Icing Gills Old School

Got a call from my parents last Wednesday telling me they were done working for the week and heading to the cabin and used the excuse of the cabin roof needed to be shoveled off. I knew better that they just wanted to get some walleye fishing in before the ice came off LOTW. Thursday my dad called from the lake and said fishing was slow and I needed to find some monster gills for them to fish and they would be over on Saturday morning. So first thought that came to mind was my secret late ice spot on Pokegama, although I thought it may be too early for the fish to be there. Etiher way we had plenty of auger gas and were sure to find them something out there.

Saturday morning they showed up around 11:00AM and off we went in search of some gills. We started drilling holes around the edge of a point in 12 to 20 FOW and caught nothing but perch. First thought that went through my head is it is way too early for them to be up top, so I grabbed the auger and started drilling holes on top of the point. Sure enough the fish were right in the weeds just like they are during late ice. My techique for shallow water ice fishing is lots of hole 15 to 20 ft apart because the fish are buried in the weeds and you need to be right on top of them. Next challenge was finding the right presentation on this particular day a vertical presentation with maggots/spikes did the trick. We tried was worms and power bait and caught a few but the maggots worked the best. The other thing is in 4 to 5 FOW electronics are pretty much useless in the weeds so sight fishing and moving holes often to get back on top of the fish is essential.

Now I couldn’t tell you how many fish we caught but what a blast it was watching the fish suck in your bait before you set the hook in that shallow water. It is amazing how many fish you will see through an 8 inch hole, and sometimes the fish would be a foot below the ice. You can basically pick and choose the size you wanted to catch. All in all we were able to pick up a few 10+ inch gills, quite a few in the 9+ range and a lot in the 6 to 8 inch range. The entire time we were fishing there were a lot of other fisherman on the ice fishing around the edge of the point trying their luck and every now and again a few of them would venture up top to check out some of the holes we had drilled trying to locate fish with electronics and give up and head back out to deep water. Sometimes you have to give up the electronics and go old school if you want to catch fish.

For me it was special day as I don’t get a chance to go fishing with my parents as often as I used to. It also never hurts to put them on some nice fish using some of the techniques they have taught me throughout the years and it never hurts to hear them say “It’s been a long time since we have caught Big Gills like this”. Coming from them its like a compliment as they make it out fishing 2 to 3 times a week in the winter targeting panfish.
Now I need to convince them to come back in a few weeks when the fishing gets even better and put them on some more Big Gills. So remember every once in awhile if you know the fish are in the area check up top in shallow water ditch the electronics and go back to the basics.