Private Pond Gills

Pondboy and I made our plans Saturday.  We decided he would drive, we'd take my ice shelter, then drive to someplace he doesn't get to fish very often but has been fishing since he was of high-school age.

As a kid Pondboy snuck in to this pond a few times but stopped after a nightime top-water fishing trip ended with him on his stomach for a hour.  You see the noise from the lures splashing down added to the noise of bass slamming the topwater in the dark caused one house to turn on their outside lights, then the next, then the spotlight from a squad car ended the trip.  Now you see why he ended up on his belly in the weeds.  He was hiding from the police.

Some time in high school Dan met a girl who was a friend of a friend.  They started talking and Dan found out she lived on this private pond where he'd been sneaking in to fish.  He quickly asked if she thought he could come fish in the pond sometime.  She arranged for it to happen but with one caveat; everyone's property line extends to the water so Dan had to fish within the boundaries of her yard.  That brought up the subject of boats and he received permission to bring his 10' skiff and greatly increase the area he could fish.

Flash forward to Sunday January 27, 2013.  Pondboy is now a Facebook friend with this woman who's parents still live in the same house on the same pond.  A short exchange of messages and she alerted her parents to call the neighbors so they wouldn't call the cops on the two guys walking around on top of the lake.

The weather was on a strange trip for January.  That month had flirted with cold weather and embraced it more than December but tomorrow the cold would yield to a warm front.  Who knows how the ice will react to almost 60 degrees and rain so we were taking every opportunity to find fish on this pond.

I drilled a test hole a few feet from shore; 5.25".  Very safe.  The rest of the pond didn't drop below 4.5" of ice thickness and how do I know that you may ask?  Because I walked all over it drilling holes trying to find fish on the edges of weed beds.  Dan was following me with his new fish finder on a Genz Box.  He wasn't sure of the settings and modes just yet so I could drill 20 holes and circle back around with my flasher and a custom ultra-light ice rod.  I did this after my second set of 20 holes and it paid off.

A cute largemouth was fun to watch rise up off the bottom and get teased into biting my jig.  This picture and a quick release later and I was back to drilling.

We decided to set up the shelter and fish seated so six holes were drilled in a line and the Frabill tent flipped over us as we sat in the comfy seats.  A small adjustment to line up the shelter sled-body with our holes and we got to fishing.

In our first spot, in short order Dan picks up this lovely crappie.  He was relieved the skunk had been broken for him.  Now we could work on catching more.  Where there's one crappie there are more, right?

"Dan," I said after 20 fishless minutes "I think that that was a rogue-crappie"

We chuckled about the thought of one lone crappie swimming around the pond but for the rest of the trip we wouldn't catch another one.  No more crappie.  No more anything on Dan's fish finder and nothing below my holes in my flasher's cone.  Time to move.

Flipping back the tent let out all the warmth we had trapped in the shelter.  Quickly we put on gloves and started flashing and fish finding in holes to try to find fish.  Then we tried to find weed edges as no fish seemed to be near any of our holes.

We parked in our second and final spot.  I used my ION electric auger to drill three, eight inch holes with an inch of ice between them for my long custom rods and three more just like them a foot closer to the shelter for Dan's standard size ice rods.

We noticed the temperature drop and got the shelter and Mr. Heater situated to make our time on the ice comfortable.  It was at that point the freezing "Wintery Mix" started to fall.  It was at that point another thing started to happen; we started marking fish.

Big, beautiful Brim began biting!  (I couldn't resist the alliteration)  To make things even better the only thing the big bluegills would bite was the tantalizing tail of the Little Atom Nuggies we each were jigging with.

The one fish we decided to measure was 8.25".  That's a nice bluegill!!!

All Little Atom, all afternoon.  Quality gills kept combing the weedline we were sitting above and Nuggies were what was for dinner!

We didn't want to go but both Dan and I had to be home for different reasons so it made sense to end the day.  Aside from the one bass which was caught on waxworms everything else we caught wanted Little Atom Nuggies!  The Nuggies saved the day for us, turning a slow day on the ice to a fun time jigging for bluegills.  Litlle Atom bluegills from a private pond.

Shabbona - The Day of 50 Holes

Some may have noticed I started this blog after my first trip out ice fishing with Dan Byrne aka Pondboy from DuPage Angler.  

Some may have noticed my excitement about ice from my posts here as soon as the weather started to get cold.

