Well after having a tough couple days on the ice around the Detroit Lakes area, I was heading north to do some fishing in another great area of Minnesota, which is the Bemidji area. I had already planned to head up for a few weeks and was looking forward to getting out with some good friends.
Our plan was to check out a few lakes to see if we could get into some good numbers of gills or crappies, whichever was more willing to bite.
Our second lake ended up being the top producer of the day. More crappies were caught than gills, with the sizes ranging from 9-12″. Some gills were caught as well, with a few over the 8″ mark, with one or two getting over the 9-1/2″ mark.
The best lure for me was a Diamond Jig tipped with maggots. I did not get any fish on waxworms, just lookers.
The front that rolled thru as I got up to Bemidji didn’t help the aggressiveness of the fish. There were plenty of lookers that would stare at your bait and then would slowly head back to the bottom.
Overall it was another enjoyable day on the ice with friends, despite the fish not willingly biting our offerings.
Ice thickness ranged from 7-10″ on the three lakes we checked out.
Great job on the panfish Loren !!
I can’t wait to get 7″ of ice down here…
Those are some dandy fish.
Our ice isn’t near that thick in the outer metro area and melting fast. Seems more like April and more rain coming.
Good thing it’s a long winter.
With the warm weather down south this is smelling like a run to my old stomping grounds in the Bemidji area later this week!!!!
Loren,
Nice day on the water.
Jack
Nice. Soooooon, very Soooooooonnnn