Well its late november and its gun deer season and we have ice on some of the lakes thats safe in areas. Now the choice is to hunt or fish. After 2 seconds of thinking I told the wife I was going fishing at the grade and all ready have 2 deer in the freezer , so its time to do some early ice fishing for gills.
I took my hunting stuff with just in case the ice was not safe. Got to the grade and there was 3 shacks out and not much open water to be seen. You could look all the way down towards the tressel and with the sun out it all most looked like all ice down a ways .
The baits I was using were mamooskas and rocker jigs in green/yellow and orange and black dotts. They were tipped with wax worms for live bait, some of the bait shops did not even have bait yet, but stopped at the holiday store in Montello and they had some waxxies. The ice was cystal clear in most spots so watching for weeds and seeing fish was a key to getting bit. The fishing tip for the day was to drill your holes on what ever snow was left on the ice or to find the white ice to set up on. Another trick I have done for years is to drill your holes and splash water on the ice so it freezes to cover up the clear ice in your area.
It was a blast watching the gills come in and also 2 nice perch came in as well as seeing all the gills get chased off by the northerns and even saw a few suckers swim by. Some guys to the side had tip-ups out and saw some pike on the top side of the ice as well. It felt great to be back on the ice.
From Jeff Bennett at jnbguidedfishing.com