Well my plan all along was to be fishing shallow backwater areas one week ago today. At that time the ice was just a day away from being thick enough. I finally made it on ice Tuesday only to have ambitions crushed by a horrid bite in an area that is usually incredible early. I came to terms with the fact that the weekend of the 12th and 13th would have to be the official start to a successful ice season. Justin and I hit the ice early Saturday morning and found some willing eater gills biting in a community area. We took advantage of that and each caught several keepers right away. As foot traffic increased and the sun got high we needed to make a move. I remembered an area along a milfoil weedline that I was flipping this summer for bass that had a very steep drop and a rare reading of 10 ft for the area that we were in. We set our eyes on that target and went with it. It didn’t take long to find the deeper water and the fish to go along with it. Set up just off the weedline we found quite a few gills in the 8 to 8-1/2 range willing to take a lindy fatboy with a black spade tail, along with a few nice crappie pods moving through. I had a few very large crappies lip a swedish pimple on camera but they did not get the best of the hooks. While I could only land one Justin managed 3 nice ones using a red ratso, along with a few others that knocked him off, including one that he said was well over 12-1/2″ 
… At the end of the day we went home with a total of 35 keepers. We certainly could have kept a 2 man limit but We both believe that selective harvest is important and chose to only keep gills running in the 7-1/2″+ range. Occasionally we will keep 7″ fish when we need them but you will certainly not see us keeping the cookie cutter 6-1/2″ gills. The best presentation that both Justin and myself found to trigger the fish to bite was starting well above the bottom and using a slow drop & wiggle to meet the fish halfway as they sky rocket to your bait. This technique is also good for picking up bonus high riding crappies as you work the entire water collumn.
-Sunday:
Well I don’t have much to say here. A very tough day to say the least for our team. For me I blame a lack of mental focus and drive along with serious electronic problems that had me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. First my camera died and I had to drive 15 miles two ways to return it and get another camera. I finally got back and reassembled and not long after lost my flasher battery charge while attempting to hole hop. 
Our group still caught fish, but simply not the results we had Saturday. Carson was the stand out today pulling in a solid bag of 20 keeper 7-8″ gills.
I’ll leave you with the pictures from Saturday. I did not take any pics on Sunday unfortunately. I’ll have more updates as the week goes on. Our next target will likely be deepwater gills and crappies with emphasis on the ‘pies 
Myself with an in-fisherman style pic of a couple average gills
Justin with an In-fisherman style crappie pic
A nice 8-3/4″ gill, biggest of the weekend for me.
The harvest.
