fishing reports

bueller

Moderator
SmallChunk's smallie post got me thinking that a fishing report thread would be kinda neat and I didn't want to hijack his. So what's everyone catching????

I got this 23" brown trout through the ice on Racine harbor Saturday morning. Caught him deadsticking a fathead off the bottom. Great fight on an ice rod!

IMG_20150117_122849_254.jpg
 
beuller, anyone you know of fishing Geneva right now?
 
  • Like
Reactions: ATP
Now thats cool, i wish we had a trout lake around here!

We have been chasing the pike a lot lately, and getting into quite a few but haven't gotten over the 36" mark yet this year...sooner or later!



The ladies have been getting after it too!


 
beuller, anyone you know of fishing Geneva right now?
Nope sorry. And havent heard much about the ice there since the thaw.
 
Nice pike! I'm hoping to chase some pike flags on the backwaters of the WI River in a couple weeks. Unfortunately early February is usually pretty slow for us though.
 
Nope sorry. And havent heard much about the ice there since the thaw.
Yeah, it's probably pretty sketchy out there right now. My buddies back home were into some slab crappies on the Rock, SE of the mouth of the Little Yellow, but that was a few weeks back and I haven't talked to them since.
 
Yea I've heard its been pretty good so far this year on the Rock. We have a hard time getting up there in January and when we go in early February its usually dead. Then by late February and early March the bite is back on.
 
One of these times, if we ever get back there at the same time I will have to take you out to the old walleye grounds that we fished when I was growing up. Almost a sure bite for about the last 45 minutes before dark. Some days were so good, we would have flags popping while running out to another flag. If my uncle still put his shanty out, I could just have you look for it, guaranteed it would be camped right on top of it, but he rarely ever goes anymore now that he's in his 70's.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ATP
That sounds like a blast!
 
The nice part was, you never knew what you were going to catch in that area either. We caught not only tons of walleyes on tip-ups, but slab crappies and jumbo perch as well while jigging.
 
Only been out twice so far and it has been slow. I did luck into this nice19" eye while looking for perch. I also ended with 12 slob perch View attachment 3712
Chum, you ever get over to Lake Erie to fish walleye? I saw an ice fishing show where a group of guys caught over a dozen 10lb walleyes in one day. It didn't even seem plausible, but they hoisted them up fish after fish took pics, and let them go. I wonder if that's possible, or if it's just a once in a lifetime outting?

It was these guys:
 
I have not. But that story is believable, Erie has some huge walleyes and lots of them. The lake I fish there are a lot of walleyes 18-22". When you hit that perfect day it is not unheard of to catch 30 of them in that range. I get my limit of three and go looking for perch but some guys will sit there and catch them all day. They must of had one of those days! I ice fish 3-4 days a week and there are only a handful of those days all season. I would rather bring home 50 12" perch than stuff 30 walleyes back down the hole.
 
Just out of curiosity, would anyone here mount a 10 in bluegill? I saved him thinking I might but my wife talked me out of it because it was more of a novelty and not my typical target species. What is the cut off for a trophy gill?
 
Just out of curiosity, would anyone here mount a 10 in bluegill? I saved him thinking I might but my wife talked me out of it because it was more of a novelty and not my typical target species. What is the cut off for a trophy gill?
Guys post 10"ers on the lake I fish and it always prompts the question. It seems 10" is the target for guys mounting them.
 
I think I would mount it as part of a scene, like a seven pound bass chasing it. I get what you are saying about target species, I catch a couple 14" perch every year and have thought about it but not sure I want a perch on the wall. They go better in a sandwich. I know a guy who has a work in progress mount going. He gets his biggest perch every year mounted and added to a stringer. Kind of like people that get part of a tattoo done every year. I think he is up to 5 perch on the stringer.
 
I have heard people talk about wanting to mount a 10". Like chummer says I think a panfish mount would be best as part of a scene.
 
Just out of curiosity, would anyone here mount a 10 in bluegill? I saved him thinking I might but my wife talked me out of it because it was more of a novelty and not my typical target species. What is the cut off for a trophy gill?
I go by weight. I've got 3 over a pound. One of which was a sunfish that missed the state record by a half an ounce. I would have crushed the record if the catch was closer to spawn time.
I regretted not having my other pounders mounted until they touched my lips. Now I just buy my fish, a lot cheaper that way.
 
I have two gills I caught in the same day 10 3/4" within 15 minutes. I usually catch to eat but for whatever reason I had no plans to keep any fish this day so they were released into the same small town lake. That will be two summers ago coming up so if they are alive they have to now be close to record size.
 
Top