Mixed Bag

[bassin212]

Most of my weekends in March have been filled up coaching soccer tournaments so I decided to take a day off from work while the ice was still good enough (at least for me). March tends to be my favorite time of the ice season to fish. Longer days, warmer weather and IMO better fishing.

I was a little concerned for slush on the big lake but to my surprise all the snow finally melted, hopped on the snowmobile and headed out. My original plan was to camp on the ice but with rain in the forecast I figured it was best not to. A little bummed about it because conditions never really allowed for it this year.

White perch were the target, but the smallies were relentless ! Tried all my usual spots with no luck, so I decided to explore some new ones. Finally by 1:00 I caught my first white and then it was on! Ran out of bait, got a couple on the jig rod and then stayed out until 8:00PM to jig and set cusk traps with no luck. Tried anywhere from 40-10 fow. Funny enough I got my cusk middle of the day in a 40ft hole. Hoping to squeeze out one more trip next week!

[Steamtrain]

Nice haul!

Same here with not getting out camping on the ice this season, just couldn’t get the stars to align.

[jibbs]

I bet it was fun catching smallies all day .. I want to get one more weekend in but also want to get some bass gear ready as tourney season starts April 8th ..thanks for the report

[zwiggles]

Well done!

[bassin212]

I bet it was fun catching smallies all day .. I want to get one more weekend in but also want to get some bass gear ready as tourney season starts April 8th ..thanks for the report

The smallies were a bunch of fun and crazy active. Often times I thought they were lakers the way they were chasing my jigs and ripping line off the tip up spool. Good luck this Tourney season!

[DConICE]

Way to take the day and make the most of it, looks like it was a good day... and like others said, relentless smallmouth sounds like fun.

How deep were the staging before shooting up chasing your bait?

[merk42]

The smallies have been spooling our lines this March... a lot of rewinding!

The smallies were a bunch of fun and crazy active. Often times I thought they were lakers the way they were chasing my jigs and ripping line off the tip up spool. Good luck this Tourney season!
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[bassin212]

Way to take the day and make the most of it, looks like it was a good day... and like others said, relentless smallmouth sounds like fun.

How deep were the staging before shooting up chasing your bait?

I don’t know if you could avoid them. I caught them anywhere from 28-40 feet. They would show up about 1-2 feet off bottom and would chase up 10-15 feet

[SALMONEMIA]

Very nice. Nice report

[DConICE]

I don’t know if you could avoid them. I caught them anywhere from 28-40 feet. They would show up about 1-2 feet off bottom and would chase up 10-15 feet

Thanks for the info... that would def make for a good day... especially if they were chasing jigs vs live bait.

[Fishin_603]

Nice report glad there is still ice. I’ll be out this weekend

[bassin212]

Thanks for the info... that would def make for a good day... especially if they were chasing jigs vs live bait.

They were definitely hitting both!Live bait definitely out performed jigging but the jigging was good

[DConICE]

Sounds great - thanks again....