This ice season the fish seemed more spread out. Far less concentrated to areas, depth ranges, or pieces of cover. It took many holes to find fish and many more to stay on them. So as usually happens after ice fishing several months straight I start to want less vertical jigging and more overhand casting. A quickly hatched plan got me out fishing with Martin Rogers (WackyBass on DuPage Angler) this morning.
O'Dark-Thirty rolled around and Wacky and I walked down to the first of two ponds we'd fish today. The dew was frozen on the grass blades and we could see our breath. I tied on several lures before I found the one that hit. Spinnerbait slow-rolled, burned, reel-pause-reel, rod-movement to flare the skirt yielded nada. Jerkbait got no love for slow twitches, fast twitches, let it sit there and make a sandwich between twitches. Nothing seemed to work.
It was possible the water was too cold and the fish were sluggish. It was possible the bass were spawning or pre-spawn. What would bass want to clobber into the next block in pre-spawn binge or during spawn territorial strike? How about a big-ol bluegill swimbait.
That did the trick! A very nice first open water bass...heck, first open water fish of 2015! It would be the only fish either of us caught all morning but what a way to start the open water fishing season! In the excitement I forgot to weigh or measure her before I released her back to the cold water of the pond. It doesn't matter, she was a quality fish and it made me hopeful for the open water season to come.
