Fairy Lake Ice Fishing – March 10, 2013
I needed to go fishing. Between school, chores at home, and other events in my life, my stress levels were higher than they should be and there was only way to solve them – hit the water. Since the weather forecast made this look like possibly the last weekend for safe ice, I knew Fairy Lake was the only place I wanted to go.
I could not have asked for a nicer day to spend on the ice. The sun was shining, I didn’t need a hat or gloves, and best of all, there was no one on the lake! I could see why some people avoided the lake, since the warm weather had opened some holes in the ice. However, Darrell drilled holes along the way and we found that there was still some great ice buried under the slush and snow, we just had to keep an eye out for the bad spots. For only the second time this season we were able to setup in our favorite spot, and we immediately marked fish.
No need for the hut today.
Since we were targeting crappie we started with our finesse jigs. These have been our go-to lures in the past and we felt pretty confident we could coax a few to bite. I had a red Gulp Alive angleworm on my jighead and had several fish show interest and even had a few hits, but no takers. Darrell started with a white Gulp Alive waxie on his jighead and jigged it more aggressively than I had. In short order he was reeling in a crappie.
Darrell’s first fish of the day.
With that first fish out of the way Darrell was able to land a few more. I was still scoreless. A few bumps, a few taking the tail but not the hook, in short, I obviously wasn’t giving them what they wanted. When Darrell went a long stretch without a bite, we decided it was time to change things up. Almost all of our success catching crappie on Fairy Lake through the ice has come on the two jigs we were using, but the finesse game didn’t seem to trigger the bites today, so we switched it up to small spoons and found there are times these crappie enjoy a little more flash.
I finally got one!
After that we managed to pick up a few fish. They liked an aggressive jig followed by a pause. It wasn’t a hot bite by any means, but they were coming through the holes often enough to keep us busy and focused on the fish finder. I lost a few that went for the spoon as I was starting to jig – it took a few tries to alter my technique and make it a more sweeping motion so I would stop pulling the hooks away. Darrell’s technique was better than mine, and the little blade on his spoon really seemed to interest the fish.
Hello fishy.
They weren’t big, but neither of us cared.
No better way to end the ice season than by catching some Fairy Lake crappie.
By four in the afternoon the bite was really slowing down and the fish were starting to disappear from our screens. When it had been a long stretch since either of us had caught a fish, we decided to pack it in after a fun day on the ice. While we had safe ice today, I am pretty sure this will be our last outing of the season. You could hear the water rushing down the holes as the snow and ice melted under the strong sun. The holes got wider throughout the day, and the undrilled holes appearing in the ice were a little unsettling – to the point where I double-checked I had my ice picks around my neck. Braver souls than us may venture out in the next while, but I’m happy to call it quits after an outing like today.
The auger was sinking into the snow.
Our ice fishing season was not nearly as successful as past years. We didn’t make it out near as often as normal, and while trying new lakes and new areas on lakes, we didn’t catch as many fish as we normally do. However, every minute out fishing is a good one, and I’m thankful for the time we did have this season. We didn’t accomplish our goal of finding the large crappie in Fairy Lake through the ice, but that’s okay. In a few weeks the ice will be gone and we’ll be back out there with the boat, hitting up our favorite spring crappie spots.
I did get my day out fishing and I had a wonderful time. As usual, spending a few hours fishing reduced the stress levels and put me in a much better state of mind. For that, I am thankful.
argosgirl
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Glad you got out and enjoyed a good day on the ice. It was a beautiful weekend to be outside a while. I flyfished and, like you, felt a lot better for having been on the water.
It’s amazing how therapeutic the water is. Thanks for reading!