Peavy Again

3:30PM-5PM
28 degrees, wind out of the north about 10mph, cloudy, 2" of snow on the ice


The snow made pulling the trap difficult.  I went out to the first spot I fished this year.  I drilled four pairs of holes.  I had fish down the first set but they were extremely finicky and didn't touch a crappie minnow.  I got 4, 9-10" in the first set of holes and a 7" in the 2nd set.  I slipped and fell on the ice twice.

5 crappies

Peavy Lake Again.

9"

3:30-6:00PM
34 degrees, light wind, cloudy.  Less water on the ice than yesterday
50 feet of water or so.  On the bottom or suspended around 30'

There was no one on the lake when I arrived, so I headed to where the other guys were yesterday.  There were two individual holes then a spot with 3 holes.  I didn't mark anything in the individual holes, so I stopped at the spot they fished yesterday.  Since I didn't mark anything there, I went and drilled about 6 individual holes.  I got back to the Trap, put a line down and had fish show up immediately.  I think I got 3 on a minnow and Demon and that was it, so I went hole hopping with T.H.E. Jig and a waxie.  I got 3 on that and one off the bottom before I got back to the Trap.  I lost what I think was a bigger crappie at one point as well while I was out hole hopping.  I started getting them at the Trap, so I stayed there until it was getting dark.  I went and drilled some holes to the south of where I was sitting.  I got a couple out of those holes.  The fish got real finicky around 4:45 or so.  Most were 9" but I got 3 ten inchers and couple that were smaller.  I never set the Trap up to whole time it was so nice out.  I ended up getting 14 crappies with 3 of them coming off the bottom.  

14 Crappies

Peavy Lake: No Sunfish, Yes Crappies

10.75" T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

2:00-7:00PM
34 degrees some sleet and snow mild North wind
30' or so feet down over 50' or so feet of water

When I arrived there was a guy leaving who was fishing with his kids right by the access.  He was only there for maybe 20 minutes and the kids wanted to go.  He didn't really have any info for me.  He usually fishes on Platte for pike.  He was the only person on the lake and I don't think there was a permanent house on the whole lake.  I went and fished in his holes and a couple of H.S. kids showed up.  They had been getting crappie and they headed north.  I worked the area around the point to the north of the access.  I didn't find any life.  After an hour of that I took the Vexilar and went trolling over the deep water.  I marked a fish, so I went and got my stuff.  When I got there the fish was gone.  I trolled around and marked another fish, so I started drilling holes.  It was about 3:30PM or so before I was fishing.  I put T.H.E. Jig down and had two fish move in immediately.  I caught a 9" which I released.  Then I got the 10.75" which I decided to keep.  That was the biggest fish I got.  I caught 10 fish total, 3 went back.  I think 3 of them went 10" at least.

My last fish of the night:

10" on Glow Demon and a minnow

10 Crappies

Good Night on Long

9" on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

2:30-5:30PM
30 degrees breezy out of the SW and cloudy

The fish were finicky at first but turned on for about half an hour from 4:15 to 4:45.  I caught about equal numbers on T.H.E. Jig and waxie and a Glow Demon with a minnow.  I think I drilled 6 sets of holes in a line from east to west.  I didn't mark anything in the two most east holes.  I caught the most fish in the 4th hole.  I did try hole hopping outside of the Fish Trap, but the wind made that uncomfortable.  The fish were either under 8 inches or between 9 and 10 with one exception.  There were 6 or 7 other groups out fishing.  I was to the South of the permanent fish shack.  I did have to turn the heater on around 4:00.  The fish were caught between 22' to 26' in about 31' of water.

17 Crappies.

Long Again

8.5" on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

2:30-6:30PM
Colder today 21 degrees, Windy out of the North, cloudy, it snowed for a bit

I drilled 4 sets of holes on a line from East to West and started approximately where I ended last night at the eastern most holes.  I couldn't see where any of yesterday's holes were.  I got 4 quick fish on the Demon and a minnow.  The fish were smaller than what I got yesterday.  After the first 4 the crappies got fussy.  I finally got T.H.E. Jig and a Waxie down and got 3 on that.  I wish I had drilled more holes when I first started because when I went to drill again I couldn't get the throttle to work, so I couldn't drill any more holes.  I ended up getting two more after dark on the Demon and a minnow.  The fish just weren't as aggressive as yesterday and I marked far less of them.

9 Crappies 7-9.25"

Long Lake

11.25" on T.H.E. Jig and Waxies

2:45-5:45PM
33 degrees Light rain and sleet Windy out of the N NW
20-25' over 31' of water

A little better size than Bulldog.  Got several in the 9.5" range and the 11.25" which was the biggest.  The rain and wind made hole hopping difficult.  I caught my first 14 on T.H.E. Jig's with waxies and the last 7 on a Glow Demon with a minnow.

21 Crappies

Wet Sloppy Mess

8.5" Bulldog Lake

2:00-8:45PM
40 degrees foggy light wind

All the snow on the ice melted leaving lots of water on the ice.  I'm glad I had an ice cleat for one boot.  I started off on Platte out of Jenny's.  I couldn't find the point and headed off the lake at 3:30.  I was set up on Bulldog by 4:15pm.  I started getting crappies right away on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie.  I managed to get 7 of them and then the bite shut down.  The foggy and  wet conditions made hole hopping difficult because I couldn't see the holes until I was almost on top of them.  I think the fish went down to the bottom as I didn't mark anything up high once it got dark.  At least it was warm out.

