, the ’08-’09 season has been a frustrating one with a stingy bite at best so far for us. Today Justin and I decided to break outside of a community hole trend and try something completely out of the box. Sure we have fished some pretty secluded areas already this year, but never too far away from people. Today was a complete change up. We didn’t even see another ice fisherman until late in the day, when a couple guys showed up in a fan boat- only to leave after about 20 minutes.
I arrived on the ice at 8:15 this morning, and after a long walk I was set up and had holes drilled at the area I planned to be our first stop. I’ve fished this area many times in the summer months and it usually kicks out nice largemouth and lots of pike in the slop. There is a ditch that runs up into the slop with 5-6 feet of water with some sporadic coontail. With the thought of big bluegills and perch on the mind, but knowledge of a tough recent area bite, I was going into the day optimistic about the area, but not expecting a killer bite by any means. Justin and I set up and after a couple minutes, started pulling marks. They were every so often, and were interested in our baits, but getting them to take the bait was a different story. I missed two hard hits right away and knew then that we were dealing with good sized fish. I was pretty confident that there would be perch to be caught in this area after those hits. After about a half hour, Justin iced a non-keeper perch, and the game was on. Shortly after that Justin iced 3 in a row with a real nice 11 incher. We both thought it was a dandy. Little did we know that the term “dandy” would be redifined later in the day 
. Justin explained to me what he was doing and I switched up, and we both began catching fish. The action was not fast and furious, but every few minutes a perch would come up and smack your offering. When the fish got tough on our diamond jigs with chartreuse plastic, we both switched up to swedish pimples. The reaction was instant, and was very good. The pimples kicked out several perch that were well over 12″. I don’t know what other peoples’ standards are, but to me a 12″ perch is a hog. Justin took top honors with a 12-3/4″ toad as well as a 12-1/4″ and I was close behind with a 12-1/2″er and 2 more just over that awesome 12″ mark. The fish bit best between 9:00 and 11:00 and during that time, action was pretty consistent. The key was holding the bait 1 foot above the bottom and jigging it steadily. When a fish came in, it became a waiting game. Leaving the bait sit still with an occasional wiggle produced ferocious strikes from the orange fins. It would take anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds before they finally commited, but when they did, they inhaled it, and really would put your equipment to the test. Justin and I combined a bag of 17 fish on the day, with 2 bonus 8- 8-1/2″ bluegills, with Justin releasing his monster perch, and one other 11″er. I also released a 7-1/2″ gill after I already had more than enough for a fish fry. The bag of 17 fish weighed 11 lbs! No doubt in my mind a few of these fat perch were over the 1 lb mark. They were absolute slobs- or as we like to say “Gohundos” 
January 12, 2009 at 1:38 am
#1300088
Those are Jumbo’s as far as I’m concerned! 
after my 
there are still good populations for you to enjoy.