New years pannie action!

MT Bucket: Newyears pannie action!

I got out this weekend fishing up on Big Sandy lake for newyears day and the day after.
I started out with the plan to hole hop with my fishtrap picking off the more agressive fish and moving to the next hole. I put on a bro's gill getter with a Gulp! alive fishfry on my Thorne Brothers power noodle, and nailed a few crappies. Conditions were tough and put the crunch on my plan, there was lots of slush under the powder making my fishtrap feel like dragging a pile of bricks, and it was nasty cold and windy, with winchills near minus 30 degrees, and blowing snow filling the holes. Finally I gave up the moving and camped on a hole. after I picked off a couple of hungry crappies, the fish went negative. I downsized to a ckoutdoors T.H.E. Jig, 1/100 oz black and white, and used my St. croix legend lite ice rod with their spring tip to detect the light biters.
When fish came through, I was able to get them pretty good with that approach and put together a pretty good day. nothing really big , but it was fun. CK was fishing in his Otter right next to me showing Troy how to finesse those light biters, when he hooked into a monster gill well over a pound!
Saturday we woke to minus 32 degrees, (not the windchill) We went out on Billhorn bay, and they had a road plowed out so we could go right out to the hole with no work. CK invited me to fish in his big portable shelter, an otter lodge, that was really nice, very comfortable and relaxing. I stuck with the black and white hair jig all day, as it was working pretty good. they were really negative and had to be teased into biting, sometimes lifting them up a few feet, other times slowly dropping it on them while carefully watching the spring for anything suspicious looking! it was a fun way to fish, kind of like a chess match only fishy. We did'nt hammer em left and right, but the size made it worth the wait for each bite.
What a great way to ring in the new year! Be sure to stop at my blogspot to see all the pics of the trip!
Best fishes in 2010!
MT

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