Gilford now

Meant to say "ice shift is crazy"

If that's the case then I hope the lurkers will at least use the info to take their kids out tomorrow for family day.

Nice going. Good day for moving around to find them. I was in gilford yesterday. We had the ice quake also. Made the buzz so much better.

Dandy jumbo !

She's making ice!!!

LMAO!!! freakin hilarious!!! thanks for the laugh

Be safe fellars

Ended the day with just 6 keepers but well over 50 landed. Deeper water made a big difference. From the mid afternoon on, we were changing baits every single fish. We would catch one, drop back down and watch them on the flasher come up to the bait, but not eat. Reel up, change bait, drop back down and boom, fish on. We actually got in a rythm of taking turns both fishing in the same hole with the flasher. While I would change baits, buddy is jigging on the fish. I know it seems crazy, but just by simply changing the bait, we could get bit in ~30 seconds after dropping down. Without changing bait, it could take 5 minutes of working one fish for it to bite. They seemed pretty picky today compared to what I normally run into in summer, but maybe that's just ice perch.

The other solid pattern earlier in the day was a jigging rap/slab grabber with a drop shot hook 16" up the line. We could see on the flasher that we were getting lots of interest on the bottom bait, but most wouldn't bite that bait. Stay with me on this, but we found a pretty full proof pattern . With the drop shot hook tipped with a salmon egg or minnow head 16" above the bottom lure, we would watch them on the flasher and coax them off the bottom around 16" or so. When the fish was rising on the spoon or rap we would immediately drop the bait straight back to bottom. This would leave that small drop shot hook suspended right in their face and they would normally hammer it. It seemed easier getting them this way rather than trying to get them to rise up on the small hook alone. Kind of a bait and switch I'd describe. Lure them off bottom with the "decoy" larger lure, and then catch them off guard with the more finesse presentation.

Honestly it would be an easy rig for even kids to master. High hookup rate on the drop shot hook and very easy to replicate the presentation. Hopefully anyone going out after this cold snap will run into more aggressive fish, but keep it in mind if you hit a tough bite but know they are there.

I'll be spending the next few days on solid ground till I get over the 15 second intervals of ice thunder out there today...

Have fun on Family Day out there!

-Patrick

Was out on gilford today(Monday) 10am-2:30pm. I think I was fishing too shallow(20-25fow) cuz I could only find dinks. Presentation to get them to bite was small tube jigs or minnows almost lifeless. Moved 3 times found ice 10-12". Man was it LOUD cracking today. But I guess she's making ice as the shoreline got pushed up like 2 feet as the ice expanded.
Heading out again later this week. Will try deeper water..

That ridge on shore wasn't there when we arrived in the morning. When we left last night it was 2 feet high. Glad to hear she's still making that ice. We did notice a big change in size going from 21 to 28 feet so next time I'll try to get on 30 or 35 feet. At least you got into the action. Was probably a few more people out today.