Today I headed out to find some areas that have not been hit before..
With the great freeze we have had I know my journey would be a safe one. With my new (old, 1982) Honda 3 wheeler I headed out to find some fresh water and take the chance the fish would cooperate. I powered thru a good 10” of ice everywhere I went. I fished deeper water (6-7’) I fished shallow (1-2’). I covered a lot of ground before I stumbled on a back bay that had about 5’ of water with dead lily’s present.
The Marcum LX-5 immediately lit up with fish. As soon as I lowered my Mini Mert I had an aggressive 7” gill come off the bottom to take my bait. I had drilled several holes and could only manage a couple fish out of each hole. I tried tipping my Mini Mert with plastic but the fish seemed to mostly want the live bait, who am I to argue?
I saw some marks just below the ice about 2‘down. Working from just under the ice…slowly twitching,then lowering slightly. twitch twitch..lower slightly..twitch twitch…..this will almost always trigger strikes from the crappies that swim higher up in the water column.The MiniMert show here in this crappies mouth is one of my favorite for back water gills and crappies.
Orange Chartreuse worked real well for me today and as the night time closed in on me.Even the gills were aggressive coming up 2’3 feet off the bottom and smacking the Cecil!! It sure is noce to have been able to hole hop today as the temps were back to more tolerable levels.
Another great report! How ya doin’ ‘Nook? Long time no see!
Life is mostly well, save for a nasty sore throat I’m trying to toss!
As I said in another post I wrote this evening regarding another recent report, this too is a great example of a very informative report. Detailed info on depths, tackle, general locations and techniques-the way it should be.
But then again, we expect no less from the “master”!
Joe
Thanks for the kind words Joe.
Hope your feeling better…
What no pix of the 3 wheeler? I got an 85 110 for icing but never got the rack and hitch built. It’s probably coming out after this next blizzard and cold snap though… Any tips for front tire? One on it has lil clearence for fender…
Blufloyd,
I have to get some pix of that…it sure is a time saver when I’m searching for new ice..Next time out I will.
What do you mean as far as tips for the front tire ? Steering ?
Great report Dave. I should get my new mini merts in the mail today
what a great ice jig.
John B
It is good to see you were able to get out and enjoy a great day of fishing Dave
Nice looking gills and crappies
Nice report Dave. You are on the nice gills down there. Keep the reports coming
Very nice gills Dave!! I can’t wait to give those mini-merts a try this week!!
Great report Dave and nice fish.
I have been liking the Mini Merts tipped with a minnow head for the crappies and perch
Brett,
I was thinking about that yesterday while pulling out the crappies and gills…I am not a minnow guy at all but I may have to experiment with that !!
Nice report Dave
Nice report and nice pictures Dave!
Good looking gills you caught there.
We did good using the Mini-Merts tipped with waxworms on the sloughs around Winona this past weekend. Purple, red and chartreuse orange all caught there share of fish. The bluegills were caught from 20′ of water. Some were caught a few feet off the bottom and lots more were caught suspended all the way up to a few feet below the ice.
One interesting thing I noticed was the presence of water beetles. We saw maybe a half dozen of them in total but never more than one at a time. They didn’t seem to be slowed down much by the cold water.
A Vexilar or Marcum was extremely helpful for those suspended panfish.
Boog
Nice report Dave! Those mini merts were the ticket when the bulls got finicky down south last weekend.
Keep up the good work!
I have got to use the glow red MM this next time out,,,I know the guys on the lakes just love them…but…I haven’t gave them much time down here…
Has anyone had sucess on the red glow MM or Lil Cecil on the back waters of the Mississippi ?
Thanks guys
I hope to see you on the ice 
I had pretty good luck with the red glow Cecil on bluegills. For awhile that was all they would hit that day. They earned a place in my line up of jigs
I put Strykers on the back of my ATC 110 the front knobby is original I think.
Very little clearance between tire and fender, thought maybe a bit shorter sidewall and maybe more of a ribbed arrangement of tread would help with steering. I watched a guy 3 years ago with box stock ATC have to get off and point bike to area he was heading a lot. This while pulling a shanty.
Glow red has been hot this year. Last year it was green. More snow this year may be reason? Actually my fave cecil is the silver one. I also have caught a ton of fish on 1/8th oz castmaster in gold. I need to change to 1/12th but
they still wack it hard. I ought to run up and fish before the thaw happens.
But that’ll probably Okoboji area. Full scale blizzard here south of Chicago…