Conditions: Sunny skies, mid 20's air temperatures and light winds
Since I was going solo today, decided to stay local and head to the lake that has big crappies in it that I was not able to locate last time and try a different area today in my search. Now that we have had a week of sub-freezing weather, the slush from the previous week is totally gone as it has frozen solid. This lake I was seeing around 13-15 inches of ice and the sheet was making the cracking noise the whole time out there. There is very little snow on the ice which makes it very enjoyable walking to the fishing area. I wanted to fish a flat point off of an island but when I got out there, there was already a couple of angler's setup there. So I went back towards the same area that I had previously fished here but wanted to concentrate more on a sunken island that is in this back corner. Started drilling holes and I always had fish in each hole but a lot of the times they were more lookers and sniffers than biters. I would give each hole a few minutes and if the fish were not aggressively biting, I would move and drill another hole. On the fourth hole I finally hit a spot that was showing some big marks on the Vexilar and it didn't take long for my Salmo Chubby Darter to get slammed and when the fish came through the hole is was a nice 2.5 pound largemouth bass. After my excitement calmed down and a picture was taken he was released and I went back to the hole to see if there were any other fish there. Didn't take long and there was another fish about 4 feet off the bottom and a little jigging magic and the fish slammed the Darter. As I was reeling the fish up, I was hoping that it was a smallmouth as I had never gotten one through the ice in this lake yet. The fish came up the hole and it was a 17.5 inch long crappie and this was the fish that I had come here to find. It took me a while to calm down with this one as this lake has these sized crappies but you generally only catch a couple if you can find them. A few pictures were taken and he was released back into the water and just between those two fish in the few minutes that they bit, my day was fulfilled and anything after that was all an extra bonus fish. This hole died after those fish and my search continued to finding the underwater hump that I wanted to fish the edge on. I was catching jumbo perch here and there and there were a few that when you dropped the Darter down there they would come flying off the bottom and slam the bait. These are the fish that I am always looking for as it is much more fun catching biters than sniffers. After drilling 30 holes I had finally found the island and certain holes were loaded with fish but most of them were sniffers. At this point I also killed the battery on my Strikemaster Auger and with a swap for a fresh battery I was off and drilling again. You would catch a perch or sunfish here or there but as morning turned into afternoon the bite started slacking off and I had other engagements that I needed to be at so called it a day around 1pm. With the catch of the bass and crappie my day was fulfilled and will keep me coming back as now the search for the smallmouth bass that live in this lake will be my next objective.
Tomorrow we will probably hit the road for New Hampshire again and see if we can repeat last weekend's catching. Tight lines and may you catch that trophy of your life...
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