Today was the first day back in class after a nice long break, and I did not think for a second that the day would be more about fishing than school, but that’s how it ended up being…this time..
with all classes being just introductory talk and getting done at noon, the gear was packed in the truck and I headed for ice. I decided I’d try an area that I’ve yet to hit this season but have been wanting to explore for a long time. There are a lot of options, cover, and range of species which made for a very enjoyable experience on the ice. The first holes I drilled were in an attempt to locate a submerged point I found this fall while bass fishing. A line of holes was drilled and using the Marcum to check depth, it wasn’t long before I found the top in 7 feet. The drop on either side was abrupt, and went from 7 to 19 feet deep in just 8 lateral feet. 
In the holes with the steep drop, I could not mark a fish to save my life. Once I got out and away from the edge a bit and more into the basin of the area I began to mark fish. I was now in 30 ft of water and catching small gills one right after another. I was able to get one nice 7-1/2″ fish out of this first area, but it wasn’t enough to keep my butt planted on a bucket
A move was made to a more gradual slope, coming out of 20 feet of water and ending up in 9 feet about 50-60 yards away. Again, a line of holes was drilled to plot out the slope and fish were found holding in the deeper water. On top in the 9 feet, some scattered weed clumps were found and the fish seemed to be holding in deeper water adjacent to those clumps. Again, I would have no clue about this nice tapered drop if it wasn’t for time on the water in the boat. Sitting in 17 feet of water, once again it was gills one after another. I slid up the drop a little further and after a drop into 13 ft, a ginormous mark showed itself about 3 feet off the bottom. With a little technique, the fish absolutely throttled my bait, and sent the tip of my ice rod nearly 180 degrees from the handle. I knew from the start I had a giant fish on, and had a good guess that it might be a largemouth, the question was simply “how big?” After about a 5 minute calm, cool battle (I’ve sparred with quite a few quality bass this season) I saw a head and about deuced my bibs 
as a monster largemouth sat at the bottom of the ice. With some effort I was able to turn the head and the rest was a piece of cake. I lipped the hog and knew pretty much instantly I was looking at a personal record. A couple of quick photos and a measurement told me I was absolutely right. at 21.5″ (unfortunately no weight) and super girthy, this fish beat my 21″ largemouth from pool 8 which I caught in either 2007 or 2006…. I am going to confidently say the fish weighed at LEAST 5.5 lbs and would not be surprised if it was over 6. Without a weight I can’t say much but the pictures speak a thousand words! The fish was released and swam away healthy to fight another day.
After all of that excitement, I got back to my hole and the very next drop produced a very nice 13.5″ white crappie…I would have been happy enough with this fish, but that’s not all…
Chris came down and joined me around 3 and caught a nice 15-16″ largemouth on his first drop. He caught this fish on a swedish pimple in about 10 ft.
A pumpkinseed and a bonus walleye also made things fun.. A sample of the catch up to this point.
Just when the day couldn’t get any better, another nice white crappie slammed my forage minnow near the bottom in 12 ft. After a great fight, the fish was iced, completing the best half day of the year on the ice. this one was just under 13″.
After darknest settled in, the bite slowed but a few gills still came to the ice. Thoughts of fresh walleye and putting up a report aided in my decision to call it a day and outweighed working hard for 5″ bluegills I apologize for such a lengthy report with really not a ton of great information. If you have any questions just ask. We caught all of our fish on jigging spoons- most of mine came on a black/silver 1/16 oz forage minnow with no meat, as dark approached I used a perch/glow buckshot to call ’em in. It was a great day!
