Pool 9 Ice Fish

Hard to really get a handle on just how good it is right now, with only 6 0r 8 folks out each day. Keeper and smaller saugers and some nicer walleye usually are the catches of the day. Last night just before dark 2 eyes in the 3.5 – 4# range were caught. This morning one group got the 6 or 7 Eyes in the 20-25″ range. Two weekends ago a large number of good sized eyes came through the ice with a bunch of northern as a bonus. Jigging raps,(50% or more of the fish), Walleye killers, and zonar type baits seem to be the winners right now.

Almost same today. About 12 keepers caught among 12 guys with one person doing most of the damage on either Nils or jigging rapala. The bottom foot and a half is stacked with fish on Vex, but whatever’s there they are very slow to bite with the cold fronts stacked one right after another. You can feel yourself grabbing ribs and sides, but no bite or weight so setting the hook has to be avoided.

Fished Genoa this morning. Bite was okay till 10:30. Biggest fish this morning about 20″s. I spent the midday
shopping for the colors of Raps and little zonars that are working. Then I finally ran down a few Cicadas at Gander.

From 2:00pm till after dark I spent at Dresbach jigging for the critters. I caught 1 nice sauger and had about a 3#er halfway out of hole. The back hook of the Jigging Rap was in the chin, so I told the fellow helping to move his hand and I shook it off. Boy we can say whatever we want to about fish being lethargic(spelling?) this time of year, but this baby sheeba ran back down to the bottom 5 times. The walleye were in about 15 feet of water. Most of the fish came on Cicadas

After some really average days, and a miserable day Saturday…. Sunday finally got a little hopping.Guide customers had a blast, I had a blast and the sunshine didn’t hurt either. We caught right around 35 Walleye and a handful of small sauger. Lot’s of 10-13 inch fish with 9 fish 15 inch or over. Kept 7 and the other two just scratched the 15 inch mark so we put them back.. Best we did though was 18 inches. Every fish was male, and very healthy.

By far the best presentation was a jiggin Rap, presented like you present a waxie to a panfish. Not barely jigging,(1-2 inch movement), but more like just vibrating(1/8 inch movement) your hand. I really can’t overstate that presentation. If the jig was doing anything more than shivering you only got half the bites. And when they finally got so irritated they could no longer stand it they pop it hard.

If any of 8 or 10 different colors being used stuck out it was probably gold/black, with everything from white/chart to gold/black catching fish. Second best presentation was minnow on hook hugging the bottom. We use 5-8 foot snells, with #4 red Gama hooks attached with a snap swivel to the main line. Before you close the snap, slide a 3/8 oz bell sinker on and close it.

More of an indicator of better things to come a lot more folks were catching fish from one side of the river to the other.

interesting… your jiggin technique was the same we were using on pool 4 today.. but we were using jigs… same result though… shiver the jig and whap…. bounce it.. and nothing except maybe an occasional snagged fish….

You hit it on the head RE. Almost anything that was just jiggled caught a few, but the two I mentioned were the best for us. I can’t count the number of times somebody has posted about another pool and made me think they had been fishing right beside me. As different as the pools can be alot of things sure crossover.

I hear ya… mountain man.. there is a strong crossover…..
and as a result I was wishing yesterday I had some jiggin raps on me… cuz Im hearing how you guys are getting the tough bite going with them… and one thing I know for sure.. there are fish on pool 4…. lots of them… but sometimes they dont want to bite… so Im really wishing I had some jiggin raps with me i have this feeling it should work… I tried the jiggling thing with a one eye jigging spoon… but they were not impressed….

Were you catchin these eyes on sunday out of genoa MM?

Was on pool 10 on saturday and it was slowwwww!Me and my buddy caught 6 sauger all under 13.And best presentation was a slow jiggle.The only thing that kept us out there was the few trips to the FALLING ROCK BAR for some food and to warm up.And i will say lens got some awsome burgers and the o rings were great thanks len!Would love to be out this weekend this warmer weather has got to send these fish on a feeding frenzy.Let me know what yo guys think maybe i’ll squeeze out.

Kevin Budny

TV we are fishing below the dam at Genoa