12-17-2006, 04:49 AM
Billy and I fished Pelican yesterday and today. First off the ice conditions. West side 5 to 6 inches of clear ice. East side. at the most 2 & 33/64 inches of clear ice. We fished both sides, but spent most of the time fishing the east side, because the water is clearer over there and the catching is faster. The water is rising, so the shoreline has thin ice, but fortunately the water is not deep near the shoreline. Coming in Friday afternoon I did a double klutz, when the ice gave away under me close to shore, and I now have a large shiner. Billy did two triple klutzs out on the main lake and he probably has some dandy bruises where the sun doesn't shine. Catching was just short of amazing. Today we put well over 100 fish on the ice. We probably caught about 1/2 dozen largemouth bass (largest 14 inches) and the rest were bluegills (largest 11 inches). It was great fun catching something other than trout, and the large bluegill in Pelican put up a dandy fight. Best rig was TudeDude's bait bugs tipped with a meal worm, a wax worm, or with a crawler. The colors of white, chartreuse, black with shades of other colors, and yellow (all with contrasting colored heads) all worked great. Fished in various depths, but 9 feet seemed to be the best depth. They would hit a dead fished rod, but were more attracted to an actively jigged rod. Great fun fishing with two rods. We also tried Bullock for a couple hours, and despite drilling lots of holes, I caught the only fish that I saw on the fish finder (a fat rainbow). We fished Pelican, Bullock and another small reservoir (caught lots of small trout) and we never saw another angler.
[signature]
[signature]