Ice Fishing for Crappies

[BlackDog]

Are there any ice fishermen here? I love ice fishing.

I went out yesterday afternoon for about 5 hours on a lake about a half mile from my house. Ran into a friend on the ice, so we fished together. The fishing was slow at first even though there were fish showing up on the flasher (fish finder). Just couldn't get them to bite. Then things picked up about 3:00, and we had a hot crappie bite for about an hour. Most were in the 9" - 10" range. The fish got finicky again, but I caught a few singles here and there until about 6:00, and kept the last fish to make it a full limit (10 for crappies here in MN).

It weirds me out when the fish "come back to life" when you put them in the sink. Some of these fish were out of the water for 5+ hours and were partially frozen, and still rejuvenated when I put them in the sink to wash off the slime to clean them. I conked them on the head so I could fillet them.

My first crappie of the season:


My friend working a finicky fish:


Rearing back on a mule:


The mule:


The bounty: