ChrisAW

It's likely that you had it spooked from it seeing you. More often than not, if you can see them, they've spotted you too. They get a little tight lipped when that happens if they don't just swim off in general. I've been fishing from shore a lot lately, and I've noticed its easy to get a fish that just cruised in to bite, especially if I had already casted and I just have to work the bait to it. The less you move, the better. Wear clothes that somewhat blend in with your background. I don't go crazy, but fishing behind my complex, I've been wearing green or brown shirts with dark jeans. I stand infront of a larger bush or tree trunk to keep my silhouette from standing out. It all might seem ridiculous, but I've had much better luck somewhat concealing myself than just standing out in the open.

Yes, that.

Funny, I just came in from a bit of shoreline fishing on the lake I now live on (Apartment building though, unfortunately.) using a setup similar to what you're trying to do, including an ultralite rod. I currently use a 6'6" UL with a 10 size reel, 5# Power Pro/4# P-Line Fluoroclear leader. I did originally buy it just for panfish, but the first fish I caught on it was a 3 pounder on a live worm, and it handled it great. I thought, why not just use it for everything while on shore? I stocked up on some small baits like 3" stick baits, small craws, little paddle tails and such. I basically only use a 1/16th or 1/8th jigs, shroom heads or ball heads. The jig pictured is a BPS Shroom Head jig, which is available in #1 and 1/0 hooks, I have the #1's. I do have some #1 (I believe) VMC EWG hooks that I doubt I would have any problems with as they are VERY thin, but I have had no need to weedless rig for now. I say go for it, but 6# won't be a big deal either. If you think you'll be lacking power, try braid main line and just set your drag a little lighter. That hook in the picture had no issue getting buried in a couple keeper's mouths today when I got home from work, and I even forgot to tighten my drag from when I was targeting some 'Gills when the first bass hit today.

Well what I meant was after catching a bass that will cull a smaller fish, he has to do the cull before he can go make another cast. By then, that other fish may have been long gone. Catching two fish on one cast as far as I know has never had a rule against it, so by allowing the other fish a chance to grab the lure while it was competing with the smaller one was probably the only chance he had to catch that fish. Like what Brandon had happen on St Lawrence tournament.

One thing some may not know though, most big tournament series like this, an angler cannot make another cast with 5 fish in the livewell until one of those five have been culled for the one just caught. By the time he gets that fish in and puts it in the livewell, and culls his smaller one, that 6 pounder may have been gone. I have never had a bass stick by anothers side for so long, but it sounds to me like he made a smart play here.

More than likely just got rid of the old stuff, you'll probably see the new products back in that BPS soon. We started getting it all back in at my store. Looks like they are going for a Havoc type line of baits. Inexpensive, non-scented plastics. Most bags are running between 2.99 and 3.99. All the same shapes besides the Thumpin' Dinger and the Swimmin' Dinger. Just seems like a different plastic and no scent.

I do use a Lowrance Elite 4 with an Iceducer, so I've been searching for movement and fishing for maybe a few minutes each hole. But the only movement I've found is the one bass that I did catch. The water is pretty clear, and does get a little deep atleast. There are what looks to be pretty good, green weeds on the bottom, but not very thick. It is probably weed killed yearly, being a private lake. Its hard sandy bottom on most of the shallow areas. I get softer returns on my sonar when it starts to drop off, so the bottom probably starts to get muddier.

I'm using a lot of what you suggested already, besides the Hali's. There's very little water under most of the ice on this lake. It might get 6 feet deep in some area's before dropping off to those 30+ft depths. From what I can tell on my sonar, it is mostly silty/muddy bottoms in the deeper areas. The shallow flats seem to have good, green weeds still. But yeah, thats mainly what I've been doing is just drilling any likely area's. Just not much luck yet. I guess I need to start working the deeper water more and see what I can find.

I moved in to an apartment complex that has shore line property. While it was too late in the year to get my boat out on it, I have been going out ice fishing on it and I have had very little success. So far, any other fisherman I've talked to have had the same experience. One man I talked to said he used to catch jumbo Perch in this lake, and hasn't found any yet this year. He has lived there a while, while not mentioning actually seeing any dead fish, suggested that he thinks there was a fish kill after last winter. So I was curious... This lake is about 70 acres, and is connected to a rather big river chain in my area, the Clinton River. You can see in the picture I attached, the shore line is rather short before dropping off. The eastern half has a rather deep bowl. I haven't measured in the middle so I don't know max depth. But I know it can drop off from 8ft to 36ft in one area, in less than a boats length. Could a lake that's river fed, and has such deep water have a kill off? I'm no master ice fisherman, I know I'm probably just not finding them, but hours spent with little more than one 10" bass (albeit healthy looking) doesn't seem right to me either. I would gladly take any tips on where you might fish this lake as well while the ice is on.

I kind of have this issue. I haven't caught much on the Zoom Flukes themselves, but the Havoc Jerk shads, I have pretty good luck on. Same colors, but I seem to find more fish in the same waters with Havoc baits.

Not a fish, that much i could see. It also wouldn't stop if i had been reeling up, just keeps going. Bubble i could believe. I'll have to try and pay more attention and see if i spot anything.

No this is not losing image of my jig. It's still on the sonar when this happens. But a line will show up from time to time that will make a perfect line as the image scrolls, from the bottom or randomly in the middle while jigging. It's like a return, but it just rises slowly and steadily to create a perfect line.

I bought the iceducer for my Elite 4 and took it out for a shake down run a couple days ago. Seems to work well, but one thing I noticed that can be annoying. When jigging or when reeling in and stopping, I will have a line show up on the graph. It will slowly and steadily rise to the top of amplitude scope in a perfect line, and when it gets to the very top of the graph, will stop. It shows up every few minutes at most. Anyone had this issue before? It's hard to describe, and I didn't get a picture. If I have to illustrate it I will.

The lure is probably the main problem. Those are rather lightweight baits, I use 10lb Seaguar for the same lures, and even with a couple suspend-strips, I can have issues now and then. You didn't mention what power rod you're using, but using any more than a medium power rod for that lure could cause issues as well. A MH may not be able to load with that weight at all, which will also lend causing backlashes, although not the main problem.

Supposed to be another new line from what I've heard.