HIt Willow Slough again today and finally brought home a mess. My 8 year old got cold and we left but we had a little run of fish. Wind died as we were leaving but I think we will make it back. Tons of ice!

Congrats!

Looks great! How deep you fishing there?

We have been told that whole area we are at is 4 ft or so. Catching these about 6-8" off the bottom. Not used to fishing that shallow but evidently it works!!!

Nice job. Early success and leaving him wanting more will payoff.

What address is the fish fry?

Way to get it done!

Nice, nothing like a mess of gills and fried taters.......yum! h.h.

+1. Especially coming out of that cold water!

Like this....

Starting to feel left out! Nice pic Weed.

Weed - that at Keith's? Nice fish.

Thursday my butt will be sitting on the ice somewhere. Its a little early for the perch run but I might hit Wawasee for some perch jerking. h.h.

At some point HH, you've got to explain the perch run. The when, where, equipment, etc.

+1 heck ya - don't leave us hangin like that. Dave, road trip coming.

Bean,,,that pic was taken a few years ago at a pond down the road from my place.

Time to go have a visit then man.

Dave

Yellow Perch spawn in mid to late February under the ice usually in 5ft of water on sand bars. Most of the N.E. Indiana lakes with sand bottoms have very good populations of them. We use minnows, wigglers or Swedish Pimple tipped with spikes. Wigglers are mayfly larva that look kind of like little dragons, you hook them right behind the collar on the back or the tip of the tail. The larva will hump up and down all the time. I've caught all kinds of different fish on them. Perch and big gills love them. They live in sand bottom lakes. Wawasee is full of sand humps and flats. Guys fish the "slip" which is the north end of lake. Perch are right there with walleye on the eating list. If you ever get into the jumbo's you will be hooked........LOL h.h.

When I lived in Lagrange County and was "single", I ice fished ALOT. I always had good success using wigglers. I haven't seen a wiggler in years. Used to be pretty expensive if I remember right but worth it. No place around here has them I would guess.

Perch/walleye...... makin' me hungry.

Hendricks County Parks Dept. took the property over. Catch and release only. :rolleyes:

Google Sodalis Park...

Bean,

Wawasee and Lake James are the only places I used to be able to buy them. Seems to me they were $1.00 a dozen back then. Ive seen the time you didnt have them you would just be setting there watching as other guys caught fish. When the mayfly hatch happens in June on Lake Erie the walleyes gourge themselves and fishing slows down big time. Maxinkuckee is another good perch lake. h.h.

Spent alot of my childhood winter hours on Maxi with my Dad. Maxi was only about a 30 minute drive from home then.

Thanks HH. I've put this on my calendar in mid and late February. It's in there to fill the time between snow geese, spring steelhead and gobblers.

Sounds about right. There was an old timer that had a bait shop just north on South Milford on St Rd 3. His shop was right at the turn to go to Pretty Lake. I used to buy my wigglers there. There were many times fishing on Pretty Lake that guys would slay them on wigglers and all other caught nothing. I spent a ton of time on the ice then and had some tremendous catches around there. Good time.

Was up there fishing out of Channel Grove in Port Clinton, one june, and they had a hatch. I have never seen anything like it. Those things were 6" along the road curbs. Houses were black with them!!!! The street dept. was out with equipment removing them!!!! Needless to say, we didn't catch many fish!!!

I use to fish Pretty Lake a lot and been in that store many times. The store was called Gators. Big Long is just down the road from Pretty and in the store they had pictures of perch catches from Big Long Lake. Some of the perch were 12+". Most guys fished what they called the "narrows on Long. We used to eat at a tavern on Lake of the Woods. Man, that brings back old memories! h.h.

Dandy gills. I need 2 get back out

Today I fished 1/2 hr or so and only caught one gill but tomorrow or Friday Im heading north to perch fish. A friend told me today his buddy has a house on a lake and he catching big perch right out in front of his house. He is setting it up to go.

I got an adapter for my 18v drill to hook on my auger. Cuts through 2 ft of ice in 30 seconds. Great for an old fat man! h.h.

Fished my pond today for about 3 hours and never got a bite. Bought an adapter for my 18v Ryobi drill that fits my Mora auger.......man, it cuts through 2ft of ice in 30 seconds or less. Stopped in a bait shop on the south side of Ft Wayne, Hook n Bow and they had wigglers, $1.50 for 20, i got 60. Tomorrow is perch day! h.h.

Good luck! I will be up in Steuben this weekend doing some fishing, doubt I will get a chance to target perch though.

For those of you that have never seen wigglers, here they are......h.h.

Travis, every lake in Steuben county has perch in them. Good luck and catch a bunch! h.h.

HH, are those similar to hellgrimites? Sorry for misspelling! Fishing sure sounds good but snow geese are calling.

Kind of but smaller I think. You have to change the water on them daily and put a small rock in so they can get out of water at times. Wigglers will catch fish when other baits wont. h.h.

Good luck this weekend. Will be expecting pictures.

Sorry Dave, no pictures!

Fished Pretty Lake Friday because I didnt want to walk 1 mile or so on Big Long. Fish werent cooperating very well and only caught 6 or so.

The bait store on the corner is now a knitting shop.....LOL and it used to be called Cree's instead of Gators.

The new battery powered drill adapter for my ice auger works great! Bore through 2 ft of ice in no time.

Looking forward to next weekend for some fishing on the ice. Thanks for the update. I'm sure they'll bite the next time out for you!

I got a dozen nice crappie this evening in a lake in Fulton county, anywhere from 6' to 14' deep on spikes and a white jig. Two biggest ones were 14.5" dandys.

^^^^^^^^nice^^^^^^^^^

This weekend!

Good luck Delaney!