First slab of the ice season!!!

[MikeRaetz]

Got out today on a small pond at the golf course I work at during the summer and had a great day of slabbin!! There was a solid 4 to 4 1/2 inches of ice and fished in 4 FOW. Cut a bunch of holes with the chisel and hopped hole to hole dropping my white and red ratso down for 30 seconds and if nothing showed up on my vex I moved on to the next. Hopefully be able to hit the lakes soon but I think this will keep me busy for a little bit till they are safe. Felt good to be back out!!!

[bturck]

Nice fish. Also nice to see you are a wise young man with the ice picks around your neck. good fishin, stay safe.

[Sota2Florida]

Nice work! That clean ice looks sweet. We keep getting more and more snow up here...Should be out soon enough though.

[Slab_Supper]

See ya out there! I love stackin' up slabs in my pail.

[pushbutton]

Looks like a good day! Nice weather, nice fish......did that vex mark any balls?

[BronzeBrother]

I'm jealous as I'm staring at open water around here... Good job

[muc33]

I hope it didn't hurt when I punched you on my computer screen! Ha!

Congrats on the first ice catch! Extremely jealous!!!

[hunt3r]

Mike how deep is the pond? i fished a pond today that is deeper i had some small marks but no bites or fish iv never fished this lake before and just trying to get a good idea how to fish it i cant find a map of it but the deepest i found today was 22 and i wasnt in the middle yet i did not try shallower than 7, i know it is stocked with panfish. thanks for any info

[HardwaterHero]

I can't wait to get out on the ice! Open water for most of southern MN lakes but with this cold spell the ice is starting to creep outwards from the shorelines. I better get my gear all lined up!

[MikeRaetz]

thanks everyone!! I had alot of fun today and finally was able to scratch that it that has been bugging me since ice out last year haha As for depth it was a max of 5 feet. I was very surprised to catch crappie out there. As for early ice the best bite is always going to be shallow. I like to stay with in the 5 to 13 foot range and find the best area of green weeds but this little tiny pond is just a muck bottom. They were roaming today. I think the most I marked at once was 2 otherwise just 1. We had plenty of marks show up and caught some more very nice crappie.

[hunt3r]

cool thank you