Well with January in full swing and the temperatures dipping down into the teens below zero, it’s bittersweet 
. On one hand, the easy-to-get-to areas that are fished hard by locals are shutting down and the fish are either finicky or hard to come by. On the other hand, some of the hardest flowing sloughs have ice up to 12″ and are primed and ready to be crossed to some of my favorite mid winter honey holes. Putting some milage on the feet proves to be helpful at this time of year, and you start to notice that maybe January isn’t quite so bad..
The original plan for this afternoon was to be striding across the ice around 1:15 and having fish on our flashers by 1:30. Unfortunately I found out over lunch that I had a meeting to attend at 1:45 and that pushed ice time to about 3:15. By 3:30 Justin said what I wanted to hear: Fish on! I was expecting perch but was not surprised to see a beautiful bluegill pulled from the hole. This area is our go-to location for mid January perch, and we feel that last year we hit the very end of the bite. This year we got there earlier and it proved to be a good call. The monster gill hit the tape just over 9-3/4″ and with the feedbag the fish had put on, Justin declared it the biggest bluegill he has ever iced. In the meantime, I was finally getting settled in and after a couple hops from hole to hole I managed to pull a solid fat mark. A pretty 10″ perch made its way to my hole and fist pumps were had. I set up the shack and switched to a forage minnow tipped with a waxie (the big perch caller from last year) and instantly pulled a mark. The fish just barely lipped my bait and I whiffed- badly. I dropped it back to the bottom, and if you know perch, they tend to swim away creepily before wheeling around in rage for a second swipe at your bait..and sure enough the fish took my offering and I hooked up beautifully 
. Knowing that there are no bass in the area, I ran through what could possibly be on my line. We’ve iced some dandy northerns in here, and I thought maybe one of the smaller 25″ fish took my offering. It fought THAT hard. After some deep breaths and some stressfull drag adjustments, the fish found her way into the bottom of my hole. Justin yelled WHAT several times as I gasped over and over at what I had just iced. I decided not to answer him and just open the dang shack. We were looking at the biggest perch I have ever caught through the ice, and most likely the heaviest perch I have EVER caught in my life. She hit the tape a touch over 13-1/2″ and was loaded with eggs. after a couple very quick pictuers the fish was promptly released to avoid serious freeze up and to gaurantee that this beauty will be droppin’ her cargo this spring. Even though we didn’t catch our limit in the hour of legitimate fishing we had, we dubbed the trip a success. Justin had 2 great bluegills including a PB, and I had 2 great perch and another pb! 2 personal bests and 2 species in one hour, I can’t complain. Not to mention, the ultimate goal was accomplished, and that was to see whether or not our fish were in place. More to come from this 5 foot silt ditch after this weekend 
PS- I got to borrow my buddy’s strikemaster solo auger. It was unbelievable. I drilled 23 holes and never broke a sweat and the thing quietly and smoothly RIPPED through at least 13-15″ of ice in mere seconds. 
-Cade
