2-21-2012 Tue

2-21-2012 Tue
10:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Weather: W 15 G 30, overcast, 40˚, 29.56 rising (1253)
Water: 4.79 steady, 13 kcfs, clear, 12” ice
Location: Goose Island Back Bays
Caught: two pike 17 and 20”, 12 bluegills, 4 perch; I kept 7 bluegills and 2 perch
Partners: myself

Comments

I had been wanting to get down to Goose Island this winter and fish a great pike hole next to the main channel, and today was that day. Last year I and two friends fished the area and we did pretty well, although the sizes of the fish were small.
As I drilled holes and set up the tip-ups I scoped the underwater scene out with my Marcum camera. What I saw was lots of weeds; in fact it was solid weeds in every hole. I also saw baitfish: bluegills and perch. The majority of the area was around three feet deep. I fished the area for around three hours and caught two small pike and one perch. I actually caught the perch on a rather large shiner on a tip-up. I also had quite a few flags with the shiners being stripped from the hook; the work of perch I believe. As an afterthought I wished I would have only set out two tip-ups and used a jig pole for pan fish on my third line.
The second spot I went to was much closer to the boat landing and had a little more depth and fewer weeds. I had fished this area earlier in December with Scott and we managed a couple of small pike. Today I did not have a flag here, but I did pan fish with one pole and caught some nice gills and a couple of perch. I actually saw quite a few bluegills on the camera and they were almost all nice sized.

Observations:

The weed growth in the bays down here was quite heavy this year and the water level is probably one foot lower than normal for this time of year. The ice is starting to weaken and the side channels with current are ice free!