Christmas Crappie On Fairy Lake
Last year Darrell and I decided that we wanted to start a tradition of spending Christmas Day on the water. Though the ice had been soft the last time we checked, we had a feeling that a couple of cold nights would return it to a quality we felt comfortable with. After a lazy Christmas morning at home, we loaded the ice gear into the back of the truck, and headed for Fairy Lake in Acton.
It was fantastic to be back on the ice, but I was sad to see how the familiar tree line had been ravaged by the ice storm. It was absolutely stunning to see the extent of the damage as we drove in.
Snow was gently falling as we arrived at the lake, and Darrell took the spud out to the ice for a quick check. Instead of going through the ice in one or two blows, it took several blows to get through the hard ice. We suited up, grabbed our gear, and went for a better look. After drilling a few holes near shore and finding a good 6-inches of combination ice (both black and white), we decided to venture out further. Each hole we drilled revealed an increasing amount of black ice, and a thickness of closer to 8-inches. I started to feel more confident, though I am super leery on the ice the first time I go out each season.
When we reached our preferred starting point and found a solid black line on the finder, I forgot my apprehension, grabbed a rod, and started jigging for crappie. It didn’t take long for Darrell to pull the first one through the ice on a small spoon, and the numbers went from there.
One of the first of the season! These little guys are always so much fun.
With a small white jig I started pulling crappies through the ice on a fairly constant basis. It was wonderful! In roughly an hour of fishing I had pulled up at least 20 fish (and sent them all back down the hole after a quick ‘thank you!’). Darrell added a few more and it was a fantastic start to our hard water season.
Since we had arrived at the lake later than we planned, we didn’t have long before the sun went down and we needed to return home to feed our creatures. It was an all too brief outing, but a great reminder of why we love this time of the year, and why we love to visit Fairy Lake.
Merry Christmas from the ice!
argosgirl
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