Slip’s 2016 LOGS, STATUS AND STRATEGIES

[Slip Sinker]

The past few seasons it’s been season outdoing the last. Knowledge base on top of knowledge base. Building on some great info from this site and time on the water. I’m anticipating and looking forward to even better results with more citation fish. Anyway that’s the game plan.

Last year was the season of fishing TINY. Thin UL Lines loaded on tiny 50 series reels and light UL rods tossing tiny baits in front of fish targets…quantities of quality panfish and trophy SMB. Tossed the baits into thick cover with reckless abandon. Tiny presentations under slip bobbers thrown next to thick weed slop and weed pockets. Mid day fishing out of the kayak in less than two feet of water and tagging quality fish. Never really had another fishing boat come close to me fishing. it was like i had the lake to myself. looking forward to making some more good memories in the upcoming season.

Looking forward to any hints suggestions or comments from the BBG membership… sharing is the best way to learn and progress!

hope everyone a successful "2016 Open Water Season"

[Slip Sinker]

20160307- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

...today starts the big warm-up... only chance to get on the ice on some protected natural lakes would be the next couple days... then the window closes.

[Slip Sinker]

20160307-After a short discussion with Earl considering the upcoming warming trend we decided to hit a small natural lake with good ice conditions for some slot limit B’Gills. The lake has a continuous first break at the 10 ft level. Drilling a series of holes at that break line we immediately started tagging gills at the break. Basically all were within the slot of 6-7.5”. further drilling to find the trophies lead to our auger failure. So we continued using the existing holes till sun down. Just under 50 count for me Earl was a little better with his numbers Easily a 100+ B’Gill day of fishing! Personal best for numbers out on the Ice. Earl tagged the BFOTD at 8.5”. Keeping our limit for the day we ended up with a nice meal to share with family

[Slip Sinker]

…20160307- typical sonar dumps of the day showing B'gills in the bottom third of the water column in 10-12'FOW.

[Slip Sinker]

…my B'Gill breakdown numbers for the day

Size	number	percent
4-6" Range	8	17.0%
6-8" Range	35	74.5%
8-9" Range	4	8.5%
Total	47	1

[Slip Sinker]

20160308- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

…storing the ice gear with temps reaching near 70 today

[Slip Sinker]

20160309- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------

[Slip Sinker]

20160309-Record setting temps were expected for the day and we got em… along with record setting numbers of fish. The day started early in the afternoon out on the ice with record setting high temps and intermittent rain. 2 hrs into the program we were soaked with intermittent rain and drizzle. I had my ice gear on that provided some water repellant while earl got soaked in a light winter jacket. We started off with a hot bite before the rain but as the rain approached and continued the bite quit. Earl was on a hot B’Gill bite and I was slammed with the little perch bite.

I felt Earl was getting ready to “call it quits” as the slow bite continued after the rain. We didn’t give up… pursuing some more holes at different locations across the lake the weather slowly improved and so did the bite. Hot bite switched to on and it was one fish after another.

Many smaller fish in the 5-6 inch range but as the daylight waned the fish avg size crept up topping near 8.5” for me… all CPR’ed. Lost count after 60 fish… near upper 60’s for numbers caught plus a couple dozen “no count dink y.Perch below 6”….

Very active bite and glad we stuck it out.

… historically on avg ice out is the first week in april up north here... if warmer weather trends would continue it would be next week... it doesnt look like that is going to happen now considering the more colder forecast long run... lows in the 20's are going to delay.

the b'gill was only about 7.5" but i really liked the fog and ice in the back ground in this pic.

Earl and i at this point were working the fish at about 2-3 fish per minute.

[Slip Sinker]

20160309- Sonar screen dumps showing movement of B'Gills in 10.2 Fow 5-10 Ft deep actively feeding. screen dumps were taken seconds apart.

[Slip Sinker]

…B'Gill breakdown numbers for the day

Size	number	percent
4-6" Range	18	26.9%
6-8" Range	43	64.2%
8-9" Range	6	9.0%
Total	67	1

[Slip Sinker]

20160310- ...----~~<")))))><(----------------------------