Finding a good bite in recent weeks has been about as difficult as bouncing up Mt. Everest on a pogo stick. Marking fish – not so difficult – however it takes a lot of beer batter to bring out the flavor in a Black/Yellow/Red. A couple of trips to the ice this past weekend and it didn’t take a set of bifocals to see this pattern is breaking.
Friday afternoon was a perfect weather wise day for a 3 year old to tease blue gill. I’ve had my little guy on the ice this past season but didn’t have much luck. A little piece of red worm on a moon glow is all it took on this day. He scored two fish in a 15 minute span before pushing slush in the hole only to dip it back out took precedence. His first ice gills! I couldn’t help but just laugh either. If I caught I fish I was instructed to throw it back down his hole so he could catch it. He’d drop the scooper and start fishing for a couple of minutes again. His fishing etiquette is gonna need a little rounding. Not shy at all to lower his line right in the hole you’re fishing out of! LOL~!
Sunday provided some pretty good action for ole dad. Crappie were going early AM as were the LMB. Bait less Cecils was the ticket. Color really didn’t see to matter but the change in scenery had an impact. Gold, Pink, Purple, Chartreuse Green, Sunrise were all working. I’ve noted this type of pattern in the past as I’m sure most IDO’ers have as well. Instead of hole hoping with the same bait – stay at the same hole and change baits. Utilizing no knot fas snaps saves a ton of time in reties. Crappie were coming in anywhere from 5 to 8 feet down in 10fow. LMB were roaming the bottom 2 feet. Iced in the neighborhood of 20 fish from 7:30 to 9:30. Roughly an even split of 10 to 15 inch LMB and crappie in the 8 to 12 inch range. Took 4 of the crappie home for lunch, which by the way females are beginning to egg up. Perch moved in mid morning. Caught 8 stripe backs and tossed 6 heavy females back before the rain really started to come down. The Perch were suckers for a mini mert or #12 Fire tiger diamond tipped with a waxie. Had to slam the presentation on the floor 4 or 5 times and raise S L O W L Y to trigger most of the strikes. The Perch I was on ranged from 10 to 14 inches in length. Very light strikes….to the point I’d venture to say without a flasher and/or a spring bobber it would have been tough to detect/anticipate the strikes.
Great job getting him out and letting him play on the ice 
Nice job Bret 
That pole is just the perfect little set up for your boy