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.