New Year panfishin’ on pools 7, 8 & 9.

My initial plan was to take the 3 days after x-mas off from work to go ice fishing, but as the date drew closer I got cold feet(no pun) and switched to the 3 days after the new year. With new ice, the kind I feel safe fishing on I grabbed my gear and headed for a community hole on pool 8. The bite wasn’t all that bad, but the quantity of sizable fish was a bit lacking.

I was targeting Bluegills and Crappies in 14ft of water, getting marks throughout the length of the water column. The high flyers on the Marcum produced better sized fish, but they were few and far between. Chasing the marks closer to the bottom produced lots of bait stealing smaller fish. Best jig for the day was the tungsten Blue/Glow from from Custom Jigs and Spins.

After doing some scouting in the area, I decided to try pool 7 and this time packed along the tip ups. The Panfish bite was steady yielding a nice batch of 8″ Bluegills and Crappies eclipsing the 10″ mark. Again, ironically, I set up in 14ft of water on the outside of a ledge where the Bluegills and Crappies were cruising. Like the pool 8 spot, the majority of smaller fish were located near the bottom and the bigger fish would come through as single marks in the 10ft zone.

I set up a tip up in 8ft of water hoping to nab one of those Bass bait stealing critters. For the majority of my time out that tip up sat silent with no activity. The one flag that i did get produced this nice Pike. When I pulled the tip up from the hole, the line was still at an angle telling me she was still chewing on my 5″ shiner. having not pulled much line from the set up, I opted to try my luck and set the hook. Thankfully I hooked her right in the tip of her upper lip and the connection help solid until I could get her topside. This fish only pulled out about 8ft of line before I pulled the trigger. I do feel fortunate to have caught this fish.

The one spot I really wanted to try on my time off is down on pool 9 and for me it’s always a treat to get down there when I can to do some ice fishing. Unfortunately for this adventure, the bite was less than ‘good.’ 3 of us fished hard for over 4hrs and only managed to put 6 keeper Bluegills on the ice. That’s not real good…. Nonetheless we stuck with it trying to find something they would bite or find a time when they would ‘turn on.’ It never happened for us or any of the other guys that were out there. The Bluegills we did catch were very nice in size, with all but one of them over 8 inches.

One thing I can successfully scratch of my ice fishing bucket list is catching a Dogfish through the ice. Obviously this isn’t something I’ve been actively chasing, but it was a riot once I connected. Never have I heard a fish bust its head so hard on the ice while fighting and so many times as well. I had to chuckle to myself as I was trying to make sure this fish didn’t break my 2lb mono. Victory was mine.

I told myself going into this ice fishing season that buying new gear just wasn’t a priority. I have everything I could ever need to use, but once I saw those Black Betty reels from 13 Fishing, I knew I had to try one. They fish well and fill a hole I had in my gear. I wanted to have a reel that didn’t twist and cause the bait to spin. These reels do that very well. I love the design that separates the reel from the rod so you can get your hand in there and fish it like a spinning reel. Very well designed in that aspect.

Another thing I wanted to do was to start talking about the Heavy Metal Series tungsten jigs from Custom Jigs and Spins. I’ve had the honor of being able to fish with these jigs in prototype form for the last 2 ice seasons. Bob worked hard to make sure these jigs performed to his high standards and I believe he’s got these jigs dialed in. The new color patterns are awesome and the fish find them hard to resist. be sure to check them out at www.customjigs.com.

Good luck and be safe!