Cold and windy Horseshoe Granite City 1/4/11

[Camaro130]

Went pheasant hunting at the shoe yesterday and seen like 1waterdog said the water was open, only some skim ice around the shore. So since i've had cabin fever for awhile now I went home and threw the old 12 foot jon and troller in the back of the truck to give it a try today. Didnt want to get out the big boat since its winterized. Man was it a slow cold ride, but well worth it. Had my limit in a little over 2 hrs and continued to fish and have fun a little while after that as they were still hungry. Line started to ice up and eye holes started to freeze about 10:00 so I got outta there. Caught all fish on white/char jigs even a few doubles I thought were hogs till I got em in . The wind may keep it open for a little while, but the the ramp off bend road was surrounded by ice all the way across to the still mill levee road.

[birdman]

very nice! good to see some pictures and success!

[wilbur]

Wow you got you a mess. Them are some good lookin crappie.

[JUNGLEJIMJIGS]

Congrats!!!! Those Shoe crappie have plenty to eat and are really fat. It's my favorite Illinois lake.I've had 100+ fish days this past year from there.

[eat,sleep,fish]

Way to go! those are some nice slabs! I hear ya on the cabin fever. the ice finally got off of rend this week!

[tsdunigan]

congrats on nice catch thanks for the report and the pics the cabin fever is really starting to set in on me as well ,,, going try to get out this weekend might be on hard water .

[MontanaBoy]

Nice looking mess of Crappie. How did the pheasant hunting go. I have been over there several times hunting pheasant and didn't see too many birds on some trips and other trips I saw tons of birds.

[Camaro130]

Pheasant hunting was great! It was one of the special all hen 4 bird hunts they have every year on Monday's.. I've been there probably 10 times already this year and got my birds every time, most of the time within the first 30 minutes i'm done which is too short of time out for my dogs, so I go help others without dogs get theirs. Had all 4 hens at 9:23 Monday..

[mjm76]

That is a good mess. Do you fish horseshoe alot? I've thought about giving it a whirl out there, since its so close......but never got around to it.

[gabowman]

Good story, photo, and catch. Congrats.