Last Ice Trip of 2020/21???

9" VMC Fly/Wax (Glow)

4" VMC Fly

5" VMC Fly 

8:10-9:00AM 26' 5 Tul Holes

30-33℉, PC, 6-14mph SSE

I didn't wake up from my nap like I wanted, so I got a late start. Didn't mark anything for the first half hour. Started marking stuff toward the bottom. Lowered the camera to 7' off the bottom and caught the perch, crappie, and sunfish; bing, bing, bang. Had some small perch and spot tails come through. Nature was calling so I packed up at 9AM. Pete tried the West access and it was trash. He was fishing to the South of me in old holes. He fished till dark getting a couple of crappie and gills. Talked to a guy that got some tullibee this year. I talked to some guys getting off the ice and they told me the CO was out last night.

This may be my last ice trip of 20/21. 

I went home. Cooked some spam and eggs and watched the Pickwick Elite. Took a nap, watched the weigh-in, and ate walleye dinner cooked by mom. I nearly burned the rice because I thought mom had turned the heat off when she hadn't. Oops. I took Kaylee for a drive around the lakes.

Rock Lake

 

Wasn't Happening On Rock Tonight

 3:00-6:30PM My Spot, North Hole

31-46℉, PC, 0-3mph SW

I headed north and drilled holes along the weed edge along the reeds to the cane patch and back along the basin. Didn't see a single sunny or pike. Caught some perch and saw some spot tail shiners in the basin area between the reeds and cane. At 4PM I decided to head to the spot North of the point where there are always houses. Should have drilled more holes. Had a couple sniffers and caught small crappie. On my way back I rechecked my first holes. Nothing. I should have headed back quicker than I did.  There were two guys that arrived just after I got there. They set up at the sunken island and didn't move.  That is going to be where I try next. Had C-130's buzz the lake a few times. 

Sullivan With Pete

10.75" VMC Fly w/Jamei (purple)

4:30-6:30PM Sullivan Lake
Conditions: 53℉, Partly Cloudy, East Wind, 25' of water

We finally got out on Sullivan.  The access wasn't in that bad of shape. I wasn't really sure where we were going to fish.  A lady was waiting outside her wheelhouse for her husband to show up with the truck to move it away.  We stopped and she told us they had gotten some sunfish and perch, so we stopped right there.  Basically in the area where I've caught sunfish and tullibee in the past.  I drilled some holes to the West and Pete went to holes that had already been drilled.  I caught a 6" gill first.  Then I got the crappie.  Which Pete wanted me to keep, so I threw it on the ice.  I caught another couple of gills and Pete caught a spottail shiner.  That gave him walleye on the brain.  I gave him my bobber rod, thinking that is what he would use.  His thinking was to get rid of the bobber and tie on a spoon.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that was what he was doing until it was to late.  I, of coarse, had my jigging rod sitting in the bag I took the bobber rod from.  I was pretty frustrated by that development.  I went back to fishing after locating my bobber rig in the truck.  I caught a couple of nicer sunfish.  Fortunately Pete was a ways away and didn't see me catch them, so I threw them back.

8" VMC Fly w/Jamei and spike

9" VMC Fly

Me looking to see if Pete's saw me with the bull

After that I had a few more bites that I missed and Pete had the shiner stolen.  We had a flock of swans fly over when it was getting fairly dark.  Our Vex's went blank so we packed up and left.  Good thing, because I was getting hungry and I had that fish to clean and Pete had my crappies from last week to cook.

They were delicious

1 Crappie
7 Sunnies
1 Spottail Shiner-Pete

It Wasn't AWWWN But I Had Fun Anyway

16" VMC Fly Jig w/Maki Jamei (purple) & spike

I had a close call on the way to the lake this morning with some deer.  I was really lucky to the first one crossed so far in front of the others so I slowed way down quickly.  I had to come to a complete stop to avoid hitting the second one.  There were several other deer in the ditch looking at me.  Whew!

