Fishing the Chain (pics)

[Bobb-o]

Met up with a buddy and his wife with the idea of chasing down some kitties. Met them out at the first spot and had to cross some creepy ice to get out to where they were. JJ had a bunch of fish piled up at some new holes he had drilled but it took a lot of coaxing before we realized that they were just puny crappies. Headed out to another lake on the chain and struck out at our first spot, so we made a move to a promising looking spot on JJ's GPS. Drilled aboot ten holes in the area and we found a pile of stacked fish. Thinking these might be the catfish we were looking for i dropped down a Rattl'n Flyer Spoon loaded with waxworms and right away I had to marks racing up for it. A solid hit and I had an 11" crappie on the ice. I was a little disappointed that they weren't catfish but you can't be too upset when you have a pile of aggressive crappies beneath you. We also had a few decent gills mixed in. The bite kept going and the fish showed no signs of leaving so we drilled a couple more holes and set the houses up. JJ lost a nice bass at the hole and got a few more crappies. The darker it got the smaller and less aggressive the fish got until right before dark you had to coax a fish for 10-15 min only to reel in a 7" crappie. Kept 5 crappies and a smaller bass for dinner tomorrow. Ice was variable from "don't even think aboot going over that way" to 12".

[Stick in Mud]

Nice report. I'd call it a success, if only because you caught a largemouth!

[kingfisherpat]

how thick is out on chain of lakes in cold spring

[BuckmasterG]

Pat, as you probably know the chain varies everywhere you go, but in areas where the river isn't running nearby I seen about 12 inches on Sunday. With the cold snap could be more. Hope this helped. BOL

[Bobb-o]

Pat, like Buckmaster said the ice on the chain can vary greatly. Try and stop in to one of the local baitshops and ask aboot places to avoid, otherwise try and stick to well traveled areas. There is a lot of current going through that chain and especially with this recent snow and cold temps you need to be careful. A lot of the bad spots may look just like any other right now.