First Ice

[united jigsticker]

One of my favorite things about this area is the fact that it holds many quality fisheries that are relatively small and shallow, respectively, and they can ice-up pretty fast.

That means I'm on the lake alot sooner then those who only target their bigger favorite bodies of water during the early ice season.

A few years ago, I was getting the itch real bad to stand on the hard water. My favorite few bodies of water had a skim of ice, but nothing near safe.

I dug out the old trusty book, and paged through until I found a lake that was small, shallow, and held some decent numbers of my favorite specie, the Crappie.

Off to the lake I went, chisel in hand.

WHOA!!! 3" of solid clear ice! I raced home for the auger, sled, and Vex, and back to the lake I went.

The lake was shallow, topping out at 9 feet max, and very dark water. The sun was shining high and brite, and there was no wind. But there were also no Crappies to be caught.

I moved about for a couple hours, marking 0 fish, and decided that I would try my luck again that evening, during sun-set.

A friend and I returned to the lake an hour before sun-set, and went back to my old holes to set up for the evening. Worry was the trip would be a goose egg, but at least we were out fishing.

Hole hopping for 45 minutes still produced no marks on the Vex, and we were getting anxious.

One last hole, I thought...

Viola!!! There was a red blip down there.

I shook, nervously, as I dropped my waxie down, and watched the red blip slowly rise for the bait. I twitch of the rod tip....BAM...I missed him, and away the red blip went. "$@!!%&!" I announced.

"Could have been a perch" my buddy said...

I grew irritated.

Another blip appreared, and I was more detirmined this time. I have to know what it is.

The fish approached, the tip twitched...I paused...It twitched again, and then it bent.

BAM!!!

FISH ON!!!!

"FISH ON!!!!!" I hear in return.

I reeled up a 12.5 inch Crappie, my partner reeled up a 13 inch Crappie simutaneously.

Now we're exited.

We only caught 12 total Crappies that evening, but they were all very nice slabs.

It's those kinds of trips that are the most memorable and fond to look back on.

Anyone else have a story to share about a first ice outing?

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[knoppers]

thems some nice crappies UJ. I have a place on fleming lake, which is now known as the little crappie of the world. we walked out on 3 inches of clear ice one early december, trying to get to the sunken island in the middle, it was windy and warm, so we were walking single file with the leader punching the ice as we walked. after the ice cracked all around us, we decided to walk no further, and tryed our luck, and no luck. so we did not want to give up, we went to whispering lake, which probally had less ice, we slowly walked out while using the vex to check depth, we hit a good area and stopped, we got our limit in about 2 hours, nothing big, but also nothing small. it was exciting, and dangerous.

[united jigsticker]

I did the same one year as a buddy and mine headed onto the early ice with the chisel.

Everywhere we checked had 4-5" of ice, and we made the foolish mistake of taking a different route back in, without pounding the chisel as we went.

The ice was cracking, and we looked down to see the ice subastantially thinner then any of the other stuff we were on (my guess is 1.5" of ice)

We kept our pace, and said to eachother "just keep walking".

Luckily we made it off without a trouble, but it certainly was a lesson re-learned.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]