Below Zero Ice Fishing Report

We surely are blessed with the equipment we have to allow us to ice fish comfortably in temps at -17 and wind-chill well well below that !!

I’m talking the very well constructed Otter Outdoors line of fish houses..Today i took out my Otter One Man Pro.Quick and easy to set up(with the frigid temps it’s a necessity)the new updates on this unit make this setup less then 60 seconds for me !! With the Mr. Heater on High (9000 btu’s) I had my Snow Suit jacket, neck warmer and gloves off for a comfortable fishing experience.

Today I was fishing for some crappies that often roam this weedbed that is just off the back water channel. It provides plenty of water in depth and well as wide open space to roam.And with the slow moving water just out side of this back bay there is enough oxygen to keep all the under water critters happy all winter long..

It was a tough bite all day today…with the second full moon of the month with lots of clear skies and a monster cold front the crappies were being very finiky. This 10 1/2″ crappie fell for my gold gill pill.

Have any of you had the nasty old dog fish come peeking up your ice hole this year ? Yesterday I had it happen several times…I actually had one by the head before he slipped back down the hole..We would have them come up and bump our transducers and then just sit there under it..They must be attracted to the clicking noise of the transducer…CRAZY stuff when your in your ice house all alone, doing a little day dreaming and then all of a sudden there is a ugly ol dog fish head staring at you from one of your ice holes !!!

I did notice they seem to chase the panfish away…whenever one of them came lurking around there entertainment on the LX-5 was non existent for a while…

Then after it was all settled down another crappie would fall victim to another offering…

I had a lot of fish this day that would come up off the bottom, follow my bait up a good two feet, look at it,,,smell it, sniff it a couple of times and then just slip away..I do use a Marcum 820 to see how the fish react to the baits I drop down but they just didn’t want to take anything in..On the other hand, the fish that I caught…just hammered the bait….Like this crappie that so badly wanted to be 14″ but just couldn’t…It came in at 13-15/16

I like to thank all the people that have put their heads together to develop some exceptional products that allow us ice fishermen to endure mother nature when she shows how brutal she can be…And to the developers that put together some fantastic tackle and equipment,so that the average guy can pull fish like these from beneath the frozen waters.