Our plan of attack was to fish Matt's front lawn in the morning, and then another local lake in the afternoon.
Matt and I started early while Matt's dad was to join us a little later.
After we got to the hotspot, Matt got the auger out to pop a hole...but the auger wasn't doing its job. Darn! One of the screw holding the blade has popped out and we couldn't find it.
Luckily, there were a few old holes that were open or just had skims on them.
So we picked the most convenient ones and pop down a minnow each.
I set up my Lowarance X67C and Matt pop down my panfish rod with a pinhead. Matt was next to me and we were trying to see if the sonar can pick up my rig which was just 1 1/2 foot away. Well, while we were testing, Matt pulled up a perch. Skunk over for Matt. No pic for that 8" perch.
Within the first 10 mins, Matt had the bells go off. Swing and a miss.
Not too long later, his rod went off again. Like the local champ he is, he had the little hammerhandle on the ice quickly. Too small and slimy for a pic...so back it went in 20 seconds.
Then, the fish on the bottom activated the spring bobber on my rod...and up come a little crappie. Skunk over.
It's been too long...so I had to take a pic.
Soon, Matt's rod went off again... 8O
By this time, Matt's dad was on the ice...and Matt went 2/3 on pike by 9am.
And...
Matt's rod went off again...another non-photogenic hammerhandle on the ice and back down.
And Matt's rod went off again...
By this time, I threatened to throw Matt down the hole...but Matt smartened up and told the little handle to bring some friends over to my rod
And they saved him from getting a soaking. (I did decided to change from a glow jighead to a chartreuse jighead (just like Matt's)
).
But...Matt's rod continued to go off...
All this time, it was only swings and misses for Matt's dad and I.
Then I got a surprised attack. My I was fishing a pinhead with my UL rod and my spring bobber just flickered a little, almost like a crappie sucking in a pinhead. It flicked again and then all was dead. I decided to set the hook anyways and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ 8O
After a much determined fight on the UL rod and 6lb test with a 1/32oz jig, the pike surfaced 8O It's a highlight catch for me on the UL rod...but pike was not photogenic.
During all this time, we got a couple more crappies, a few more perch and a bluegill. Good action for sure.
Then Matt had another attack on the UL rod by a pike...also landed it.
By 11am, the action died. Morning express was over...so we hopped into the house for lunch and some warmth (and to dry out wet boots...it was slush everywhere!
)
After lunch, Matt and I hit up the local bait shop to shoot the $hit with the shop owner and the customer. On the way, I went to Crappie Tire to get a pair of rubber insulated boots (Dry feet from now on!!!
)
We got a dozen more pike minnow, a package of maggots, I bought two UL reels for the ice rods...spending money everywhere!
After we got back, it was 2pm. Matt's dad needed to take Matt's sister to work, so we fished on Matt's front lawn some more while we waited.
Not long after we started, Matt missed one...then I missed one...then Matt missed one...but I finally got one...all within the first 30 min.
My biggest OOS bass through the ice so far.
The afternoon was not the same as the morning...the action was very slow. We saw a lot of fish on bottom looking and following our pinheads...but they didn't want to hit. The hammers were nowhere as well.
We got a couple of small perch from 2pm-3:30pm...and that was all the action aside from a couple of missed hits on pike rods.
At about 4:30pm, the action finally picked up a little. After a couple more missed hits, Matt's dad hooked up.
While Matt was taking the picture, I heard Matt's rod rang once. I ran over to see some headshakes, opened the bail, waited, closed the bail, set the hook, called Matt over, reeled the fish up halfway...and handed him the rod
(So...is that my fish or Matt's fish? 
)
Close enough to call it a double header.
Then, we missed a couple more before it got even darker and the crappie action began.
The first one from that stretch hit like a typical slab...suck in the pinhead and swin off steadily. It was great to see these slabs again. C&R works and I hope everyone continues to do so on this small lake.
We were seeing them all over the bottom from 6" to 3 feet up. It was good action for sure. At times, as we were dropping our pinheads down, they would come up to meet it 5-6 feet off bottom! 8O
A few more average-sized crappies later, Matt got his slab too!
(same size as mine...I just held it out...and I make all fish look bigger )
We were hitting crappies until dark. But it was getting a bit chillier and darker...and the fish seemed to have left...so we called it a day at 6pm.
Final count (from what I can remember):
Matt
7/10+ pike
6 perch
10+ crappies
1 bluegill
Matt's dad
2/8+ pike
A few perch
Ken
3/10+ pike
4 perch
6 crappies
1 bass
What a day out with good friends and good fishing. I gotta work less and enjoy life a little more
