Jumbos, Slabs, and Bulls!

I got out today for a few hours. Went to a gravel point, that had very steep breaks on both sides that led out to a 30 foot muck basin. Found the transition line that went from gravel to muck. I worked the entire break from 14-30 feet, fishing both the gravel breakline and muck basin. The reason for all the info is, I found quite large schools of crappie, bluegills, and perch. The ones I caught were are really nice and some of the biggest fish of the short season. There were no weeds nearby, so I am curious why were the bluegills there? All of the bluegills were caught in the muck in 30 feet of water. I can understand the perch being here, as this is a great mid-winter perch location and crappies are more than likely staging to move out to the basin. Anyone have any ideas of why all these quality fish were located here, would be greatly appreciated. I learned I shouldn’t spend all my time looking for deep weedlines. Lastly, when I got off the ice, there was 2” of standing water on the lake. I was thinking of going back out tomorrow morning, but may need to rethink that idea. Tight lines!

I’d say because there was food there! During the winter I don’t often fish weedlines for panfish. I should focus on weeds more, but I tend to look a little deeper.

Those hard to soft bottom transitions can be good for all fish. Bugs like the transition, and on up the food chain it goes.

I have been fishing a tiny 50 acre lake this season. Max depth about 12 feet. Best spots lately have been very near sharp breaking shorline turns, just as the bottom levels out from the sharp break. Sounds similar to what you found, just on a shallower overall scale. Water is quite dark in this lake and I doubt there are any green weeds left, or if they are, are in just a couple feet of water.

‘Ya never know. I had a lake where for a period of time I caught some pig bluegills in about 18 feet where a rock bar transitioned to sand. They were finicky but didn’t seem to move to that spot till AFTER DARK. I imagine they were keying in on forage you wouldn’t normally think of for bluegills (tiny minnows of some sort maybe).

We had standing water today too. 8″ of good ice under it so I’ll be fine tomorrow but hope we get below freezing in NW Wisconsin pretty soon.

The simple answer is bugs. That’s why transition lines are productive. If you go any deeper the bug burrows collapse( sediment too soft) go shallower and it’s too hard to burrow in(gravel or rock)