I wanted to go somewhere to ice fish that would be challenging to me. I have a poor record when it comes to fishing Shabbona Lake in the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Shabbona Lake State Recreation Area.  I'll own my record.  The sidebar on the upper right side of this page tells my introductory tale as starting fishing again in my adult life on July 3, 2011.  On July 3 and 4th of 2011 my friend Dave and I decided to start fishing and picked Shabbona to be the first lake we'd fish.  On the first day I believe I caught my first largemouth bass ever, then nothing more in 4 more trips.

Now that I see this picture again it's a larger largemouth than I remember it being.  Still after reading the ice reports on Shabbona Lake State Park's Facebook page I was taking a leap of faith that I'd have ice to fish on when I arrived.  The weather had been gradually getting warmer since last weekend's fun out on the ice and today was forecast a high of 47 degrees.  It looked like it would hit it too.

After buying a map and chatting with a man at the bait shop counter I learned there were several patches of open water but 4-6 inches on most of the rest of the lake.  I spent the next 5 hours drilling holes.

Last weekend a stop to check out a lake that I had never fished through the ice caused me to realize my 8"  Strikemaster Lazer Sharp ice auger was a great hole driller but my arms stopped being great human-auger power after 15 holes or so.  To remedy this problem I purchased an ION lithium ion electric auger.  The auger is rated to drill 40 holes through two foot thick ice on a single charge.  I doubt I'll ever see two foot thick ice so I should be able to punch a few more than that.

Today I did.  Today I'm calling the Day of 50 Holes.  I changed locations three times.  In the first location I punched 15 holes.  No signs of life at all on my flasher in any of them.  I stopped and worked a hole when I marked something mid-water column but nothing bit my jig.

Time to move again.  As I was moving spots I got a text from my friend Jason Coyne.  He was going to bring his son Mathew to see ice fishing and all that is involved.  I punched at least 10 holes here looking for a fish crib.  Judging by the number of jigs I lost that got hooked on something wooden I'd bet I found it.

Matthew liked the water puddled on the surface, the rocks people placed on the ice marking locations, the pita chips I had for a snack and a little bit of the ice fishing experience.  Unfortunately the fish just weren't biting.  Jason and Mathew left and I contemplated a third and final move to a spot closer to my car.

 

Now I know I'm calling this the Day of 50 Holes but I'm pretty sure I drilled at least 30 in this final bay.  It was just so easy with my ION power auger.  I was looking for a fish crib that was centered in the cove and flanked by brush piles on either side. 

It took almost all 30 holes in this last bay to locate my first fish.  I jigged a Fiskas tungsten jig tipped with two wax worms.  Dropping the jig down to near the bottom caused the bottom to move up to check out my jig.  I teased it up, then up some more, then I paused and wiggled slightly until I felt the tap and light pull on my custom ultralight ice rod.  I raised up a hook set and my rod bent with the weight of a nice bluegill.

Hooray for beating the skunk!  It took what seemed like forever but I can now say I've caught two fish at Shabbona.  

Burrrrrr....it's getting colder.  Time to flip over my shelter and get away from the wind.  I drilled a few more holes to fit within the width of my shelter.  I slipped my transducer into one hole and dropped in a Fiskas jig tipped with a Little Atom Micro Nuggie in Glow Pearl color.  

Dropping the jig into the brushpile I was over yielded a blip on my flasher screen.  It chased my jig's tail up, and up, and up and SET!  TWO fish!!  

I wanted to get a shot of the Micro Nuggie in its mouth but it really didn't want to cooperate for the picture.  This was a better sized gill than the first one.  I could actually lip this one.  (and I did just to see if I could)  Like the first gill I caught I let this one slip back into the chilly water of Shabbona Lake.

No more fish would come up for a picture today.  I was happy sitting in my shelter relaxing for a moment.  The orange glow of the sunset through the trees behind me bled through my plastic shelter window.  I thought about ice fishing and what I have learned between last year when I started and now.  I reflected on the pleasure of fishing and time spent with friends.  Not everyone can say they have walked on a lake and that's kind of neat.  

When I packed my gear in my shelter's storage areas and collapsed the tent I saw the vast field of  holes I had drilled.  I'm sure the last area had more than 30 holes but the Day of 63 holes doesn't have a cool a ring to it.  I'll stick with 50 holes, two bluegills, upping my catch total to 3 fish in 6 visits at Shabbona Lake, and a great day on the ice successfully locating and catching a few fish in what was a tough bite for everyone I talked to.

I think I'll soak in the sunset for a few more minutes before packing up the car.