I had the pleasure of heading out on the ice with my dad today, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather or fishing conditions to do it. I haven’t been on the ice much this year at all yet, but today was finally the day that I needed to rejuvenate the desire department in my brain for ice fishing. With a quick look at the weather forecast last night, I knew that today was going to be the day. Not only because it was projected to be beautiful, but because the weather on Sunday is supposed to be horrid. The front end of a major cold front usually spells a good bite. A snow event would have made it a little better I think, but I’m certainly happy with the results.
We started out fishing a deeper section of Lake Onalaska that I’ve fished for bass a lot in the open water months. My proficient knowledge of the area allowed us to quickly get set up on a major drop off from a weed flat. In 10 ft of water we found very hungry perch but they were very small. A slide a little bit further out from the weed edge revealed a ridge that swooped back up into 10 ft of water and dropped into the low 20’s on the backside. I drilled several holes before dropping into what I called “the motherload.” It didn’t take long before what I suspected became reality- a nice healthy 12″ black crappie was flopping on the ice after falling victim to a gold demon spoon tipped with 2 spikes left over from the previous outing. It didn’t take long to realize that these fish weren’t picky. The problem was, they also weren’t stationary.
After catching a fish or two, the screen- which typically would be loaded with 5-10 crappies at a time- would go vacant. I tried a wide variety of techniques, including switching to a large, gold sticker slender spoon to try and call them back under me, but for the most part these methods were to no avail. I’d been in this situation plenty of times before, however, so there was no reason to panic. I quickly drilled a large spread of about 12 holes that covered the area in the desired depth range of 20-24 feet. From there it was a hole hopping game. If they left me in one hole, usually I could find them again in one of the other holes I drilled. Each time i stumbled into the school I was usually able to pull another fish or two before they continued on with their travels. The best run I had was a spree of 14 fish as fast as I could get my slender spoon back down to the 10-14 foot zone they were suspending within. That spree also included a nice white bass, and the biggest crappie of the day- a beautiful 13″ white crappie. All in all, the time at the crappie hole was great, and my dad even caught some good ones as well, despite being without electronics. I only wish i would have taken some pictures of him as well!
After we had a hefty bag full of good eater crappies, we hopped in the truck and ventured to a different part of the lake to meet up with my aunt and uncle, who were fishing for bluegills and perch in an area with slight current and a 4 foot ditch. This area was hot early on for nice perch, but it was clear today that it had cooled off significantly since then. Still, we were able to put a few on the ice. After some fooling around, I formulated a game plan in this new area that was working extremely well, and as a result, I managed to ice about 15 keepers in the final 45 minutes of daylight. I extracted the perch from that pile, and gave the gills to my uncle, who needed a few more to complete his fishfry. The technique was simple- rather than presenting the bait to the fish at their level, which was the bottom, I started the bait just below the ice. Despite knowing that most of the fish here were small and picked over by the moderate ice traffic, I chose to go with the bigger baits, using the slender spoon again and ultimately settling on the demon spoon as my first choice weapon. I would wiggle the bait aggressively just below the ice followed by a slow quiver-and-lower technique, lowering the bait about 1 foot every 8-10 seconds. Often times this turned passive perch and gills into hot headed freaks that would scream 4 feet up to slam the bait. Timing was a big deal because they were not taking the bait very well, and you had to get them to eat on the chase. What I mean by this, is if you stopped the motion of your rod too soon, the fish would stop and ultimately retreat back to the bottom. If you failed to stop the motion of the bait at the exact point of attack- or the moment when you realize that fish is committed, they’d often spook. It was this balance between moving the bait too much or too little that was essential to find while trying to put more fish on the ice. In the end, it was a great day on the ice. My desire to go back out is finally back. After a rough start to the season, I’m ready to make January a month to remember. I’ve done some checking in on some of my favorite areas and they’re just not ready to go yet. Some of you may remember some of the perch fishing success that I had last year- and I sense that those days may not be far off. Unfortunately they require treks across sloughs with heavy flows. The most recent check on Christmas day revealed ice as thin as 2″ in the heavy current. I did not have the nads to continue on, even with the knowledge that bruiser orange fins might be waiting for me. We’ll let these negative temps this week do their job, and hopefully I’ll be able to get after those big bad ringers asap! For now, its just nice to have some meat to add to the ol’ college freezer. After today, I’ll be playing catch and release for a while 
Cade Laufenberg
President- Winona State Fishing Team