12-15-2003, 08:57 PM
While fishing at fishlake through the ice. On a sunny day you can get down on your belly and see clear to the bottom of the lake in water that is 20 ft deep. We would wear old waders and lay on the ice all day. One day early in the year I was playing with a school of about 20 perch and everytime one would grab my jig I would pull it out of their mouth so that I wouldn't have to catch one of them. All of a sudden the perch disappeared and the largest Macinaw I have ever seen swam through right up to my jig mouthed it, then spat it out and swam off. I couldn't even move to set the hook when it had it in its mouth because of large fish fever. I have no way of judging how large it was, but I know it was way more than 10 lbs.
Another day I was toying with the perch again and had one grab my jig and start swimming around with it in its mouth. The jig was so large that the perch couldn't get the hook in its mouth. I was just waiting for the perch to drop the jig so I wouldn't have to mess with it when a 5 lb mac swam up and started chasing the perch around. The perch didn't want to drop the jig, but the mac was about to eat them both so it dropped the jig and took off into the weeds. The mac gulped up my jig and it gave me a great fight, but it was more fun to watch the whole thing.
If you make it to Fishlake this winter give it a try, you will learn a lot about ice fishing and fish behavior, and it beats small screen size of the aqua view by a mile.
Mjigs
[signature]
Another day I was toying with the perch again and had one grab my jig and start swimming around with it in its mouth. The jig was so large that the perch couldn't get the hook in its mouth. I was just waiting for the perch to drop the jig so I wouldn't have to mess with it when a 5 lb mac swam up and started chasing the perch around. The perch didn't want to drop the jig, but the mac was about to eat them both so it dropped the jig and took off into the weeds. The mac gulped up my jig and it gave me a great fight, but it was more fun to watch the whole thing.
If you make it to Fishlake this winter give it a try, you will learn a lot about ice fishing and fish behavior, and it beats small screen size of the aqua view by a mile.
Mjigs
[signature]