What a difference one day makes

[Yachtzy]

Had to do a few things early Saturday morning,  so I didn't pull up to the pond until 11:15 am. It was easy to figure out it was good ice because there was already 6 groups out there, but still spudded my way out. It was slow for the first hour then all of a sudden it started snowing hard, and sideways. Flags were flying, and holes were filling up with snow, but it was steady action. Only one double flag all day, and ended up with 14 LM, no other species. I started out with some big bait, but caught the smallest fish on them, as I got down to the smaller baits, they caught the biggest fish. Had to slowly put away the traps when they got a flag at about 3:30, my hands were frozen, and they hurt. I hated to leave the fish biting, but the gloves and handwarmers were no match for wet hands in that wind. The day started out cloudy with flurries, with mostly black ice, and a few spots of snow here and there. The other groups within sight were having steady action the entire time also.

  So Sunday I freed up at a little after noon and decided to hit the same place, but a little further out. Same amout of people, but now it has a few inches of snow covering the ice stopping any light penetration . It was a beautiful day, but not even one flag. Of everyone out there, I saw one 6" perch caught from 1:30-4:30 pm.

Got wind burnt on Saturday, and sunburned on Sunday! Here's the top five.

[Ash82]

Wow.. That s quite a difference between the two days! Congrats on the bass

[striper50trout]

Nice bass! Buncha fat healthy ones
It is crazy how some days the fish just shut down

[ICEHOLE]

Ive experienced the same thing in the past! It is strange. Good work

[SHaRPS]

Great fishing. Take a look at picture 3 and 4. Same bass as they have the same exact pattern on the lateral line.

[ctownfisherman]

Great fishing. Take a look at picture 3 and 4. Same bass as they have the same exact pattern on the lateral line.

The markings by the tail look different to me.

[BaitBucket]

Great fishing. Take a look at picture 3 and 4. Same bass as they have the same exact pattern on the lateral line.

Even if they are, who cares lol...

Great pics and report yachtzy.

[otzi]

Nice looking bunch of bass there!

[SHaRPS]

Even if they are, who cares lol...

Great pics and report yachtzy.

Because it would be even more interesting if the same bass was caught back to back in my opinion. Still a great report yachtzy. Didn't mean to offend anyone just because I was paying attention to details.

[walfred]

Even if they are, who cares lol...

Great pics and report yachtzy.

X-2, nice day out.

[BASSQUATCH]

Nice report & it wouldn't be the first and won't be the last time the same fish is caught more than once in a day. 

[Yachtzy]

I definitely didn't catch the same fish twice, I made a mistake when I uploaded to photobucket, I'm doing all this on a spider web screen cell phone. I had a few pics of each fish to make sure I got them, my hands were frozen to the point of pain, and it was hard to even work buttons on the phone. Here is a pic of the missing one, and the smallest fish. Just wanted to show how fat the small guy was. At first I thought the weird weather tricked them into spawning early, just like the flowers that were blooming in December.

As I was out there, a Dad and his two young kids come skating over to me with their dog. As he was grilling me with questions, his dog was tripping my flags. A flag went off next to us, so I said to his son, probably about 5 or 6 years old, are you ready? The T bar was flying so I scooped the snow from the hole and handed him the line. This youngster did a real good job for never doing this before, and he was on skates, there was about 50 yards of line out. His Dad was the most excited and I took some pics for them. I think there is another new member of the fishing community. Not that I really care but, all that line that was pulled in and laid on the ice, he was doing a toe dance on it with the skates!! I have plenty more line, doesn't bother me at all.

[SHaRPS]

Yachtzy,

No need to explain but I do appreciate the follow up on if you caught it twice or not. I have also had frozen fingers many times and it can definitely be a pain in the ice!  Great fish and that is definitely a fatty. Great story with the youngster as well! You just gave the sport and its members a good name! Not to mention he will never forget "the first fish".