MT's 2010 monster bluegill on ice derby.

Leaderboard

Some nice fish guys!

First place goes to Jim Kusuda with this monster sow gill at 10.5 inches!










Second place lance Bainville with this nice 9 7/8 slab




Third place with a 9 1/4 inch gill is Steve Fleckenstein



Nice fish guys! the open water event that includes gills and crappie division will soon commence!
Who thinks they can catch a huge Gill through the ice? Enter it in the MTs monster bluegill on ice derby!
It starts this weekend, and goes til the ice is gone! Why didn't I start this at the beginning of the ice season? because I just thought of it now!
Just catch a monster bluegill, and if you think it could be the big one, take a pic, post it on this thread, or email it to me and I will post it on the leaderboard on here! I am going by length, not weight, since most don't have the best scale for getting an accurate number.
Take it on a board so it is touching the "0" side, and whatever the tail toutches, that is your length! Here is an example:



Also, to verify that you caught it this year, put your name and "2010" on a piece of paper clearly readable and inclue it in your picture.
Entry is free and open to anyone that is fishing through a hole in the ice.
No dead beat up or frozen fish will count, take a pic right when you catch it, that is when they look best!

Here is the prize, not a new truck or anything like that, but not bad for a free contest, a framed "2D lifesize replica" of your winning catch. Here is a one I made last fall:




happy fishin'

MT

Newyears pannie action!

I got out this weekend fishing up on Big Sandy lake for newyears day and the day after.
I started out with the plan to hole hop with my fishtrap picking off the more agressive fish and moving to the next hole. I put on a bro's gill getter with a Gulp! alive fishfry on my Thorne Brothers power noodle, and nailed a few crappies. Conditions were tough and put the crunch on my plan, there was lots of slush under the powder making my fishtrap feel like dragging a pile of bricks, and it was nasty cold and windy, with winchills near minus 30 degrees, and blowing snow filling the holes. Finally I gave up the moving and camped on a hole. after I picked off a couple of hungry crappies, the fish went negative. I downsized to a ckoutdoors T.H.E. Jig, 1/100 oz black and white, and used my St. croix legend lite ice rod with their spring tip to detect the light biters.
When fish came through, I was able to get them pretty good with that approach and put together a pretty good day. nothing really big , but it was fun. CK was fishing in his Otter right next to me showing Troy how to finesse those light biters, when he hooked into a monster gill well over a pound!
Saturday we woke to minus 32 degrees, (not the windchill) We went out on Billhorn bay, and they had a road plowed out so we could go right out to the hole with no work. CK invited me to fish in his big portable shelter, an otter lodge, that was really nice, very comfortable and relaxing. I stuck with the black and white hair jig all day, as it was working pretty good. they were really negative and had to be teased into biting, sometimes lifting them up a few feet, other times slowly dropping it on them while carefully watching the spring for anything suspicious looking! it was a fun way to fish, kind of like a chess match only fishy. We did'nt hammer em left and right, but the size made it worth the wait for each bite.
What a great way to ring in the new year!
Best fishes in 2010!
MT





Out in the sun with a sunfish!

In the otter with a crappie



Nice Mule

Some nice gill shots













CK cookin' up some good grub


Slab







the big one




Another nice slab


the Big gill, 10 5/8 inches and well over a pound!

Our harvest for the day


Icey sunset!

metro panfish action. 12-26

Casey called me to see if I wanted to do some fishing, he didn't have to twist my arm. he picked me up early and we hit a NE metro lake for the day. we had to drill quite a few holes and search, but when we found them, they were willing to bite on light jigs with plastic. casey had some glow Gulp! alive fish fry baits, that really brought in the fish. we caught around 60 or 70 bluegills and crappies and a few perch.


casey with a nice sunfish


more good sunfish











took a pic of a crappie getting a pic taken

Ultimate Panfish League tourney on Peltier lake

We had another successful UPL tourney with 20 teams showing up to chase slabs and bulls. The bite was pretty tough, with more subtle action on smaller lures paying off. The best bait for us was a ratso plastic. I tried a lindy fatboy with a micro nuggie, also tried red spikes. Jack outfished me pretty bad in the morning, til I finally switched to the ratso, then I got some decent fish too. Jack got the biggest fish early, with a .9# bluegill!

Contest Results here


ready to fish








weigh in time



Nice new leaderboard!



weigh that big gill



another good catch



Bob weighs in



Our catch, over 8 pounds of tasty panfish

The ice fishing season started for me

With the cold air comes ice, lots of it. what is a fish geek to do? well go fishing, thats what! Saturday brought me to the CKoutdoors get together. We got there in the morning and got into a few nice crappies. I used t.h.e. jig in 100 oz size to get a few. I also used a JRs tungsten jig with red larvae. I tried a dropshot with a plain hook, but the line kept freezing to the ice, so I couldnt get that slow drop I was looking for. But mainly it was good getting to know some other anglers, and cookin up some good food. Sunday had a few of us from the get together hit a small lake looking for big gills. they were pretty tight liped this day, the few we did get were real nice though, a couple over 10 inches were caught. I went out to the deepest hole and found lots of crappies on the edges that were much more willing to bite. I caught around 30, but no huge mules, but some were caught up to almost 14 inches! I used a lindy fatboy with red larvae for my fish, I don't know what the big fish bit on.


A nice pair of slabs to start the season!




speck!



pickling sized pike, fun on micro tackle for sure!



jigging up some slabs



another crappie



we got a few gills too



lunch time!







it was this big!








hammer handle


fat crappie on the power noodle


golden crappie



gill action