First Ice/Open Water Bass
Once again ice is slow to form this season. I didn't make it out for first ice until early 2021. I'm not big on the travel 2 hours north to catch bluegills (trout, burbs, and perch are a different story) so I waited for ice close to home. The Grand River bayous were the first to freeze around here and news of that was spreading like wildfire.
I headed to a bayou with a few inches of decent ice and a bunch of my closest friends. I absolutely hate fishing in a crowd but I knew what I was getting into. As far as the crowd goes I was pretty impressed with people. I didn't see anybody getting out of control or leaving a bunch of stuff on the ice. Not even a single hole littered with cigarette butts. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, enjoying the nice weather, and getting some fish. It was a much different environment than walking through the crowd at the sand docks on Muskegon Lake. It was refreshing for me to see and I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.
The school was really spread out and everyone was getting some action. Most fish took some work to get to bite but there were some really nice gills and pumpkinseeds to be had. I actually ended up with 3 really nice perch too. It is always a nice surprise to get a few perch while bluegill fishing. It felt so good to be out that I had to go back for more the next day. The ice was a little bit "bouncy" the next day and I definitely had concerns it wouldn't survive the week of warm weather coming. I'm glad to be prepared for the worst if something were to happen while I was out there. The Rise Float suit from Clam Outdoors definitely makes me feel a little more secure. I'm also sure wear my ice picks and have my Clam throw rope handy in case someone were to go for a swim around me.
Fishing was even better on day 2! I caught almost all of my fish for the weekend on 2 jigs. A gold 1/16 ounce Clam The Drop XL did most of the work. That XL hook is the deal for catching more fish as it is big enough to not blow out of their mouth. They definitely favored that tiny jig but some of my biggest fish came on a Clam Drop Kick with the new Silky trailer. I put some meat on both jigs to sweeten the deal , spikes in my case. I buy 1000 to start the year and they are more durable than something like waxworms. Mousees are the best if you can find them but a lot of times they are scarce and expensive.
I usually don't mix bass fishing in with my Michigan January activities but here we are. Out in a boat bass fishing while people are ice fishing. I'll spare you any exciting details (well because there are none) but it was great to get out and try and get a January bass. We did catch a few but what we lacked in bites we made up for in fun. I hope to not be bass fishing again until March but I am on the board for 2021 with an open water January smallmouth.
