Marathon on ice

[Tim Moore]

My buddy John and I met up to fish Turtletown Pond yesterday. There was talk of fishing there for the first half of the day and then heading north to chase white perch. Well, that's exactly what happened. It was dawn when we walk on the ice and dusk when we came off. The morning was somewhat productive with lots of nice bluegill but no crappie of any size. The wind was blowing which made things a little less desirable. We left there, had lunch, and headed north to the lakes region. Things started off slow and got steadily better. We were fishing elbow to elbow with our holes 24" apart (actually the holes were already there), the same line and test, the same Jigs, and the same bait. The only thing that could have been different was our cadence. I was pounding with a typical quick cadence that I use for crappie or bluegill when fishing with spikes on a horizontal micro-Jig. John was using a slow and consistent cadence. He was catching fish one after another and in a short time had iced 19 keepers to my 2. I began varying my cadence and the result was the same, lookers but no biters. After about an hour I switched to the same slow consistent cadence John was using and within another hour I had a limit of 25. I iced them down and I will clean them this afternoon. I will probably cook some for supper.

I can't believe how much ice is out there. Turtle had 12" and the other spot had 20"!

John with a surprise catch on light tackle.

[monstermoose78]

very nice!