Sorry for the late report but all is well here in Northern Illinois and we survived the Blizzard of 2011. With work early this week and digging out of the nearly 24 inches of snow dumped on us Tuesday and Wednesday I’ve been admittedly quite busy. Nonetheless, I was a part of a large group of friends that made it out on Petite Lake for some late winter ice fishing just prior to our big storm.
It was a very busy day on the lake (which we attributed to a recent fishing forum post) we had never seen so many people out on this 160 or so acre lake. Despite the numerous clans of fisherman, we found a decent pod of fish after our 2nd major move to an almost exact mid lake basin area. Fish were in a negative mood and we had a whole lot of lookers and a whole lot of small white bass. After a couple quick scans from the underwater cameras we quickly came to the conclusion that we were on top of fish and the real challenge was just getting the strikes. Knowing we were on top of a mixed bag of crappies perch and small whites we decided to stay put. I’m becoming a believer that it’s better to stay on top of negative fish rather than prospecting barren water or finding another pod of fish just as negative. The real key is finding a good combination of bait that will induce the strikes and that could take many combinations of jigs, live bait, or plastics. The real key is to keep trying something different and also to be on top of the fish when they actually start to turn on and the feeding frenzy begins…
