First time out this season! Fished Nimisila (C5) with Ronnie from 9am-430pm on Tuesday 2/5/2013. Fished only 1/2 the bay (Western & Northern) b/c the ice was only 2 - 2 1/2in thick with slush & snow on top. In truth, ice conditions were treacherous and unsafe. Ice was cracking beneath our feet. We did not stand together at any point. We fished 5-6ft of water. Pools of water were around us as well, but we weren't stupid and took plenty of safety gear along with me wearing my Artic Armour Float Suit.
Bite was very slow, but we managed to take home a dozen nice crappie. All appeared to be from the same year class, all over 10". Catch to keeper ratio was phenomenal. I think we only threw back 3 or 4 undersize, under-limit crappie. First time catching more crappie than blue gill and more keepers than throw-backs. Only caught a handful of gills... all dinks.
All the fish were holding tight to the bottom within the weeds and had to be coaxed out of the weeds to bite.We saw very few fish "cruising" with our Vex's. I caught the majority of the crappie on a mini-jigging rapala... silver with red color. Ronnie got his on a Cicada. None were tipped with any live bait.
Nice, healthy fish. Beautiful coloration & fin development. No parasites or cysts in the flesh.
