Beat the skunk -- "ice" fishing with ester

[INFrank]

I had a chance to duck out of work early on Monday to do a little fishing and test out ester line for the first time. It was a beautiful Feb. afternoon, sunny and 70F...although felt much cooler on lake with it being 90% iced-over and breezy. Luckily there were some small areas clear of ice right around the boat docks, so I was able to do some crappie jigging. It took a little while to find where they were hiding and the right depth, but once I got on them I hauled out 30+ in about an hour. Little guys, however -- 5-6 inches, and skinny.

I used the new Daiwas 5' Trout X XUL and spooled the Piscifun Carbon X II 1000 with 1.75lb. Varivas ES2 (thanks to suggestions here). Lure was 1/64oz tungsten jighead with barbless hook loaded with a crappie ball.

While there was no opportunity to try casting given the ice coverage, I did get to feel out the line on sensitive bites. The little crappie hits were either soft "tick ticks" or just seeing the line move slightly sideways. No issues with knots or line breakage on fish, but it's not exactly like the line was getting taxed on these little guys. I did have one breakage where the hook got stuck on something like a rope close the to dock, and the line/knot did break off with not much more than a moderate tug...which is understandable and something to watch out for with such light line.

Good times overall, and I was just happy to finally get some fish in 2025!