first ice panfish jigging

[Chrisper4694]

someone has to post the first ice report haha...

this tuesday, between being tired of waiting, not fishing for over a week and a half, and not having much daylight after work to accomplish much by, i convinced NJsquatch to hold the other end of the rope while i strapped on a life vest and spud barred and area of ice on an area i'm very familiar with.

we had 3" of solid black ice away from the edge so we punched some holes and got a short jigging session in. we had a little action from perch and gills but no good size and unfortunately (unlike years past) I think all the crappie that would normally start coming through at night are mostly gone no sign of them we we went home.

switched targets to perch and gills instead of crappie Wednesday, to try to get some size and we had better luck with gills to 9" and perch to 12" but again not enough time to really catch too many. ice was about 4" but this lake freezes super early compared to most places so take it easy out there!

also, on my way up 287, I almost got beheaded by a flying slab of metal...came flopping over the top of the cars in front of me like a giant ninja star. I ducked couldn't really swerve much so i ducked behind my dash and the think took the front roof rack bar clean off of my car! Pretty pissed i need a new rack, but honestly pretty lucky with no car damage and i still have my face!

Squatch is going to have to add the pics he has on his phone, I only have the ones from my camera.

[icebadger]

yea brothers it is TIME TO START DRILLIN..... good to see the perch are playin as for the crappies you have to find strong weed lines and or underwater timber. glad to hear you did not get hurt. sucks to hear that your ride took some damage from flyin debris on the road.

[NJSquatch]

Not sure what makes chasing panfish on the hard stuff so damn appealing.

Hopefully the rains stay away this weekend and don't ruin things.

[AndyS]

Gives you an idea of how cold it's been lately, 3" of ice already, great report !

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by icebadger

yea brothers it is TIME TO START DRILLIN..... good to see the perch are playin as for the crappies you have to find strong weed lines and or underwater timber. glad to hear you did not get hurt. sucks to hear that your ride took some damage from flyin debris on the road.

this lake has no real weeds or structure, we fish this hole and they suspend over it every year going back since i started, but the last two years, nothing. pretty sure they can't spawn in this lake with no deep water access (pretty sure they need cooler water for the eggs to survive) and people stopped putting them in here but kept keeping them, so it couldn't last.