Cade Laufenberg Posted January 7, 2007 Posted January 7, 2007 If you can believe it, open water will be mentioned in my fishing report This is not something that will often get talked about in west central WI, but this year, its reality :-[ we have open water everywhere, even on small lakes and ponds :-? its pretty scary actually. We should have 1 or 1-1/2 feet of ice on most of these places...and boating is something that is forgotten about until early april. Again, not this year. with warm temperatures, We have lost most of our ice and the river is wide open. A lot of guys are taking advantage of this, but the bass bite seems to be pretty much non-existant with a 35 degree water temp. I did see 1 decent looking largemouth on the camera, but didn't try to fish for it. It was hanging under a massive shad pod in around 10ft of water with mud bottom near some timber. I looked for smallies around wingdams and sand drops in main channel areas just out of the current, and found nothing but some sand, more sand, and a couple rocks mixed in ;D instead of targeting bass, I realized it would be bluegills and crappies that would trip my trigger for today, and about the only way I could keep from skunking myself. I pulled the boat up into a couple bays and drove up onto some ice. Ice wasnt bad, about 3-1/2 inches in the first bay, and 6" in the second bay. Both bays produced some small gills and crappies, with an occasional bull gill around 9". It was pretty fun and I was happy because I have never fished these spots before. I'll be evaluating the one bay a little more tomorrow with a group of friends. should be interesting. As far as the rest of my winter, I haven't been posting on here much. But I have been doing some hard ice fishing despite the rain and warmth. It really wasn't until last Monday when the ice became too trecherous to walk on. It firmed up a bit with over night lows in the mid 20s occasionally, but highs in the mid 40s and up to 50 degrees did more damage than building Before the melting, I was doing well On big bluegills near my home. using a small ice jig in an assortment of colors with purple and black taking top honors has been putting fish on ice for me. A purple or black shrimpo is doing the trick and is much nicer than having to bait up after every fish. (this is a plastic bait) I have been using my Camera and flasher to find and catch fish better than a majority of other people on the ice. Here are some pictures of the nice bluegills and crappies I have got since November 26- today. Hope you enjoy them. I enjoyed a lot of them golden brown on my plate ;D My buddy Justin P. with a nice open water crappie... another from my buddy Me with a crappie Crappies are a blast...These were from open water, the night before ice up. ..... heres a good gill. you can see my flasher set up in the background. a nice little bluegill this is what it's like to be Jesus...walking on water ;D heres a good gill nice gill here's a good sized, yet colorless bluegill today a very nice bluegill out of 17 foot of water today. this is from today, my rig on the ice. I had to drive up on it and hop out from there Thats all for now...thanks for viewing! Cade Quote
Guest avid Posted January 7, 2007 Posted January 7, 2007 Howdy Cade. I suppose y'all realize there should be pictures where all those red x's are. there's a primer on This http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?virboard=gen_bass;num=1133376419 good luck and have fun Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 9, 2007 Author Posted January 9, 2007 Oh man, I'm sorry. It worked fine when I first posted it :-? I did everything exactly the same as the tutorial did, and it didn't work. I am posting these pictures directly from another fishing website...It worked before but doesn't now. Is this site not allowing that sites URL on here or what? I don't have anything on photo bucket, but I can post a couple pictures the old fashioned way by attatching them to my post. I feel really stupid right now :'( My friend caught this 13-1/4" crappie with me last night while scouting out a brand new spot. We caught some perch, crappies, and bluegills. The ice is still ok, but most of the river is wide open. Some cold weather is coming soon with some below zero temps and its snowing right now! Bring on the REAL wisconsin winter! Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 9, 2007 Author Posted January 9, 2007 I'll post a couple more pictures from recently, but don't have the time to put as many pictures on here as I tried to the other night...but you'll get the idea Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 9, 2007 Author Posted January 9, 2007 some yellow perch from last night Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 9, 2007 Author Posted January 9, 2007 All of last nights fish fry... Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 9, 2007 Author Posted January 9, 2007 this is my boat in action- on the ice Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 9, 2007 Author Posted January 9, 2007 one more bluegill from Sunday. this is all I got saved on my computer, so i'm done for now. Thanks Cade Quote
Super User SPEEDBEAD. Posted January 9, 2007 Super User Posted January 9, 2007 The weather this year is somewhat scary....just saw the weather report for my area in PA Saturday high of 67!!!!! Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 10, 2007 Author Posted January 10, 2007 Yes, It is scary! But I hate to be the bringer of bad news...A change is a comin' for you guys out east! its 19 here right now and falling...supposed to have lows below 0 next week...that should be fun for everyone just starting to get used to that 70 degree air! ;D Quote
CK14 Posted January 13, 2007 Posted January 13, 2007 gotta love gills and slabs on the ultra light! Quote
Ky_Lake_Dude Posted January 14, 2007 Posted January 14, 2007 Man I figured it would be frozen up there. Quote
Bassassasin12 Posted January 16, 2007 Posted January 16, 2007 Wow that is really thin ice. Be careful out there. Here in NY we had a massive ice storm and it pulled down power lines. I was powerless for 3/4 of the day today and they had canceled school just a couple hours ago . First snow day of the year, but it is really an ice day. Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 16, 2007 Author Posted January 16, 2007 We should have had a snowday yesterday...driving conditions were terrible. We picked up 5" of snow and some really cold temps are the aftermath of the system. The mercury was sitting at -2 this morning.... This weekend we did really well and picked up a bunch of nice crappies and a few good size bluegills as well. The Ice is starting to shape up nicely here, and we are able to fish in most of the areas that we want to. the majority of my weekend was spent on 2" or less of ice though, So its not real thick yet. With these cold temps, it may be a little thin, but its stiff and can support a lot of weight. By this weekend we should have some real good ice...Maybe we will be able to drive on it after all this year! ;D I'll post some pics of the weekend if I remember tonight... Later, Cade Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 17, 2007 Author Posted January 17, 2007 Here are some of the crappie Pictures. Obviously, my buds think its time for a fish fry ;D I know 68 Fish is a lot to keep, but between a group of 4 that adds out to 17 per person well under the limit of 25 and way under the posession of 50 per person. Just to clear that up before I get jumped for being a "poor" conservationist. I believe it is Ok to take enough for a fish fry...once in a while....I have one bag of a dozen or so panfish in my freezer and thats all. My friends took all the fish from this trip as I didn't want any. pics to follow..I'll be out more this weekend and hopefully will be able to post some results! Quote
Cade Laufenberg Posted January 17, 2007 Author Posted January 17, 2007 heres me with one of our "average" 11" crappies...I love this sport! Quote
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