I went to Michels of all places,and bought a batch of plastic plants that looked similar to a milfoil and a cabbage weed type plant. I spent about $20. I then bought a 5 pack of extension cord wraps at home depot for $3. I had plenty of vinyl coated tip up line for a cord and I set to make my own. It was fairly simple to do, just using zip ties to attach the plants to the cord, with a 3 oz pencil weight on the bottom. Over the weekend I ventured out to lake in Burnett Co. Wisconsin. Temp was 20 to 30 below zero. I set up my tent & heaters and then put down my home made weeds. I had five plants and also enough to camo my cord for my aqua view. The lake was one with absolutely no structure, a small dishpan. About 20 minutes passed seeing no fish and then a couple blue gills came in, and then more, and then more. 2 hours into my expirement I had Blue gills and perch all around me all the time. The only time they left, was when a northern came swimming through. I ended up with about 1/3 of a bucket full of gills. Had a lot of big gills go up and tap the bait with their nose but not bite it possibly due to the high pressure cold front occuring. I fished the same area last year and came up with a couple but never saw that many in one area. According to the locals nobody ever catches much for blue gills in that lake, but I think due to my artificial weeds, they came to me. I still have more experimenting to do, but I think the reel weeds people may have something.

Thanks for the link Dave, the info was very helpful.

I’m possibly interested in the reel weeds system. How does it work, and how long does it take for fish to respond to the new cover? I just posted a topic about this because I wanted to get more info before I purchase them.

My in-laws live in Ames also, you ever try ice fishing the new ADA HADEN park area going north out of town on Grand. My father in-law was going to see if anyone was trying it this week. Saw a few guys fishing the borrow pit off of Highway 13 by the CR Sewer Plant. Always wanted to try it, but don’t know if I can stand the smell if the winds out of the west. Another friend fished the borrow pit up by Brandon and said ice was pretty good there too.

Thanks for the tip Kory, I’ll have to try the bottom bounce and dead stick method if I’m just getting lookers. Got any tips on how to keep the bass off the hook though. Seems to be a lot of small bass in there. When my wife and I were out on Friday, if we hooked a bass, we had 4 lines tangled together each time. It never failed. Whats the vote on mornings vs. evenings at Belva Deer.

Went back to Belva Deer again yesterday and tried the afternoon bite. There wasn’t one. Caught one fish as the front barreled in and the tempature dropped off the table. Most of the snow melted off of the ice with the previous days high of 45 degrees. Hard to hold the tent anywhere without blowing away on the slick ice.

I ran out of ringworms earlier in the week and a catfish worm was the only ribbed worms I had left. I think saugers will pretty much hit anything if your dragging it on the bottom at the right speed.