Skipper Bud's, Lake Butte des Mortes, Oshkosh-WI

[Kyle Sorensen]

The ice depth is begining to thicken again (3to5 inches). The gills have shut down mainly due to the weather changes and hard fishing. The fish are still there as I have seen with Aqua-Vu. Drilling a large amount of holes and moving will produce. Will be going out again Sat. and Sun.

[John Cachel]

I can't wait to go ice fishing and next weekend would be better and safer for me near Chicago area! Good luck and let us know how you are doing this weekend!

[Kyle Sorensen]

The past week i have used everything from tiny moon jigs to Northland Buckshot Rattlers. I have found so far this year that the smaller tear drops were mostly catching the smaller ones, I did get a few bigger ones. Most of the larger gills were on the buckshot spoon- oddly enough. Sweedish pimples were working good too. Besides moving around a lot, the dredge line on the east side of the pier was holding the most fish overall. Im goin out tomarrow now, took a vac. day :-)

[Kyle Sorensen]

Well still biting out there. Probably not for long seeing all of the people. Ice is good. Lot of guys are keeping everything they catch including the small ones... I don't even want to know what its going to be like next year... I have been catching and releasing.

[John Cachel]

Last Saturday, I bought FishTV with red infrated for better vison in the dark from Bass Pro Shop. I can't wait to use it this weekend at one of my favorite lake. It will be cool to look down to see what's my favorite spots looks like.

Let big Bluegills Fans know that I always look at Bass Pro Shop's large fish tank every time I visited. I noticed that biggest bluegills like to be by the rockwalls most of the time so if you find rockwalls or steepdrop rocks by shore is good place to try for big bluegills. Log or small part of tree by the rockwall is better spot!

Bought new Gulp maggots and I will try to use it for bait on ice fishing and I will let you know how I like it!
I already like Powerbait gulp for openwater but new Gulp maggots seem to be good bait. Jar....juicy and smelly maggots.

[Kyle Sorensen]

Let me know how that Fish TV works. Heard that it uses batteries up quick but never used one. Also would like to hear about that gulp. Happy fishing.

[John Cachel]

Use Batteries up quickly in cold weather is yes! Maybe up to 2 hours! I bought
Lucky for me that I bought 8 batteries for 4.99 and second is free at Walgreen on Sale. Cost me about 10 dollars for 32 batteries. Maybe I can put wool blanket around TV to keep warm longer. Other way is that FishTV accept is 12 volts 7 amp that would much longer than 10 "C" batteries! I will plan to buy rechargeable 12 volts 7 amp for my FishTV.

You can see or information about FishTV in google.com

Gulp maggots .... I will let you know and I always get spikes and waxworms with me for just in case!

[Kyle Sorensen]

Cool didn't know you could use 12 volt power. I know I can get my aqua vu to run for just over 4 1/2 hours on its internal batt.

Had great luck on skippers today. Practiced catch and release again. The gills were holding tight and moving pretty slow; the bottom was pretty stirred up. Slow presentation worked. Was out from 2-4:30. Still lookin for the last slab from the stringer mount.....

Ice thickness varied from 7"-11" depending on the spot.

[John Cachel]

7 to 11 inch????.....already! Wow! Sounds good for this weekend for sure....little warmer mean fish all day long!

[Kyle Sorensen]

I saw a ton of large gills in there yesterday. No matter what I put on, I wasn't able to get as many as I wanted to catch. Oh well if it warms up; it will be great.

[David Merical]

Where: Public pond in Ankeny
When: 12-11-08
Time fished: 8pm-8:50pm
Water conditions: 6"+ ice thickness
Fish caught: 9 bluegills, all 7"-8".
Lure/bait used: BFGS Special vertical jig tipped with a pair of red maggots

Somebody mentioned you gotta take a picture of your first ice-fish of the season. Here it is:

Hooray!! Squeezed in my first ice-trip of the season last night while my daughter was at basketball practice. I'm glad the fish were cooperating!

[Bruce Condello]

Thank you for that picture. That got me psyched up for our own season to start. The ice is still a little shaky around here!

[Michael Brown]

Hey Bruce,I bet it will be firm next week.