Well, I decided to hit the ice yesterday and I’m glad I did. I got set up at about 10 am on my favorite honey hole in 14 fow. As soon as I dropped the camera down I was delighted to see fish everywhere, top, bottom and in between. Should have been easy pickins right? Wrong! My Diamond jig was just way too big I guess, so I downsized until I found what they wanted. A orange/green Gill Pill was the ticket. The gills weren’t overly aggressive, but with a little fluttering, they would commit. Like normal, lots of little ones, but picking off the 8 inchers I kept is easy with a camera. 
I probably caught 30 or so 6-8 inchers and kept 11 8 inchers for the pan. Besides the gills, I also tangled with 3 grass carp that were a blast on 2lb test line! The crappies did move in around dark but only managed 3 10 inchers, very light bite, whiffed on 4 or 5 bites. 
The highlight of the trip was a slimer that rocketed into camera view only to put the brakes on inches from my gill pill, I was pretty jacked because I knew she was a nice fish. She sat there for at least 5 minutes just eyeing that jig until I bounced it off her beak, that was too much and she snapped it. What a fight for 15 minutes! 
I had her up to the hole twice and darn near had her until she came unglued again and eventually got wrapped up in the camera cord and snapped the line 
Oh well, lots of fun. I estimated her to be in the 12-15lb range, real nice fish and the biggest I’ve ever seen from Prior. I’m bringing a tip up next time! Good luck if you go, driving is ok with 14 inches where I was. Here’s a few for the pan.
January 8, 2010 at 1:58 am
#1338970
