[PECo]

After I told my daughter about my ice fishing outing on Stillwater Pond yesterday, she asked me to take her ice fishing at Countryside Park. We enjoyed full sun and very little wind. We fished on the upper (i.e., north) pond from 11:45 am to 1:15 pm. I drilled a hole for her and then drilled one for me. We had six or more inches of clear ice under four inches of snow. I have say again that I LOVE my new Nils eight inch hand auger. It goes through ice like it's butter. Softened butter. Anyway, we fished in eight to 10 feet of water. Before I could even get a waxie on my fluorescent green Hali jig, she pulled up two small yellow perch with her waxie baited green and gold micro jig:



She actually landed (iced?) three small yellow perch before I got even a nibble. I was going to swap out my Hali for a micro jig, but as I jigged it up from the bottom, I got a hit about four feet from the bottom. To my surprise, I landed a 14 inch stockie rainbow trout:



We ended up with a dozen yellow perch, the largest three of which were only about 10 inches long, and the one trout, which was dee-licious. All of our fish were caught in eight to 10 feet of water, most near the bottom. The holes that I drilled in shallower water near the shore were all duds. Man, am I glad that we finally have good ice.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[DirtyDawg10]

Nice!

[slim2043]

Nice Job! Your daughter looks like she had fun too!
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Never give up!

[PECo]

Today, I jigged in the holes that I drilled last Sunday for an hour or so and got a couple of eight inch yellow perch. I tried out my new Frabill Straight Line combo, which should reduce line twist and spinning jigs. It appears to wind six inches of line per crank. Based on that, we were actually jigging in 13 to 14 feet of water. I didn't realize that the pond is so deep. The only thing I don't like about the combo is that the reel will not free spool. On even the lightest drag setting, you have to crank the line out. I missed the ability to simply drop my jig to the bottom. However, now I always know exactly how far off of the bottom my jig is.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!