I will be the first to admit that old man winter really snuck up on me this year. Between school, a recent undertaking of personal fitness, and not wanting to give up on bass fishing, ice fishing was far from my mind just a few short days ago. Seeing some cool overnight lows and hearing reports of fishable ice to the north were starting to put thoughts of ice in my head this weekend, however as I finally put the boat away. Last night in a rush to head back to Winona for 2 more days of classes, I quickly scrounged up my bucket, a few poles, and the flasher. I decided on the fly this morning that I would make my first trek out onto some local ice and see what was going on. I was pleasantly surprised with my findings!
When I arrived at a local early ice community hole, I was actually a little disgruntled to see that other fisherman had the same idea. It has been a tradition of mine while attending school here to be the first person on that hole, and this year I missed by a day or two! I was expecting to find sketchy 2″ or less ice, but instead found a very solid clear layer of rather uniform 3″ ice. Game on! Despite reports from the others of very tough fishing, I was determined to get some fish on the ice. After some adjustments and moving around, I settled on top of a couple of schools and was able to fill my bucket pretty quickly.
The biggest key for me today was the presentation. Not wanting to buy wax worms or any other form of live bait, I took to the ice with a handful of horizontal jigs with various plastics to try. The best bait I found was a purple split tail made by little atom. The subtlety of the action given by this bait seemed to match the aggressiveness of the fish on this day. While the bite was very finicky, I was able to trick the fish pretty easily once i figured out how to show ’em the bait. While fishing in 11 ft of water, the key was to start the bait at 5-6 feet over fish that were hanging in 9-10. A slow quiver-‘n-lower of the rod tip at anxious marks usually prompted their premature rise to meet my bait. At that point all that was left to do was watch the spring bobber! Most of the time they just stopped it. If this method failed, I aggressively jigged the bait back up to 5 feet and began the process all over again. Hole hopping also helped to get back on top of fresh fish.
All in all, it was a great way to start off the early ice season! I have been coming to this little hole for a few years now, and it never seems to disappoint. I was able to throw back several keeper sized fish while working toward my 10 fish limit of nice 8-9″ gills. The biggest one of the day came in at 9-1/2″. It won’t be long now before I start pointing the compass at those jumbo perch i found last year. I can’t wait to expand upon the patterns I’ve learned. It is sure to be an exciting ice season, and it is good to be back on IDO! Stay tuned. For now, the big gills will have to do!
-Cade