4 Species At Rock

1:30-6:30PM
32 degrees Cloudy wind 5-10mph out of the SW

Got the auger working today.  The issue was that I didn't have enough gas in the tank yesterday.  I planned to drill holes and then look with the Aqua View.  After about the 5th hole it ran out of power.  I didn't see any fish.  The first fish I got into were perch.  They were in almost every hole, so they wasted my time.  At about 4:15 I got to what was going to be my last hole, before I headed to Bulldog.  Low and behold I found some sunfish, so I drilled more holes.

It was getting dark and I forgot I had my sunglasses on.  I wondered why the LED's didn't seem to be putting out the amount of light they did last night .  My bobber with the Glow Demon and Minnow went down and I got a 22" pike on that.

Finally I realized I had my sunglasses on.  I caught one dink crappie.

That was my last fish of the night.

6 Perch
5 Sunfish
1 Pike
1 Crappie

Sullivan Sucked

9.5" on a Glow Demon with Minnow

3:45-7:30pm
30 degrees cloudy 5mph wind out of the SW

I made several wrong calls today.  I went straight out from the West Public Access to where there was only 1 house.  There were 4 or 5 houses about 250 yards to the South.  I started out going to the houses, but decided to go back to the one house area.  I left the hand augers in the car and didn't put more gas in the auger.  It's a pretty good hike out to the spots so I wasn't going to go back and get that stuff.  I had trouble keeping the auger running and it took probably 10 minutes to get a hole drilled.  I was in 40' of water.  I fished with a Grass Pig first.  I didn't see anything so I switched up to a Glow Demon.  I got my only fish on that.  I went to drill another hole to the NE of where I was.  I got it about a 1/3 of the way drilled.  When the guy in the fish house came out and offered to drill holes for me.  I only had him drill 3 holes and only knew the depth at the one where my Trap was sitting in 40'.  Turns out the other holes were in 37' feet.  I got 1 more bite out of the original spot but lost it while taking the transducer out of the hole.  I ended up drilling 2 more holes at around 6:30pm, but they were dead.  I finally left at 7:30pm

Bulldog Again

Dreary Day On Bulldog

4:00-7:30PM
28 degrees Cloudy 5MPH wind out of the SW

8.5" 1st Drop

Dad didn't do Ruby's Pantry, so I was able to go fishing.  I decided to hit bulldog again.  I stopped at Bear Trax to get my propane tank filled.  Turned out it was already full.  I don't know what was up with it quitting on me the last time I was out;  It worked perfectly for me tonight.  There was nobody fishing Bulldog.  I went back to my spot.  I drilled a transducer hole in the middle with my 4" auger.  I got 5 quick 8" crappies on the orange/chart T.H.E. Jig with a waxie.  I switched rods to use a black/white T.H.E. Jig and I got some smaller crappies on that.  The bite died so I went and drilled a hole to the North East hoping to find deeper water.  It turned out to be a foot shallower.  I caught several smaller 6-7" fish there on the b/w.

I went back to my holes and got one more on the o/c and then my line got caught in the reel and I broke it trying to unwind it.  I realized I didn't have any scissors to retie, so the rest of the night I used the b/w.  The action slowed down as it got dark, but I still got an occasional fish.  I went to the N hole and got a couple there.  I went back to my holes and got a couple more.  I went and drilled a hole to the South.  I got my biggest fish of the night there.

9.25"

I got maybe 7 fish out of that hole.  I decided to leave at 7:30.  All my fish were caught from 13-18' deep over 27-29' of water.

I still wasn't as efficient as I would like, but I'm getting better.  The LED lights I got at Mills for a $1.99 a piece lit up the house well enough for me to see and the hook on them fit on my cross beams just perfectly.  Not having a scissors or pliers with me was a stupid oversight.  Won't happen again.

23 Crappies Total

Ice Fishing: Me on Bulldog

Bulldog Special On the 1st Drop

3:35-5:15PM
Cloudy 10mph Breeze out of the SW 25 or so degrees.

How deep they were 25'-15' over 29'

Well I got out to Bulldog Lake today.  I am definitely not in the kind of shape I was in the last time I ice fished.  I left the power auger at home and it was all I could do to drill 2 holes in 11" of ice.  Fortunately fish were under the first hole I drilled.  It took me a few seconds to get the Vexilar reading the bottom;  I had to wipe off the bottom and then it worked.  I put T.H.E. Jig down the hole and quickly caught my first crappie,  a 7" Bulldog Lake Special. I caught a total of 10, the biggest of which was 8.75" between orange/chart T.H.E. Jig and a small orange/glow Fat Boy.  I used a wax worm on both, but caught a couple with no meat.  They were pretty aggressive when I first got there, but then got finicky after I lost several of them on the way up.  I ran out of propane in my heater after about 20 minutes.  All I had for light was my head lamp.  I definitely was not the most efficient fisherman in my first trip out on the ice in 8 years.  Those mistakes will be corrected the next time I go out which will probably not be until Thurs.  I may or may not go to Bulldog again.