Fishing Report... 12/28 and 12/29...

[Matt Johnson]

12/28

I hit the ice with a few fellow FMer's yesterday... bhorn, Paul Waldowski and BDR. We fished a weed depression in about 12 feet of water for bluegills. Most of the area was about 6-7 feet deep with thick weeds and there was a pocket in the weeds that dropped to about 12 feet with thick grass and short stalk that covered the bottom. Seems like the gills are still holding on to the pockets in the shallow weeds. I found some gills out a little deeper bit they were not as concentrated as in the shallower areas. Some big ones were right up tight in the weeds, but they were very tight lipped. We managed to find some consistant action just off the edge of the pocket. The fish would show up in waves and they would bite non-stop for about 20 minutes and then move on, but they would return again about 10-15 minutes later. Worked like that for several hours straight. We landed a few gills in the 9 inch range as well as a couple decent crappies. We also got a 2 pound largemouth. I hooked into something decent that I assumed to be pike but it got the best of me We had pretty good luck on size 10 or 12 jigs with a single maggot. JR's Tackle Pumkinseed and Custom Jigs and Spins Shrimpos and Ratsos seem to work well.

Here's a few shots from yesterdays trip...

bhorn with a nice gill

bhorn with another gill

bhorn with a crappie

BDR hooking into another gill on a JR's Tackle Ultralite rod

Paul Waldowski with a 2 pound largemouth

12/29

Today was one of the best bluegill days I've had in a while. I took my brother out to a spot hoping to get him on some fish. To say the fish were aggressive would be an understatement. With the warm up and the overcast skies and pressure we had today, the fish thought it was feeding time all day long. We fished for about 4 hours and landed quite a few gills. The first drop of the day my brother lands a 10 incher. A very fat fish! We had periods where as fast as we could drop our jig down we had a fish hooked. A good majority of the fish were 6-7 inchers, but we landed a bunch of 7-8 inchers and some that were in the 8-9 inch range. No bass or pike but we saw some swim through on the underwater camera. The crappies are still few and far between in the shallower areas I've been targeting, but we managed to pick up a few straglers. The Nuclear Ant by Custom Jigs and Spins was a hot lure today, as was the size 12 red glow Pumkinseed from JR's Tackle. A lot of gills came through suspended, which was pretty interesting. They would feed down on numerous occasions.

Here's a few shots from today...

My brother with a bright colored pumkinseed

My brother with dinner

Tomorrow should be another good day on the ice if anyone gets the chance to make it out. Looks like we're going to see a little cool down on Friday after the warm spell hits tomorrow. We might see a change in fishing patterns after tomorrow, but I would expect the pannies to be going in full force throughout the day tomorrow. Weedy areas are still hot right now even though we are experiencing some snow cover and 12 inches of ice...

I would look to the deeper weed flats, in 8-15 feet right now for your bigger pannies. Some of the crappies have moved out to deeper water and have relocated over deeper holes and structure. Your mainstay of bluegills are still relatively shallow yet though. Expect some light biters after tomorrow, but you should find the gills in the same areas...

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson