I spent some time in the Bemidji area over Christmas and snuck out in search of some bluegills and crappies. I have fished this particular body of water in the summer and have had some success, but in the winter time it’s always been a tough nut to crack.
I started in my usual haunts near a weedline/breakline and after drilling several holes the LX-5 would show a lack of weeds. I’ll tell ya, in the summer this area was so loaded with weeds I could hardly keep a lure clean. I marked some fish, but nothing would take the bait.
So, after much thought I decided to go against my gut and just head to a very weedy shallow bay and give it a shot. Heavy, wet snow is falling and I’m dying to jump in the Otter, crack a beverage, dry off and just relax.
I drill a couple holes and I find about 10′-15′ and lots of weeds. We could look down the holes and with the clear water we could see cabbage and other green weeds.
With my brother-in-law at my side we sit and wait. After a short while, a nice 9.5″ bluegill slammed his slender spoon and in the same school I pulled up a healthy 9″ gill on a Custom Jigs and Spins Shrimpo with a plastic grub. We are in business! Just when things are looking up, we get a call to come in for our Christmas meal.
After dinner, we return to the lake and catch some more fish, and the bite improved. We kept a few smaller fish for a meal and let the bulls go.
The following day after the storm had passed, for the most part, the bite really tapered off and water was flowing through the holes like geysers.
The area received about 12″ of snow and this will throw a wrench into lake travel a bit, and created some flooding issues.
Good luck!
Dandy gills
Nice gills Chuck!
Nice gills….I just returned from fishing in that area….I had a very tough go of getting fish even to show up on the flasher, much less getting them to bite. Put on a lot of miles on the sleds and gas thru the auger, with little to show for it….I guess thats fishing… Glad to see someone got into the nice gills that area is known for. Way to go.
I experienced the same thing Calvin, and finally after drilling so many holes and getting wet from all the snow I plopped down and waited for the fish to come to me. Those gills really liked the flash of the slender spoon to bring them in and they really needed some coaxing to open their mouths. We would attract a school of fish in, and sometimes they wouldn’t even touch it. Had to wait for a more aggressive batch of fish to move in.
These gills were very spooky from any noise above the ice, so that’s another reason we hid inside the Otter and waited for them to come to us.
I didn’t get any photos of the largest gills in the 9+”, and I’m kickin myself. Most were very dark in color, almost black.
I like using that small slender spoon as well for drawing fish into your area. Often times the finiky fish need that gill pill or diamond jig finese fishing to get them to bite, but the bigger fish love the slow flutter fall of that 1/16oz slender spoon..I think it drives those fish nuts, they have to hit.
Chuck you do have to have some patience sometimes when icefishing……that is the one thing I don’t have…I can’t sit and wait for fish to come to me….but it sounds like that was key for you. I will have to try that this winter…
Nice work Chuck. I knew the in-laws wouldn’t keep you from fishing!
Great to hear you had some luck by waiting them out. Esp. in shallow and/or clear water, drilling a pile of holes and either sneaking to/from, or hunkering down is a wise move from what I’ve found. I fish some farm ponds that will not tolerate too much movement, especially early ice!
Joel