A Great Saturday Ice Fishing Illinois

Well, it was 8 degrees and 20 mph wind out at Norris this morning as we were loading up all our ice fishing gear! With my lake being perched up 40 feet in the air and no trees around, I knew it was going to be way too windy to fish there today, so we headed over to Otter Creek to get out of the wind. The move paid off pretty good I would say! Here is a pic of a nice walleye we caught today on a small bluegill jig tipped with 2 spikes:

I fished with 2 groups of guys today. Justin, Patrick, and Will made the trip over from Lincoln, IL and Jim's group of guys were mainly from the Quad Cities area. With the bright sun, high pressure, and frigid windy temps I knew the bite was going to be pretty tough. Its just a good thing we were fishing in some of the most productive fish water in the state! We marked a bunch of fish, but had to work pretty hard to get them to bite. Without Vexilars we really wouldn't have caught many fish at all. Here are some really big and fat bass on super light tackle!

A bunch of Boone and Crocket Bluegills!

Crappie Time!

Oh yeah, my mom, dad, Justin, and Jonn Graham were along today to help me out. Mom and Dad help tremendously getting everything together and Justin and Jonn help find active fish. Jonn found several great holes for the guys to fish in!

Also while we were taking some photos last week, a fish pulled one of the guys St. Croix ice fishing rods into the lake! Well, we actually somehow caught that rod today about 30 feet from where it fell in! How cool is that!!!

Dennis was the multi species king today

Here are the Lincoln fellas posing with their main course for Super Bowl Sunday! (Hey Justin, watch out for small town cops)

We fished from noon till dark. The crappies were 6-10 feet below the ice in 15 feet deep of water and were mainly caught on live minnows. The bass were isolated and mainly caught right off the bottom with small jigging spoons tipped with waxies or minnows. Occasionally when a bass wouldn't bite near the bottom we would entice him up a couple feet before he would finally nibble. The bluegills were in 9-12 feet of water mainly on the bottom with small jigs and waxworms. The fish actually were more active at noon today than in the evening. The bite got progressively worse as the day went on. For some reason the coldest days the fish are biting better in the mornings and on warmer days they are biting better in the evenings. I will be paying very close attention to this pattern to see if it continues???