50mph Panfish Action

Well with the forecast for the weekend the traffic on the lakes was a bit lighter than normal, but the fishing was still excellent!

I had a client that was in from Virginia and he was interested in the "Full MN ice fishing experience" well with the weather that was forecasted I knew he was going to experience something I was just hopeful good fishing was also going to be on his list of memories.

We hit the ice Saturday about an hour and a half before the wind and snow hit. The temp and wind conditions were not bad at all and after a few pics of him "standing on frozen water" We were ready to start drilling holes.

We tried a couple spots but quickly found some fish in an area a friend had caught fish the day before. We marked a good number of fish and started catching some decent crappie and sunfish. We had our best luck on a Grn/Blk #12 horizontal jig and a couple larva. The fish were actually quite aggressive for about 45min. Then the wind hit and I mean hit! I think it went from 10mph to 40-50mph in 10min. If my Otter fish house was ever going to be destroyed by wind this was the day, but it held up just fine.

With the house set up and the wind screaming we had no choice but to spend the rest of the outing in the house. With the wind howling the fish went from aggressive to extremely timid just as fast as the wind came in. We had fish coming through every couple minutes and we were able to pick off a good fish here or there for the next couple hours, but we had to work for em. For the day we ended up catching quite a few very nice crappie and some decent sunfish too.

After a day mixed with numerous highs and lows of all kinds, my good friend Doug was able to experience a Minnesota winter all in one day.