Report from today Friday mid morning to late afternoon back on lake Petite. Had the day off from work and wanted to try it again. Heard about a lot of people falling thru this week so came prepared, ice picks, spud bar, and extra pair of clothes just in case, especially after all that rain on Thursday. Well, the lake had 4 inches of consistent clear ice, the shoreline is getting soft but definitely manageable for getting on. Lake super slick. I wasted no time and headed to my spot where I found the fish last Sunday, I spud my way. I didn’t have to drill new holes just spud and opened the old ones. Ice was making sounds today and holes were freezing over, should be good for this weekend. My Marcum lit up like a Christmas tree the whole time. Non stop action, gills, crappies, perch, walleye, and LM bass. Best crappie 12 inch, most 10 to 11 range. Best gill close to 9. Best LM 16. Perch 9 to 10 inches. My best ice fishing day so far this season. Caught most fish on spoon tipped with couple red spikes and a waxie, then kept switching it up with pink jig red plastic tail tipped with red spikes, and silver jig with couple of waxies, crappies sure loved that presentation. Best depth 10 to 12 FOW. Spud my way back and made it safely.
FISHING REPORTS
Fox Chain
Lake County, Illinois
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Report from yesterday Sunday, tried Petite Lake for the first time ice fishing with my buddy. Studied lake map and focused on break lines in 10 to 12 fow. Started at 7am and it was tough finding fish, moved little deeper and found tiny white bass, feeling little discouraged. Kept drilling and drilling until we found them, three hours later. Caught a decent amount of bulky perch over 10 inch, lots of gills some really nice ones, good amount of crappies, and four walleyes but short. Switched between spoon tipped with waxies and pink jig tipped with red spikes. Ice was consistent 6 inches, several snow machines, ATVs, and UTVs cruising the lake. It took a lot of hole hopping to find the fish, it wasn’t easy by any means.
Hit the lower fox chain in my boat this morning from 7-11am. Had to break ice at the boat launch. Targeted crappies at my usual spots, but came up empty. Used plastics and then switched to ice jig and waxies under slip float, no takers. The fish either moved out deeper or in the channels, could not get into any channels as they were iced over. Put the boat away until early spring. Now bring on safe ice.
Out with my son this morning for few hours on the lower fox chain. Same drill as last week, dock shooting for crappies. We nailed them with 1/32nd jigs and plastics, my favorite color blue ice. This is my best time of year, extremely low boat traffic and fish are putting a feed bag before winter. Cold water crappies are great to eat too. Kept some but released most.