Pool 8 & 9 Panfish Report – Feb. 4th & 5th

I recall early in the week, chatting with Bret about places to try fishing during Super Bowl weekend. The typical laundry list of community spots has been tossed in the trash, as those spots have been trampled beyond recognition and to be perfectly honest, I was looking for something new.

My Dad had told me of a report he’d heard from Pool 9 and at that moment I knew that was the place I wanted to try. The only real obstacle about going there, was we needed a boat to get there…. Right there, is all you need to know about the type of ice fishing season we’ve had in the La Crosse area.

Usually it’s March when the thought of using boats to get to late season spots starts taking shape. NOT the beginning of February…

Saturday rolled in with favorable weather for the adventure so my Dad and I hooked the boat up and headed south. Roughly 30min later we pulled into the area noticing immediately that most of the ice had pulled out of the main slough and the main lake had started to deteriorate leaving only open water on the entry to the lake we planned to fish. At this point I’m seriously wondering if I’ve somehow slept right through the entire month of February…seriously…

After a longer than anticipated detour to get to the fishing spot we arrived and set up, hoping to find some Bluegills and Crappies that typically roam these waters. Along with an occasion pot-bellied Perch. After getting a report from a friend of mine that had been there since daylight our hopes were somewhat diminished by what he had to show for his efforts. He’d only managed to ice a few nice Crappies and one piggy of a Perch. Those fish came within the first hour or so of his fishing day. Not to deterred, I unpacked my long rods and proceeded to start hole hoping.

Color made a huge difference, as the water was really clear and only about 3.5-4ft deep. My initial offerings of little cecils in Orange and Pink variations didn’t put a single fish on the ice for me. In fact I never had a bite until I switched up to a smaller profile like a Gill Pill or Diamond Jig. Even then, I had to switch out color patterns to find the right pattern that triggered a solid bite. Before I found the right combo most fish would just mouth the waxie, effectively chewing the waxie from the hook without eating the hook itself.

It wasn’t until I hooked up a Froggie pattern Diamond Jig that the action started to pick up. That with a waxie threaded on produced more than any other bait/combo I tried on Saturday.

In all, I caught close to a dozen Bluegills, never hitting the jackpot with a Perch or Crappie. Most ranged in the 7" area, but not enough of them to consider making an attempt at putting a fish fry together.

It was a great day to spend at a place that’s a lot different than the areas I frequent lately. I can say it won’t be the last time I get down that way this year. With the long term forecast showing cold temps maybe I’ll have the opportunity to walk out there without needing a boat…

The whole idea of heading down to Pool 9 on Saturday was to do some scouting, hoping to find a good bite that we could film an IDO ‘On Ice’ segment. With those plans tossed out the window at about 60mph, my Dad & I decided fish another local community spot on Pool 8 Sunday morning.

Hitting the ice Sunday morning around 6:30am we set up in an area that had been pretty good to us in years past. My Dad fished the 4ft zone while I hole hopped from depths of 3 to 5ft deep. The 4ft depth proved to be the "go to" zone on this day.

Following the previous day’s success, I started out with the Froggie Diamond Jig tipped with a waxie. For me it proved to be the best bait of the day. Plenty of Bluegills and Perch fell to that combo. The biggest fish of the day was an 11" Perch that had my long rod maxed out and in a few tense moments sticking about 2/3’s of the down the hole trying to prevent the line from breaking. Until I had that Perch on the ice, I was almost positive I had a LM Bass on the line.

The biggest Bluegill of the day was a thick shouldered 8.75" chunk. I can almost say I stole this fish from my Dad because as I was talking to him, I slipped my line into the hole next to his rod and within seconds I had that toad flopping on the ice. Since I needed him to give me a ride home I decided to move on and keep hole hopping…

Similarly, this spot like the area we fished on Pool 9 was very slow and decent sized fish were few and far apart. At least this area kicked out some nicer class of fish.

Overall, I was very happy to fish some areas that I used to fish a lot more, but just don’t seem to find the time to fish much anymore. It also felt great to bust out the long rods and stretch some light line in some shallow water. It’s been over a year since I’ve fished water shallower than 8ft. To say it was refreshing is an understatement.

Another fun tool I have to play with is a new camera I picked up on cyber Monday through amazon.com. I bought a SONY Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V. This 10.2 megapixel camera takes incredible up close shots. Something my old Nikon doesn’t do. It takes great HD movies, even when you’re not trying to… Besides that it has a fantastic panoramic function that is a lot of fun to toy with. If you’re in the market for a new camera, I give this on 2 BIG thumbs up. I will attach a few more fish pics I took from this weekend.

Good luck ice fishing. Remember to always check the ice conditions as they are changing rapidly.