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20160121- Ice fishing Outing

20160121- well its been awhile since I was able to satisfy the tug on the line from my favorite panfish…B”Gills and P’Seeds.

Transition between open water and hard water seasons could be long and excruciating for us mid Michigan anglers. It shortens our ability to safely fish for them by months out of the year. So after a week of Polar Vortex activity of single digits at night we have very safe ice over 8” nearly everywhere in my county. Earl and I took that opportunity to one of our favorite panfish lakes.

We hit the bite early with dozens of perch up to 9 inches and a couple junior pike…. one N.Pike was caught on a tip up quick strike rig searching for that 42" Master Angler. Very fun on the micro UL ice rigs we were employing. We were still frustrated with the non-gill bite so we drilled dozens of holes to extend this search. Even though we caught a lot of Y.Perch to keep us busy not to mention loads of fun we were in search of the target B’Gill and P’Seed.

The deep basins were vacant of fish so we continued our exploration shallow or shallower. I drilled a series of holes in the 9” ice in the direction of the weedy bay. Working my way shallower from one hole to the other I found the bite at 8’ in a depression surrounded by a flat at 6.5’. Earl drilled a series of holes around me but found no activity. It was one fish after another including a athletic LMB that took me on several scorching runs on the 2# test braid. These preds often crash the party while im fishing the micro lites that we expect it normally. Big fish on micro lite jigs and presentations. Its been a rule of thumb for me this year.

The depression ended up being about 20’ in diameter. At my direction Earl drilled a hole five ft away to get in on the action. The bite discontinued. Spooked by the hole drilling the action quit

We were successfully rigged and employed with UL panfish ice rods with 50 series Micro lite reels loaded with 2# braid dropping tiny tungsten jigs tipped with Gulp Pink Waxies, mousies and waxies. Finding the “soft sticky bottom” was key… al the Y.Perch were caught hard sand and gravel bottom.

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Comment by Adam Rink on January 23, 2016 at 8:37pm: Nice variety for the day. Congrats on a nice outing.

Comment by Slip Sinker on January 22, 2016 at 4:35pm: I went and checked my lake map (I created the topographical map for this lake) and turned on the bottom composition layer for this waypoint. It showed a softer bottom composition than the remainder surrounding flat and may have been deeper a time ago but slowly filled in as natural lakes do. I keep hearing the term “sticky bottom” as a bluegill holding area. When the jig hit the bottom in this area it was slightly held down by short green grass. I actually think the bottom composition was more of a factor than just depth. Just a theory both factors were working in this area

the bottom composition layers I believe aided greatly in my P’Seed quest in the past. I’ve caught more and larger P’Seeds in areas where bottom composition hard and soft meet distinctly. The result for today was two lunker P’Seeds in the mix. I would have never discovered this without the aid of my sonar and its mapping qualities.

thanks Jeff ... if you hadn't made that comment i wouldn't have gone back and checked!

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on January 22, 2016 at 2:48pm: Thanks for sharing Slip....it's crazy that 1.5' made a difference........but I can certainly believe it!

Comment by Slip Sinker on January 22, 2016 at 10:41am: thanks Jeff...its funny every hole we drilled we saw zero fish suspended... start dropping the bait thru the hole and whatever fish that may be down there would pull off the bottom and wait for the drop.

the decent gills and seeds came from a muddy flat depression about the size of my living room... just 1.5' deeper than the surrounding area. they were packed in there all hugging the bottom... caught one after another. Earl tried the surrounding area with no luck than drilled a hole five feet from me... then they just disappeared.

Comment by Slip Sinker on January 22, 2016 at 10:00am: thanks Carl... yeah ice really thickened up the past week added about 4-5 all around.

Comment by Slip Sinker on January 22, 2016 at 9:59am: thanks John... i love being out on the ice especially after sitting weeks during the transition period. its nice to feel that P'Seed and B'Gill tug again.

hope your ice thickens up so you can head out

Comment by Slip Sinker on January 22, 2016 at 9:55am: thanks Steve... on a grey day those P'Seeds do brighten things up don't they!

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on January 22, 2016 at 9:39am: A nice multi-species outing through the hole......were all of these fish near bottom Slip?