Pool 8, Christmas Vacation and Panfish!

After what felt like waiting forever plus, 11 months, 30 days…you get my point, four days of adventure were about to take place on the ice, man that felt good! You have to love walking on water

Right now there might not be safe ice for taking a good walk about but, there is good ice in the protected community holes on pool 8 from the North to the South. So far there has been 3-5 inches holding up very well in the areas I have visited, getting wet on top during the noon hour but becoming solid again throughout the nights. There was a mixed results found in the bite, a couple that were hot once figured out, and a couple trips that took some finesse to ice a few bigger finned critters.

The first trip onto the ice, there was a good 3inches of clear hard stuff. The areas targeted held depths of 4-8 feet revealing schooling Gills, some Perch, and a few Crappies. Every year the first trip onto the solid H2O feels like another baptism, it does the body good

Two things made this years virgin adventure a hoot, a fare bite, and watching the struggle take place through the glass clear ice under my feet

The Bluegills were by far the majority of fish in the area. A good number of watch fobs fed hard on waxies being dropped to the bottom but, a few bigger gills hitting 7-7.5 with a few reaching 8 could be convinced to leave the safety below taking baits half way up in the water column.

The baits on this day used to put a fish fry together, Fog Gill Pill sportin’ a waxie for gills and perch. A Fire Tiger Demon Jigging spoon tipped with a minnow head brought some dandy perch along with the Crappies top side.

What a day, first trip, fish fry and 3 more too go

Thursday before Christmas the truck bee lined for the same spot. What a difference though, the wind was kickin up a little and there was a fresh inch of snow covering on what use to be bear ground. I thought for sure this would help with the shallow bite and anticipated finding some bigger fish. Long story short, it was a bust well, kind of anyways

Busting hump produced a few nice fish. One toothy critter made the trip worth while. A perfect hook set with a small gill pill right in the tip of it’s nose made it possible to reach in the hole and give him the death grip with my already weathered hands. This was after a good battle between man and beast with the 2lb ultra light rig winning. Not a long fish but wide and healthy, the toothy’s down fall was when the thoughts of poor mans lobster registered in the skull

The trip home had me thinking of a plan for Friday. Something different had to be done and there are plenty of opportunities in the La Crosse area. Sometimes picking out were to land can be the hard part.

The walk on was in the dark at yet another community hole, where to set up was clicking like a ticker tape in front of my peepers, with a decision made the Lazer Mag popped 6 holes in 8fow. The LX-5 tattled on fish right from the get go, allot of high flyers too. Knowing the sought after species in this backwater bay normally are crappies, a 1” Gulp alive was added to a Frog Gill Pill. Custom Jigs and Spins knocked it out of the park with this color combo for pool 8 if you were to ask me.

The red marks appeared on the LX-5 everywhere making it look like the transducer was in a Christmas tree, then a thud Not a crappie but what a gill. Another drop and another gill better than 8 inches, now how cool is that!!! Soon a 12inch crappie took the bait as it just drop 3 feet below the ice, the morning produced a bite that was as easy as dropping candy to a kid, and the quality of fish was a step up with some gills close to 10 inches

After a while of schooling these fish they become more reluctant to hit my offering. A trade from the gulp to a small plastic from Crappie Tom on a Fire Tiger Diamond jig, and a Pink White Ratso had the game back in full swing. Custom Jigs and Spins teamed up with plastics were killer on this day

Again, keeping the jig closer to the ice produced nicer fish than dropping to the bottom. Keeping your transducer high and centered in the hole while fishing directly below you will see your jig when fishing shallow Day 3 and back in the game, that is until the wind kicked up and another front blew in. That was fine, another nice mess of fish with the first fish fry already gone, made it the perfect time to call it a day

The next two days were to be spent with the family, I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as much as we did

I can’t say thoughts of being on the ice Monday weren’t in the head, not only mine but Tom Donaldson and Mike were thinking the same thing! Is was evident with a text every ten minutes from Tom

We agreed on a meeting place and it was another new body of water to be headed for. What can we say about this day….well, I still feel like I’m trying to keep from taking off like a kite and, we worked very hard for the fish any of us caught today.

If it would not have been for taking cover in the Otter I’d say my jigs would have been swinging and missing all day. When you can’t keep the bow out of your line, you are not going to see the bites as we had today. Even in the warm temps the wind block felt very nice

After a walk about and a trip to another area a fish fry was in the making for Mike. Some nice perch, crappies, and gills, each fish brought to the top in these conditions was worked hard for. My go to again would be the Fire Tiger Demon Spoon with a minnow head using a slow cadence. The bait also had to be fished closer to bottom for any marks to show up.

It still felt good to be on the ice. Nasty days weed out the weak Thanks for the time spent together today Blue and Mike

Good luck fishing people