7:15AM-1:30PM Rock Lake mostly at my spot.
Conditions: 31-28℉, Mostly Sunny, Windy to Very Windy NW, waypoint holes to 11'

When I first got out of the truck

I fished in the morning because of the forecast for high winds in the afternoon and evening.  The plan was to fish with my old Aqua-Vu so I drilled out the waypoint holes first thing.  I sent the transducer down the hole and immediately was marking fish.  I sent down a minnow on the Glow Demon and was bit immediately.  I maybe got a little anxious with the hook set and lost the fish and minnow half way up.  I quickly put on another minnow and immediately got bit again.  I landed a 9.5" crappie and thought to myself.  It's AWWWWWWWWWWN.  By the time I got the next minnow down the crappies had moved on.  That was my only crappie for the morning.  I saw one other come through on the camera.

7" Tubby Jig w/Jamei and wax

 I started getting some sunfish and also had spottail shiners nibbling at me.  The sunfish started only pecking and staring at my bait and a few perch showed up as well.  I had a pike come in a couple of different times, but it didn't show any interest in hitting my baits.

I went and drilled holes on the four hole house spot and in 11' of water.  There was nothing but perch in the four hole spot, so I moved on to the shallow spot.  I was seeing perch and had a small pike come through once again showing no interest in hitting my baits.  The wind started cranking up and I was just about to give up when a bass appeared out of nowhere (it came in from behind the camera) and came in and hit the Fly.  I set the hook and she immediately started peeling line (2lb test Gamma).  I went to pull the transducer out of the hole and the Fish Trap started moving so I had to sit down immediately.  It was a real challenge getting the transducer out of the water.  I thought the bass was possibly hung on the Aqua-Vu cable because something didn't feel right, so I pulled that up as well.  The bass finally came up the hole.

16"

I stayed and fished for another hour hoping another bass might come through, but all I saw was perch.

I then decided to tow the Fish Trap just to the South of the access.  I fished there in 11' to 6' of water and didn't see any activity on the Vex.

I brought the Fish Trap back to the truck to pack up.  It was pretty warm out so I wrote in my notebook when I quit fishing  and went to put my jacket in the truck and pulled the Ipod out of my pocket so I could continue to listen to it while I broke things down.  I decided to reposition one of my pole clips, then got everything in the car.  I went to put the Ipod back in my jackets inner pocked and my cell phone wasn't there.  What?  Crap!

I went and looked at the holes I had been fishing, nothing.  I went back to the truck and my notebook wasn't in the pocket either.  I could have sworn I put it back in the pocket.  I looked around outside and didn't see anything.  I was really puzzled.  I was in a semi-protected area and it wasn't really windy enough there for my notebook to get blown away.  I got in the truck to go and drive back to where I started to look for the phone.  I grabbed to inspect my jacket one more time.  That is when I realized there are interior pockets on both sides of the Ice Armor Jacket, not just one like the Arctic Armor jacket.  The phone and notebook were right where I left them. Doh!

1 Bass
2 Crappie
2 Pike
5 Spottail Shiners
12 Sunfish
14 Perch

Dev's Bullhead and A Bunch Of Toothy's

15" Grass Pig

5:00-8:45AM
Conditions: 50-60, Partly cloudy, calm then a light SE wind.

Today is my niece Devin's Birthday and I started dedicating my first fish of the morning to her two years ago.  I don't intend to break the tradition as long as I'm able to carry it on.  So today I was after Devin's fish.
 
I was admiring the moon on my way West to the Grumpy Old Man Hole.  I was a little shocked to see a truck there parked on the NE side.  It had a 13 Fishing sticker on the window.  I assumed the person was fishing on the NE side, but was pleasantly surprised he was on the SE side.  It was the manager from Reeds Sporting Goods who I met out here a couple of years ago. He had gotten one golden bullhead and was fishing with a lighted bobber.

I got my stuff and headed down to the NE side.  I was hoping the first fish would be a golden bullhead, but once again this year Devin's Fish was a jumpin bullhead.  As you can see it was a scraggly looking fish and only had one good eye.  Second time I've caught that fish this year.

After a few more casts with the Grass Pig I grabbed the rod with the Crackle Jerk Shad. I put a cast right next to the wall and snagged a spottail shiner.

 I actual hooked it on the middle treble, but didn't think to take the picture until I had taken it off.  Just a few casts later I was going to the truck to get the bucket out of the Kia.

