Nice Ice 2025

The pannies were really active yesterday afternoon. Pre cold front I suppose had them feeding …

We fished outside (no house) for about 2 hours and the two of us caught close to 40 sunfish and a half dozen perch. We left the ice with a few nice fish but let a lot of nice fish go. Most were hand sized sunfish … bluegill, greens, mix. Most hit the lure pretty aggressively … not that subtle flasher / rod tip says they are on type bite.

Had a couple of big blobs cruise by the flasher about 2 feet of the bottom but they were not enticed by a tungsten jig and grub.

We left right before sunset … windy and chilly. I think if we would have had the house and stayed a bit longer we would have caught crappies too. Oh well … plenty of winter left. Getting the portable readied this afternoon.

Lake we were on had pretty nice clear ice with a thickness of 8.5 inches. Metro area … east of the St Croix river.

Sounds like a fun day Brittman!

We’ve been catching them lately both gills and crappies but man have they been finicky. Definitely not coming in and hammering jigs. More so watching the rod tip and looking for it to go up about a 32nd of a inch. I’d love to get a aggressive bite soon. The walleye we been catching are a bit more aggressive at least.
We will see what tomorrow brings.

Crappies were aggressive last night. Wednesday only caught dink sunnies. Same lake but different part. Jigging out caught the set lines on the crappies. Ice is in great shape, 10-12” and clear. this was in the Crosby-ironton area.

It was the opposite for me last night. Crappies were very finicky and we did not mark the numbers we have been. Ended up catching and releasing 12 or so in the 10 to 12 inch range. Of the 12 we caught, I think 3 chased up and hit it right away. I forgot to charge the Dewalt batteries so we couldn’t move around though. But other times out in the last week we didn’t need to.
DT

Fish were noticeably more lazy on New Year’s Day compared to last weekend. Front definitely shut them down. We still caught a bunch but they made you work for it.

Crappies are aggressive this evening. They are flying uo 3 4 ft in 11 ft of water to hammer the spoon.

We had the same BC. Spoons and set lines were equal, really didn’t matter. Fun evening with the daughters, caught a bunch.

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weedis wrote:

We had the same BC. Spoons and set lines were equal, really didn’t matter. Fun evening with the daughters, caught a bunch.

That’s awesome man, I’m headed out now to see if they are still aggressive. It’s brutal out here. I popped the wheeler off before I left the house so she can idle on the trailer for my 20 minute drive.

Congrats Britt
Metro ‘East of the St. Croix’ sounds like that suburb called: Wisconsin!

Good idea on the wheeler, not warm out, good luck. . The ice sure was noisy yesterday making more.

Bite was very aggressive again this morning. Lots of fish caught. My kid made the mistake to sleep in.

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Those even eater fish? The sunfish laying there looks like 4 inches if he’s lucky. Must be a huge tackle box making them look smaller than they are.

rumriverrunner wrote:

Those even eater fish? The sunfish laying there looks like 4 inches if he’s lucky. Must be a huge tackle box making them look smaller than they are.

10.5 to 11 inch crappies, biggest one i got today was shy of 12. the gills was 8ish but deep gutted my tungsten so he didn’t make it back to swim. No big crappies today, just average local fish. No tackle box in the picture. I can’t catch big ones every time. I wasn’t moving in this weather. These eat great.

Looks like a good morning BC, nice work. Good eating.

I tried a small lake not far from home tonight, swing and a miss for walleye. Caught 2 fingerling, guessing they were stocked not long ago..

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Nice panfish, sorry for my comment just jealous I’m not out.

Found 16″ of ice on a smaller lake north of garrison. Trucks everywhere.

Kids (6 and 3) actually asked to go fishing which doesnt happen often. First time out i couldn’t get the crappie to bite at the community hole so swing and a miss. At least 10″ of clear ice on Medicine Lake. Will give it another try tomorrow.

18 inches Sand Bay Rainy Lake.

walleyesforme wrote:

18 inches Sand Bay Rainy Lake.

You ever ice fish crane lake ?