01-19-2016, 10:32 PM
Intended to go to Mantua this morning, but met a guy in the parking lot who was leaving because in his opinion the ice wasn't safe. He said it was 8-10" thick, but had the consistency of "snow cone ice." He said it sagged under him. That was all I needed to hear. Headed up to Hyrum.
The ice was very thin at the ramp, and seemed to have three layers farther out: An inch or so of ice, an inch of water, and then five inches of good solid ice under that.
The second I dropped my Marcum in the hole, it showed 55" depth and a SOLID black layer of fish up to 45'. The next few hours went like this: Drop lure, engage reel, set hook.
The first perch was 9" - and was the largest I caught all day. Caught a gazillion of them, and shoved them all back down the hole. Tried setting up a deadstick rod, but it was useless because I couldn't reel in fish on both of them at the same time.
Oddly, they wouldn't hit my bottom jig. They always hit the rat finkee or atomic ant above it. Tried several rigs. So I tied on another rig with a small gold spoon below an atomic ant. After that, every perch came on the spoon. I used a mealworm above and below.
An amazing day. Fish galore and warm enough to not need gloves. Ahhhhhhhhh!
[signature]
The ice was very thin at the ramp, and seemed to have three layers farther out: An inch or so of ice, an inch of water, and then five inches of good solid ice under that.
The second I dropped my Marcum in the hole, it showed 55" depth and a SOLID black layer of fish up to 45'. The next few hours went like this: Drop lure, engage reel, set hook.
The first perch was 9" - and was the largest I caught all day. Caught a gazillion of them, and shoved them all back down the hole. Tried setting up a deadstick rod, but it was useless because I couldn't reel in fish on both of them at the same time.
Oddly, they wouldn't hit my bottom jig. They always hit the rat finkee or atomic ant above it. Tried several rigs. So I tied on another rig with a small gold spoon below an atomic ant. After that, every perch came on the spoon. I used a mealworm above and below.
An amazing day. Fish galore and warm enough to not need gloves. Ahhhhhhhhh!
[signature]
