Pool 8 Ice Fishing Report Jan. 2nd and 3rd

Saturday morning Jan. 2nd 2010, I stepped out of the house to only have my eyes fill with tears. These were not sad tears, these were the kind of tears that flood your eyes when a North wind hits you in the face before daylight with an air temp of -16 degrees. I guess for an ice head you can call them “tears of joy”
The plan was to meet up with Jeff Jensen and his son Cam in hopes of wrestling with some crappies. It is always a good time when the Jensen’s come to town. The paper mouths did elude us but after jumping around trying depths from 14-35fow, and being open minded in case a change of plans would be needed, we were able to find some decent sized gills willing to play on this brisk sunny day.

After 3 pulls at full choke the Lazer Mag popped off but needed a little tender loving care between the throttle and choke to keep the fire lit. These bitter cold days are tough on equipment and patience will keep your equipment performing at its best. After a 3-4 minute warm up the StrikeMaster finally idled with the choke off and it was time to feed some gas through the carburetor. A series of holes was drilled so different depths could be fished searching for active eaters, this was a morning to make short work of running around looking for hungry fish and it wasn’t long that we realized 18-22fow held some nice gills. With fish found it was time to sit down and pull the material over head and turn on the heat.
My best baits on this day were a Purple Glitter Moon glow and an orange Moxy jig both tipped with a waxie. The gills were hanging anywhere from the bottom to 3 feet off and needed a little coaxing before taking the bait. In the deeper water the gills were suspended a little higher.
The majority of the pannies found this day were running 7.5 – 8 inches with a few (as Jeff says) “Huckleberry’s” on the feed too. The day ended after a great time together and a fish fry headed back with the Jensen’s. It was also good to see TJ91 making the trip to pool 8 for the new ice season. TJ also found himself some dandy crappies This was making me think hard on what to do for Sunday’s outing.

Sunday morning arrived even on the colder side with a cloud cover but there was no staying home with the ice calling my name and JP Mason wanting in on some of the action. Just driving into La Crosse made a guy feel cold as the steam rolled out from the storm sewer systems in town.
The cheek numbing walk out on the ice landed us a few hundred yards from Saturday’s spot and 30 or so yards off from where TJ91 found crappies as to give him his space, another line of holes was drilled through the hard stuff once again with 14-35fow below.
This time the Zoom on the MarCum LX-5 was turned on to look at 10 feet of the water column (2 pushes of the zoom button) and easily adjusted with a push of the down button to view 8-18 feet below the ice while fishing in 35fow, this is where the majority of the suspended fish cruised through. Adjusting the zoom to this portion of the water column kept me focused on the suspended crappies with hopes of bringing a few up top side for a picture. When adjusting the zoom to a certain portion of the water column you can take all the guess work out of what depth you are looking at in the zoom mode by putting your jig where you want to fish before activating the zoom. After activating the 5 or 10 foot zoom, hold the down button until your jig shows on the left side of your screen, it takes all the guess work out of where you are at in the water column in the zoom mode.
The crappies were there but running on the small side. It was kind of a relief when TJ walked over and said he was even having a tough time with the paper mouths. Another day late story for me
With JP Mason sitting in 22fow and nailing 8 inch plus gills near bottom it was time to move the shack out of the deep and up onto the shelf to get some of the bull action myself.

The gills found on this day were a year class better than the gills found the day before. After a few drops towards bottom it became evident these fish did not want the same jigs that produced Saturday. Making some changes in jig styles soon had me in the game while using a #14 White/Black Gill Pill and a #12 Black Rat Finkee, these finned critters could not resist the slow fall of these small horizontal jigs from CJ&S. When zoomed in on the bottom 5 feet as soon as the jig was within 3 feet of bottom marks cruised up lippin’ the waxie just barley moving the spring, and other times the spring never tattled at all on the intruder making line watching a must. At the first detection of a bite it was a must to wait for a 3 count or until seeing the line move to the side of the hole to connect the hook with lips. A hook set at the first sign of a bite only left you with a missing in action waxie. It was also necessary to keep changing between the 2 jigs every few fish otherwise the bigger gills became conditioned to one jig and turned off.
8-9 inch gills were common while a lot of 7-7.5 inch gills kept time flying by. Shortly past noon JP had himself a mess of big orange bellied blue ears and I had tons of fun playing catch, picture, and release.
Even with two bitter cold days and a finicky bite there was enough action to clean myself out of 4 tins of waxies Slow and small during cold snaps have always been key for turning a no bit into a go bite. Good friends and great time in what felt like the ice age period, or so I would guess. I always miss out on the good stuff

Good luck fishing people