Fished a weed-choked swillhole on Sunday afternoon. This place is shallow, lots of weeds - with a stream channel that cuts thru the pond. I've fished this place in the spring, but never thru the ice. Only 1 way to find out if it's any good in winter or not...
From space (Google maps), it looks like mostly land because the weeds are so thick in summer. But if you zoom in, you can see holes in the weeds. I set about 10 marks to hit later & then drilled them out.
Most of the holes in the weeds were ~6' deep which made the fish spooky. (They don't like a giant drill auger thrust through the ice over their heads). So I had to let the holes settle down & then be quiet on the ice.
After I checked depth, I used a small, handheld underwater camera to help fish the holes.
I used a few different lures: sebile vibrato, z-viber, + plastics. It wasn't a hot bite, but I caught enough to keep it interesting (bass, pickerel & sunfish). I also saw 2 perch on camera, come in for a sniff, then do a 180 & leave - that was a little odd. Usually, I can get the perch to eat.
Best fish was a 4 lb. LM that ate the z-viber. I built a new jigging rod a few weeks ago, so it was nice to give it a work out. Saw the whole thing on camera - big mouth opens & z-viber gone! Good fight on 4 lb test, too.
