Posted by Doug from alpxy2.att.com on February 08, 1999 at 16:22:22:
Well I made it out this morning for what may be the last day of ice fishing for 1999. :-(
The planks to walk out on at Pink Harrison's are very stable versus the ones at the Oak Park Hotel from my adventure last Thursday. The ice was making a ton of cracking noises throughout the morning. The ice in most spots is 8 inches. There are however a ton of "black ice" spots with ice varying from 3-6 inches. I am not sure how much the ice will melt with the 50 degree weather.
There was only about 6 - 10 guys on the ice all morning. I ended up with about 20 crappies, 7 drum, 1 nice white bass, and 2 catfish. The schools of crappie moved around frequently like before. I did catch many smaller crappie today versus other trips out. The crappie were suspended in 12-15 feet along with a few caught less than 5 feet down. It seemed like the crappie were hanging above the drum. If my bait went lower the than 15 feet, I caught a drum. I used white plastics and chartuese ice jig with about equal success on each. You needed to be constantly jigging for the tentative ones.
Be careful if you are able to venture out this week.
Happy Fishing
Doug