Vogla lake ,miss

[IceJohn]

Been fishing both hard.Vogla lots of fish ,but a whole lot of sorting of blue gills.Crappies for me have been running small 5 to 7 inch.Some nice perch there if you can find them.Miss. still amases me the size and the numbers you can catch.I am glad for the limits they have there.Cause some days its like fishing in a barrel.Good blue gill bite at PDC in Big Missouri,Crappie off and on.ICE JOHN FISH ON

[kev]

I was at Volga last week - Like you said, LOTS of bluegill. two of caught fish steady all day long. Nothing huge - basically every fish was 6-8 inches long. Caught a half dozen crappie as well. No perch - do you have any advice for perch. WE were fishing the second bouy and never really explored because the fishing was good. I was thinking that the deep open areas in front of the dam might be holding perch as the temperature has decreased. Thanks for any help.

[Slab Daddy]

Ice John, I havent fished the Dead Sea ( Volga) for quite some time. I never seen a keeper caught there. It intrested me that you were catching 6-8 inch gills there. There is nothing wrong with an 8 inch gill. I may have to try it since its so close. But tomorrow I am going to Brushy.

[delmuts]

slab daddy. you say your are close to volga ? how close? del

[emover]

I was thinking of heading to Volga Lake tomorrow, I've not fished there in a couple of years. Any helpful hints appreciated.

------------------
mama said there'd be days like this

[kev]

I don't fish there regularly, but I had some good luck last week. The lake was a wasteland when they made it because they had to seal it with clay. They put in a lot of brush and stake beds etc. There are a couple spots that are marked with bouys - they stick up about 1-2 feet through the ice. Walk off the boat ramp and to your right about 75-100 yds is the first bouy - this area gets a lot of action - you will be able to tell by all the holes. From there you can look toward the farthest part of the lake and the opposite shore - about another 200 yds or so in that direction, you will find the second bouy. I had good luck there last week.
I simply used small ice jigs (yellow, green, red) and a single waxie a few inches off the bottom and just held it steady. bite is lite so use a spring bobber.
There are other areas where there brush piles, but no bouy. About 100 feet off the face of the dam you will find a couple areas with quite afew ice holes - that would be worth a try also.
If you don't get any action within 15 minutes, try a different spot - may only need to move a short distance though.
Do you have a depth finder?? i might be able to give you a bit more help if you do.

[kev]

Here, meant to post this (lake map) for you in case you did not already have it:

http://www.iowadnr.com/fish/fishing/lakes/maps/vol33.gif

[emover]

kev, thanks. I didn't have the map, printed a copy off. Yes, I have a depth finder. Appreciate the explaination about the bouys.

------------------
mama said there'd be days like this

[Slab Daddy]

Del, Not real close. I live near littleton,which is between Jesup and Fairbank. But I call it close compared to all the other places I go. Just went to Brushy today with no luck, then stopped at George Wyth on my way back with the same results

[kev]

At the second bouy, if you shoot the depth through the ice, I was getting about 12 feet or so. If you move out from the bouy toward the dam or toward the shore, it breaks to 17 or 18. Shoot some readings through the ice and find those quick breaks - that is where we had our luck - no guarantee, this week, but it worked pretty well last time. You really are still fairly close to the bouy though. good luck, let me know how you did. i might try to get down there sat or sun??

[emover]

went to Volga lake today. extremely slow, I heard of two people with fish, and everyone else seemed to be without. very windy, and rain didn't help the evening bite any. I worked off the second bouy back toward shore, but only caught a couple of small gills. while there were several people on the ice until early afternoon, buy 5pm a ghost town. tomorrow to the Mississippi.

------------------
mama said there'd be days like this

[IceJohn]

Kev hit the spots on the head,but go past first bouy 25 yd more west better brush. I get lots of crappie in that area.Perch down by dam brush right on bottom.Be ready to loose some jigs or alot if you fish tight like I do.Yellow or white rockers work for me.Crappie been hitting up high as jig is going down.ICE JOHN FISH ON

[delmuts]

slab daddy-- cool ! i live in sumner and ice john lives in hawkeye. del

[IceJohn]

Delmuts,You have seen the bass that broke my pole!!He wouldnt fit in hole anyway 5 inch hole.Good to see you on line.ICE JOHN FISH ON

[delmuts]

yep i know there is atleast one huge one in there!!! i lost one last summer . came off beside the boat. she was diffenetly bigger than the 6.1 that my son has mounted! still can't get into ice fishing. just can't cut the cold. john, have you tried the brush pile by the fishing pt. across from the boat ramp? the brush sits in about 10 ft, and you have the rock pt too. del

[kev]

Sorry you didn't have better luck emover. A friend and I explored a farm pond on saturday - it had a bad winterkill a few years back. Because it was so icy sat. morning we decided to stay close - Although, the 1 mile drive nearly resulted in putting the truck in the ditch anyway. To make a long story short we caught close to 100 red ear sun fish - of course about 90 of them were 1-3 inches long. At least the action was "fast and furious." It was crazy - the fish were actually swimming up into the ice hole to take our waxies when we would reel up. Too bad they were all about the same size as our jigs.

[kev]

Heading to Volga on saturday. Hoping to locate some perch. ANy advice? I am thinking about heading to the deeper water areas towards the dam. Probably try both waxies and also small jigging spoons with minnow heads. Anyone have any other thoughts or tips??? As of yet, the "volga lake perch" has remained a myth to me. I am hoping to actually see one

[emover]

I was out in front of dam in about 22 ft of water Monday when it was so COLD, but things were slow. a few crappie, but no perch. I did try a few jigging spoons tipped w/maggots but no perch. If you go Good Luck!

[kev]

Cold - that is an understatement. We fished from about 8-4. There were 4 of us. We started out by the second bouy and caught bluegills farily regularly through noon or 1. No crappies, but we did catch 2 perch - so at least I know they really do exist. Most of the bluegills were in the 6-8 inch range. Small ice jigs and waxies ust off the bottom. We decided to move around 1:00 just to try another spot or 2. We went toward the dam. We set up away from the large group, over toward where that grass/dirt road comes down to the water Directly across from the boat ramp) We drilled about 8 different holes going from 12-21 feet. The action was slower, but we still caught a couple dozen - bluegills, crappies and one small bass. I am sure we probably caught 100 fish on the day, but that is 4 guys and 8 hours, so it isn't like our arms hurt at the end of the day or anything. It was a good day all in all though. A bit crowded in the tent though with 4 of us. There were LOTS of people fishing - I bet 40-50 tents! I was surprised to see that many people.

[delmuts]

thanks double barrel! it will be a change! del

[Double Barrel]

Delmuts,enjoy your last three days of work. Congrats on your 30 years. Time to move on!!
Lifes too short !

[Slab Daddy]

Against my better judgement I went to Volga on Friday. Just as I suspected 5 inch gills and 7 inch paper thin specks. Some people not far from me who drove out on the ice caught I think 1 keeper perch, but I didnt see it. I caught a lot of fish but not a keeper in the bunch. I will scratch THE DEAD SEA off of my list for another year or so.

[IceJohn]

Del, Great to hear of your retirement30 years WOW!Hope you have a long an happy one.We will have to chase some bass this summer.Maybe i can get you in to pond fishing down south.Your friend ,ICE JOHN