Open Water, Maybe?????

Mother Nature is really messing around with us lately, with these wide range weather swings. Checked out a pond on Friday evening to verify that the waters were ice free for a fishing outing in a day or so, ice was gone and a plan was set.

Wasn’t able to get to the water until Sunday morning, of course the previous night, got down into the low 20’s and guess what, the pond froze over again with a layer of ¼” ice.

Had to play ice breaker barge with the boat for getting around the pond. This also created very limited places to fish, as you had to drop the line into the water behind the boat in the limited trailing open water.

Ended up being somewhat of an open water ice fishing version as you crept along breaking the ice, watching the Vexilar screen for any signs of suspended crappies. Once these were found, vertical jigged the Clam Outdoors Leech Flutter Spoon without any type of trailer other than the feathers.

These crappie were all over this spoon as no one has been able to fish here since it froze over a few months ago. Started with a few smaller fish but was able to finally locate some of the nicer crappie and was fun putting a bend back into the long pole once again.

Using the Vexilar, this allowed me to adjust my jigging presentation, by seeing how they were reacting to what I was doing. Most of the fish came in fast and hard, so a fairly erratic motion is all that was needed instead of more of a finesse approach.

The winds really started picking up again at this point and would blow the boat up against the ice making it feel like a not so safe situation. Was nice finally getting back onto the open water and looking forward to working these fish over again, hopefully under better circumstances.