I awoke early this mourning thinking I was going to go harvest some ducks boy was I wrong I think the ducks forgot that they are supposed to fly south when its cold. So with alot of sweet talking me and the wife were off to catch a meal of yellows for supper.I am happy to say we are having fish for supper. My digital decided it was time to change batteries so all the pictures had to be takin at home
Since the yellow bass is not common to all bodys of water I will try to give a little history on them. First of all they are fantastic in the frying pan I compare them to yellow perch. Now for the bad news they can over populate a lake and become stunted thus the DNR reccomends harvesting has many as you can. I am happy to say the anglers have been staying ahead of the yellows for a few years now and we have enjoyed some fantastic fishing and eating. The ice fishing season again looks like its going to be great
It took us awhile today to put together a pattern but once we did the action was decent the high winds of the last few days and plummeting water temps made them a little sluggish.The winds were light out of the SE when we arived so we used them to our advantage and slowly drifted area,s that we felt held fish I started with a red and white hair jig tipped with a minnow and the wife used a phelps foater with a minnow. We were both having alot of short hits I asume the cold water has them awful sluggish.I mentioned to the wife that maybe a ice fishing technique would work. It took some searching but I found a couple of buck shot rattle spoons in chrome color.They were the ticket we pinched off the head of a fat head minnow and tipped the spoon and started to connect on alot more hits.We tried many places and our best luck today was just north of the island in 14ft of water. Yellow bass can be very nomadic but ussually the island area will put fish in the boat this time of year. Joe,s Guide Servivce 641 749 2239
Sounds like you two a fun day on the water. Thanks for the info on those fish as I didn’t know alot about them.
Are the panfish like crappies and gills a big attraction in the fall or more of just a summer bite down there? Thanks, Bill
I had a similar result Sunday as well. Deep water slowly moving around. We did our damage along fisherman’s reef in 12.5′
Clear Lake is an exception to the rule on yellow bass. In most other lakes they are a terrible fish to have in your lake. They overpopulate and stunt their own population. Kill them whenever you catch them. The only good thing about them in other lakes is that they are a fantastic fish to put kids on, because they bite and fight. I kill about 30 a trip down here in Cedar Falls whenever I take a kid out. Most aren’t any bigger than my hand. I think the DNR has completely killed off at least 2 lakes because of these little pests. So go to Clear Lake if you want to catch them, they’re great fun and grow pretty big up there.
As far as panfish in my immediate area the yellows are our panfishery and you can catch them year round with spring fall and early winter peak times We have a couple of small lakes that have perch that provide fall and winter action I hope to have a feild report on them on first ice Our other area lakes and ponds have some crappie and gills but size most years are not there