West Okoboji gill report,Jan 24,2004

I had a chance to fish with my very good friend Scott Reed of Berkley yesterday.Iowa Outdoors were having a ice outting in the area and Scott came by with some free spools of Vanish line and a great door prize of a 28" Genz ML rod and a Mitchell 300x reel.This will make someone a very fine ice fishing outfit.A big thanks goes out to Scott with these prizes.To show everyone what a great company Purefishing is I put this banner on my 8’X 8′ portable.

Scott has his permanent shack set up on Smiths Bay on West Okoboji.The fishing can be very tough in these shallow bays on West Lake.The fishing pressure along with clear water can make fishing tough at times.Small diameter line with small jigs are the key to putting a few fish on the ice.Berkely Vanish or Micro Ice were the lines of choice for this outting.

Scott had done a fine job of finding active fish for myself and my son Cole.Cole has a great time fishing these clear water gills and likes to watch the fish come by.This is a great learning tool for a young man like Cole.The gills on West Okoboji are with out a doudt some of the toughest fish you can try to fool.Many times they will almost touch your offering with their nose without taking it.Sometimes they will look at it for as long as 5 minutes before moving on.Here is Cole with a big gill that he fooled.

Scott was the hot stick for the day.He was using a small chunk of Powerbait honey worm.The key to getting these gills to bite are small horizontal jigs,Vanish line,and never let your lure spin.These gills will not bite if your presentation is spinning.We ended up with 17 nice gills and 1 crappie.Scott and I would like to have 15 of these gills in a few weeks as we will be fishing a Trap Attack on West Okoboji.Best of luck to all you hard water fishermen.Here is a picture of me with a late afternoon gill.

Ryan Hale