Crappie Day

[bassin212]

Hit the big lake last weekend with my brother and a buddy. A little bummer there were smelt to be had, but I had some leftover shiners anyways. The goal was to search for whites and crappie. We didn’t find the whites but got into a handful of crappie, mostly in the 10” range. Was surprised to find 4” of solid black/clear ice. The jigs out produced the shiners by a landslide which is always fun. The best crappie we got was 14”. Caught on my rod, using my bait and flasher while my buddy was using it since I was punching some new holes…. So WE caught it? 😂





Made it out again yesterday for free fishing day. Went out with my brother and another friend who’s very new to ice fishing. I always try to take out someone new and spread the love of fishing! Especially on free fishing day. We hit a new area of the big lake with the hopes of whites and lakers. Was happy to have smelt this time, but to no surprise like everything else, price went up! This was the most inconsistent ice I had been on. I found anywhere from 3” - 6.5” of black ice or white ice and more than 25’ apart. Took my time, spudded everywhere and finally found a spot I felt comfortable. Got set up and had ourselves a great day! Caught fish on tip ups and jigging. My brother has livescope and man were the lakers active! We ended the sag with 8 lakers and 1 smallie. All the lakers were rats, but still fun!

Used boga grips to limit fish handling and ensure no one dropped any fish on the ice. All fish outside were lipped with the grips in the hole, unhooked underwater, once someone was ready with the camera the fish out and then immediately back under water to be released. Maybe a max of 5 seconds out of the water. You can tell from the pics, no frozen eyes or anything. This worked really well and to be honest might just use them all season with trout that I don’t plan on harvesting. Makes fish handling very easy and is prob better for the fish. Might venture out later today to check out some ice conditions around the big lake.

[zwiggles]

Looks like some successful trips! I don’t know how much ice the big lake is making today with all this wind right now.

[DConICE]

well done...

[bassin212]

Looks like some successful trips! I don’t know how much ice the big lake is making today with all this wind right now.

Just waiting for those flyover pictures from Emerson aviation! Pretty sure most of the bays that locked up by Friday will remain locked and make good ice despite the wind. I think they made enough ice not to get broken up too much

[jigmaster5]

Looks chilly - glad the fish cooperated!  Congrats!   

[PoolGuy]

Well done bassin, solid trip for sure …..we seen a few guys using live scopes this weekend…I had to laugh we heard this one group talking and a kid yell out to his buddy
“ I spent all this money on this POC and all I have to show for it is a handle full of sunfish”   

[Nosaj]

Sounds like a great weekend.   I fooled around with a live scope last year and it was pretty wild. 

I love my boga, it is great tool when it is cold and you want to get some picks.  It also comes in handy with the toothy critters.

[HuntnFish603]

Man I love Crappie days.
Way to put in work
And yea it can be difficult for C+R on weekends like this. I literally took no fish pics this weekend. The bogas sounds like a decent idea.

[bassin212]

Thanks everyone! And to the livescope comments. It’s funny because my brother keeps bugging me asking if I’m going to get it but I just keep saying we have to test his out until he can convince me! Just so happens he was using wrong ALL last ice season. It really teaches you so much about fish behavior though. I’ll get one….. eventually!

[fishingidjit]

Looks like a great day on the ice !

[Lv2hunt]

Congrats on the crappie nice looking fish sounds like a great day!

[800stealth]

Great report, sounds like an awesome time