Fishing in the Warm Wild Wind

[Jim Kusuda]

I located some nice bluegills on late Tuesday afternoon but only got one smallish one and two decent.  Checking areas with a GPS and the Vexilar Fish Scout underwater camera paid off while a lone other fisher landed a few.  During the bright sun after the snowfall, I made a mental note to come back after seeing fish hiding motionless in the weeds.

 

Wednesday I spent on Monona Bay deciding on where to take a middle school, after school fishing club for their ice outing.  Logistics like where the bus could park, where the dozen hand picked instructors could park, where we could fish without disturbing and interacting with other fishers and most importantly, where kids would have a good chance to catch fish through the ice!

 

Thursday I got there around 1pm, and was happy to see some of the volunteers ready to help with drilling and checking the playing field.  The bluegills were there, but it was apparent the noise of drilling over three dozen holes, even using the Clam cordless drill plate, suppressed the bite.  The bus showed up at 3, the kids were coached and got enough keepers for the upcoming fish cleaning and cooking units.

[Jarrid Houston]

nice report Jim

 

[Jim Kusuda]

Now it was a relief that the weather was above freezing for the outing, after postponing the week before due to a harsh cold snap, but it was a bit breezy.  Now the forecast for Thursday was for a wind advisory, with the stronger gusts developing in the afternoon.  It was decided, I would get up very early and get back to the GPS spot to fish for the big bluegills because I couldn’t wait for the weekend.  I got to the launch and was the only rig there.  I looked at the ice, and there was about a foot of standing water with whitecaps lapping the surface to make me wonder if this was a good idea.  I got out and picked a path over to my destination while excitedly anticipating some nice ones.

 

I drilled four holes and set up in my Legend XL Thermal Fish Trap.  It was windy enough that the shelter was vibrating and flapping meaning the noise would carry down to the six feet of water that I was fishing.  I folded it back down, and it worked great as a comfortable padded seat and a wind block for the hole.  A 1/64 Chart/Blue Glow Bar Drop jig with a modified red Maki Plastics Spiki with one white maggot for confidence was my lure.  I was set up with a 24” UL Legacy combo with 2 lb Berkley 100% fluorocarbon line. 

 

Strike detection was not a problem as the active bluegill thumped the active presentation.  Playing the large fish was a ball, taking care to get the Vexilar FLX-28 Pro View iceducer out of the hole.  My eyes popped out of my head as the fifth fish was a big one.  I pulled my tape measure out on the pull chin that is hung on a D ring of my Lift Suit, and laid the fish on top of it.  Ten inches!  I snapped a pic and went ahead and released it unharmed although it looked like it may have survived a gator attack.

[Jim Kusuda]

Karma was good as my tenth fish was another Ten.  I thought about it long and hard, and decided to keep it because I wanted to bring it home and document the actual size and weight.  I didn’t have a way to get a picture of me holding the fish on the ice, and my Golden Rule and tournament scale were at home.  The Nebulus made a great stable platform for the digital scale.  It was difficult to get the scale to function correctly as it had gotten incredibly windy and I was so glad that I was done fishing and back to the launch around 9 am.

 

I measured it at 10 ¼ inches, without pinching the tail.  The scale was set with tare weight at 0 lb 0 oz, the fish was held until drained and weighed at 1 lb and ¼ oz when the wind temporarily let it get a true reading.  I was pretty happy that the results were what I was looking for.  For me a trophy bluegill is ten inches and a pounder.  When a fish is not weighed, you cannot claim it’s weight.  Ice fishing tournament competitors are aware of this hard fact.  I can honestly say that I felt a bit guilty about filleting it but all I can say is it was not put to waste.

 

I know that bluegills vary in dimension, particularly from different bodies of water.  Some are long, some are tall, others are really thick with a face that has real character.  Measure and weigh them and you will be amazed at how beautiful these fish can be.  I have some mounted, the largest just under eleven inches.  I like to look at and marvel how different they are from what I usually can catch.  I wonder if they are present here and there, but they elude us.  We just never know when the big ones will bite.