Met up with Chrisper at my boat moored in woodport @ 0600 in the pitch dark air temperature was 31 degrees.
Ice had formed on all the docks and planks which made it treacherous to unbutton the boat. Finally got the main turned over after 3 attempts (she was cranky being asked to wake up in the freezing cold) and made our way to main lake. The fog had ice pellets in it and it was like we were being sand blasted while cruising down the lake. We were dressed for ice fishing and were still freezing our a$$es off.
We stopped by Dows to grab some bait and were met with the Polish Navy leaving port (4 rental boats loaded with 3 a piece). Chatted up with Laurie and Joe and they mentioned the liver bite had died off. Hearing that we bought some herring and after loading up we were like do we want to go straight to the spot or swing by Lee's and see what was going on.
Mistake #1 - We went to Lee's to see what was going on. Tied up and met YumasDad and Duck or Bleed and spent about 15 minutes BSing and sharing fishing tales. In the meantime some boats headed out and I was getting nervous about our spot. We headed out from Lees and sure enough 3 boats already on the spot.
Mistake #2 - Not wanting to fish like we were on a fluking party boat down the shore we ran around the lake all morning hitting a bunch of spots. We marked a ton of bait and fish but couldn't buy a bite. We even chased herring around that were breaking on the surface like they were being chased. Finally decided to crash the banks and Chrisper landed a monster pickerel.
Got a text from Jigman saying they were killing them on the spot we wanted to hit originally. GRRR
Mistake #3 - Figuring that we missed the action tried one more spot in the main lake for a bit. Again marking fishing but couldn't get one to commit. We looked over to the "spot" and were like how many boats are over there 3,4,5???? Decided to cruise on over and witnessed a full on NJF orgy. I lost count but well over 7 boats all within casting distance of each other pulling up hybrids and white perch left and right on .........yup you guessed it Chicken Livers!!!
Eddie was nice enough to offer us a picture with his hybrids but we declined.
Everyone took off around noon. Chrisper and I stuck around until 4pm and jigged up some crappie and a nice 19" hybrid.
Pretty frustrating day but had a great time fishing with Chrisper and meeting some of the NJF crew!
At least I know what not to do next year!
