Well I made a day run to chase some crappies with an old friend, Greg. We ended up punching quite a few holes but it paid off for us as we got into the gills good in the afternoon.
The entire day, we found the weedline and worked both in and around it. The depths we fished were from 6 – 12 fow. Most of the fish came right on the edge of the weedline. I was able to use my VS625 camera to check out the landscape below and see if there were fish there and where they seemed to be coming from. This also came in handy when fishing in downview mode.
The CJS Diamond Jig in Bumblee pattern has been working well for me this winter and proved to work well again on the gills. I tried using maggots but they definitely preferred waxworms as I was only getting sniffers when using the maggots.
The largest gill went a shade over 9-1/4″, with many going between 8 to 8-1/2″. The lake has bigger gills, but they eluded us today.
The weather was great as little wind and warm sun made for an enjoyable day of fishing out on the open ice.
Looks fantastic Loren !!
Not only the fish… but the scenery as well
Thanks for sharing
Healthy looking gills!
The Bumblebee has been turning on for Pool 8 also
Great read and pics
Good stuff Loren. In talking to you, and reading your reports, I know you use underwater cameras a pile to do your scouting. Any strategy you employ, look shallower first, deeper first, etc.?
Joel
Great job !!
Thanks Joel. As for using the UW camera, this winter it has been with me nearly every time out. The fish just haven’t been in the areas I have normally found them in this time of year, so by being able to have some eyes below the ice it has helped me in my scouting/searching of where the fish are holding.
I normally start checking my shallow holes first, especially if the flasher is showing some good weed growth below. I can see if the fish are holding in, above or on the edge of the weeds. I can also see if there are predators in the area that are keeping the bluegills and crappies away.
If I am marking fish deeper and getting alot of short bites or sniffers, I’ll drop the camera down there as well to see what I have down there for fish. I may be dealing with the entirely wrong fish species.
When I was up in GR, we knew where the weedline was and we were able to drill out a good stretch of it. I didn’t even bother grabbing my flasher until I had run around with my camera to see what holes were going to be worthy of fishing. A few of the holes showed nice schools of gills, and those were the holes that we were able to get the majority of the fish from.