18" Jerk Shad

That's right a golden bullhead. And a few casts later I had another one.

13" Jerk Shad

This bullhead went back in the lake to grow bigger.  Pretty soon after that the Reeds guy left and I got some toothy's.  A fish smashed something over by the pad roots.  The second time it happened I went to try and get it with the Horny Toad.  I couldn't get whatever it was to go.  But a fish hit something farther down so I tried for that fish.  Didn't get it either.  Then one farther down hit and I tried for that one.  I got this one to hit but missed it. It didn't seem like a very big fish.  I worked my way back to the pad roots.  A fish waked at the Horny Toad very dogfish like.  I let the Toad drop and it took it but I botched the hook set.  Wasn't to happy with myself.  The sun was now well up.  I caught a toothy with a broken off treble in it's mouth.

20" Jerk Shad

 I then went to the SW side and started by throwing the Piranha.  I made a throw into the tube and a good fish was on it immediately.

17" D & M Piranha

I got a couple of small toothy's on the Piranha and a couple on the Jerk Shad.  I got a 12.5" jumper on the Jerk Shad as well.  My last fish on the SW side was a small toothy on the H2O LCR.

I went back to the North side and there were no jumpers to be found.  I spent about an hour throwing the Horny Toad and got one small 13" jumper and missed a couple of toothy's.  I thought it was 7:45AM but it really was 8:45AM when I left.

10 toothy's
4 jumpers
2 gold
1 spottail

3 Hours, 3 Bullheads

Moon In The Shot
20" Glow Demon w/minnow

8:40-8:55PM Bulldog
9-Midnight GOMH SE SW NE
Conditions: Low 50's, Light S wind, Mostly cloudy turning cloudy, some fog

Missed a couple of bites at Bulldog

Nobody was at the GOMH.  I set up on the SE side and got the toothy right away.  I missed a hit in the middle of the channel twice, losing my minnow the second time.  It didn't bite again.  Peter and Matt W showed up with their light bar.  They spotted a dogfish on the North side.  It got foggy.  They came over and shined on the South side.  I went up to watch with them.  I saw a toothy, some jumpers, spottail shiners, and maybe some gold and silver.  Those guys left.  I went over to the SW side and got a small silver.

In the fog

8.5" Glow Demon w/minnow

  I eventually went to the NE side.  After fishing there for about 45 minutes I got a bite from this golden.

18.5" Glow Demon w/minnow

That was the last bite I got.  I left a little after midnight.

Spottail's in the Morning, Got #300 in the Evening

Crappie 300

5:00-8:30AM GOMH NE SE
Conditions: 50 degrees, Light rain, calm

There were spottail shiners all over the place this morning.  My first fish was this golden bullhead off of the NE side.

24" Glow Demon w/minnow

The spottails were about were about the same length as a size 6 X-Rap so I threw that and caught some toothys and jumpers.

17" X-Rap (6) Ghost

 I switched to the SE side and got more jumpers and toothy's.  I was really hoping to get a few slabber bullheads on the X-Rap but it wasn't to be.

Evening Trip:
8:30-8:50PM Bulldog
9:00PM-12:00AM GOMH SW NE
Conditions: 50 degrees, mostly cloudy, light E wind

Not even a bite at either place at Bulldog.  There were two guys fishing the SE side when I arrived at the GOMH.  The spottails were nowhere to be found.  They got a couple silvers, then I got number 300, a 11 incher.  They left and I got a 10" silver by the tree.  I switched to the NE side and got a golden on the only bite I got on that side.

24" Glow Demon w/minnow

I know it's the same fish I got in the morning, same pectoral and tail.  I went back to the SE side and Peter and Matt W. showed up. I didn't get anymore bites and left at midnight.

Sullivan Sucked Again

Not a tullibee

7:00-11:30AM
23 degrees, mostly sunny, wind out of the North

When I got out the ice was cracking pretty good.  I pretty much staid in my "Tullibee Hole" holes do to the cold.  Had a couple of takes on  the bobber with the wax worm that I missed.  Also think I had a hit on on the Go-Devil Spoon when I put the rod down.  Had a few fish come in suspended but it was mostly dead.  Managed to get 3 small perch and the spot tailed shiner all of which were off the bottom.