Saturday morning started off with a walk onto the ice at 6:30am with my good Friend Dave. We were greeted by a cold wind from the NW with an air temp of -2 degrees, and a overcast ski for the day. Now that’s what I’m talking about 
The cold temps have the ice firming up in the La Crosse area nicely. We were on 2 inches of white ice with a good 3 inches of clear ice below that. The target for the day was gills along a weed edge in 5fow. The presentation that worked best for the day……the Slender Spoon by Custom Jigs & Spins. www.customjigs.com
After seeing these jigging spoons I could not wait to give them a try, they looked killer in the package and proved to be killer under the ice 
The 1/16oz Nickel/Blue Slender Spoon tipped with 2 waxies had some dandy gills jetting off the bottom to take the offering only 8-12 inches below the ice. A slow drop with a twitch produced for me all day. Later in the day the bigger gills did make way to the bottom when foot traffic picked up but the bite was still there. Dave was using a small tear drop jig and taking one 6 inch gill after another with one 8.5 inch gill thrown in. I tossed him a 1/16oz Silver/Chartreuse Slender Spoon and made his day. We each ended up with a nice mess of gills 8 – 8.5 inches with some 7 ¾’s making for a great fish fry to take off the ice at noon.
You have to give these jigging spoons a try. I have been looking for a jigging spoon that appears in size to fall between the Small Cecil and Swedish Pimple, I have found it 
Sunday morning with a temp of 10 degrees it was easier to get out of bed and head for ice. First things first though, I had to get up at 4am to put Christmas tree lights on before I went anywhere 
….isn’t marriage grand 
For something different a crew of us (Mike C, JP Mason, Wats, Bone Mover and I) walked into an area that is hit or miss for crappies. Today was more on the miss side but we had the place to ourselves making for fun. The area we fish has some good edges that drop from 4fow to 8fow then there is a drop into 18fow. The place does at times produce nicer crappies but the big ones proved to be tight lipped today. After doing some hunting we found the fish in 15fow and they were hugging bottom. It is times like this the zoom feature on your flasher better be on.
The best producing set ups for me today were a 1/16oz Copper/Orange Slender Spoon tipped with waxies and a Fire Tiger Demon Jigging Spoon tipped with a minnow head. We didn’t find much for slab sized crappies but everyone did get into some action. Most crappies were running 8- 81/2 inches with a few at 9 and two nice white crappies making an appearance
It felt good to be on the ice two days straight with good friends. Like I mentioned above, things are shaping up nicely. Even with the amount of snow we found in areas today the ice was in good condition …….Go get em
Bret
Pics of Gills and some Crappies I did take home.
The one pic is the Slender Spoon many gills could not resist.
Well done Bret
Great,another bait I have to stock up on 
. Thanks for putting the Custom web site on your report,that makes things alot easier for people. 
It looked like fun was had by all.
With the first hard water fishing trip planned
, I was like a kid at Christmas. I checked my gear twice, laid out my cold weather clothes, loaded my gear in my truck and went to bed with the thoughts of my flasher showing nothing but fish. 
Okay, maybe that is a little over board,
but I was looking forward to it. It was nice to start the season off with good friends, 
(Mike C, Wats, and Bret Clark) and was able to meet another IDAer Bone Mover. 
Nice meeting you Bone Mover, hope to have the chance to fish a few more time with you.
The bite was slow, but as always, the rest of us sat back and let the “fish hound” (Bret) run around on the ice. I learned early on, it is best to stay out of Bret’s way when he is looking for fish. Well it didn’t take him long and he was over to let us all know he had found fish.
Thanks Bret, always a joy fishing with you.
I did manager a ½ dozen small crappies, but only one for the bucket. I had just about everything in my tackle box on the end of the line but nothing seemed to turn the fish on like the Slender Spoon, (thanks again to Mr. Clark). I will be running out in the next couple of Nights and getting a few of these.
Thanks Again guys, and nice to meet you Bone Mover. Hope to see you all on the Ice real soon.
JP Mason
Shhh!! Keep quiet about the slender spoons would ya?
Great report Bret!!!
Awesome! I’ve been sick since Friday, and didn’t make it out. I love coming here and reading reports like this.
Gets me fired up for my next outing!
I should’ve went today………I came close
Nice job Bret. Great report!
It was great to be back on the ice and have the “crew” back together.
But, those days happen and we will be back soon to make another run at it.
We punched a lot of holes today and most were more for exercise than anything 
Like everybody has mentioned, it was a very tough bite
The nice thing about our group is everybody is willing to get out in the cold and go search for fish if things are slow. Of course Bret is more of a machine most days when he goes on the prowl
I caught a decent number of crappies today, but they were all in the 6″ range. My best jig which accounted for nearly all my fish was the Diamond jig in Clown color.
Now, if I could only get a 4 wheel drive truck
I had a great time guys
wh omakes the slender spoon?? where can i get some?? Looks like the gills like em huh Thanks
jeremy:
Back to the top, Bret put a link in the initial report.
Mark
looks like fun! bret, i thinkg your goal this year should be a fishing report with a picture of yourself smiling! i manage to get a pictue of you smiling with the 18lb catfish, but that was no easy task! i know you are having fun!!
Custom Jigs & Spins
Sounds like a good time guys
Looks like you guy’s had a good time. With a few nice fish to boot
.
Great report Buddy Bret.
Nice meeting you Bone Mover 
and as always great to be fishing with JP and Wats. 
I echo JP’s report, I was all packed Saturday night to head out for the first time on Sunday morning. I was a little later than the rest of them because as I told them I was at church praying that they didn’t fall through before I got there and my prayers were answered. 
When I was finally set up and dropping a Lil’ Cecil down the hole I let out a WOOOO HOOOOOO, let the hard water games begin. I also went through about every thing I had in my jig box and the most productive was a white/pink Lil Cecil tipped with a waxie. A little bit of a slow start for the season but like I told the others, Bret’s fish sniffer 
just takes a day or so to get going – it will pick up. Thanks guys, another great day on the ice and as usual a lot of fun. When we going next? Oh yea, I need to go shopping for some of those slender spoons – – – and another jig box. 
Thanks for the replies people.
One thing I should have added….when using the Slender Spoons I used the cross lock that is provided with the spoon. It made it easier to attach to my fast snaps already on my line for changing things up.
I also remove the split ring from the Demon Jigging Spoon the fast snap alone was enough to get good action out of the spoon.
Great Report Bret
…We fished all weekend also I my ears are still reminding me how cold it was 
Scott, one of these days you’ll wise up and get yourself a real hat.
Hi all
I had a great time hanging out with all of you 
I caught the one big boy on a pink fat boy glow jig 
Most of my luck came from a pink rembrandt…at least I think that is what it is called 
Look forward to future adventures and dream of 
the fish 
Ted
Bret-
“I see you’ve been watching In-Fisherman”
well looks like you’ve seen a few episodes of Midwest Outdoors in your day…
Some nice fish, great report.