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Date: February 9, 2019 Body of Water: Reeds Lake Boat: None, Ice Fishing With: KS Target: Pike and Panfish Time: 1:30 PM - 6:30 PM Conditions: 20 - 25 degrees F, bright blue skies, calm. Ice was covered with just a dusting of snow and about 9 inches thick. After another week of strange weather (extreme thaw, multiple ice storms and then another shock of bracing cold), I hit the ice with good friend KS. It had been a couple of years since we'd fished together, and he had a hankering for a meal of panfish. We've also shared many pike trips on Reeds Lake, so we settled on a concerted effort for pike along the main submerged hump while prospecting for crappies in the adjacent basin. I was able to place my first two tip-ups on productive pike way-points from the past. These were in 15 and 26 feet of water. While KS spread his traps along the west end of the hump in 10 to 18 feet, I moved south and west off the hump in water from about 30 feet to 45 feet deep. A flag in 18 feet quickly declared "Fish on!" KS tightened up and immediately broke off. He mentioned that his knot at the braid-to-leader junction had looked a little funky; I'd rather not have heard that. That was it for action fro the tip-ups. I moved mine out a bit after they'd soaked unsuccessfully, and KS removed his as we continued our prospecting for crappies. The only biting fish we found were tiny perch in various holes about 30 feet deep, but even these often refused our baits. Meanwhile, there were very few suspended crappies, and these inevitably refused our presentations. Most just disappeared from the screen; others actively refused the bait and could be seen on the sonar swimming down and out. I've a lot of experience catching these fish in about 40 feet of water, and I had a lot of confidence that they would appear in aggressive numbers as the evening progressed. They simply didn't. We made one last desperation move closer to shore, in about 31 feet and near the edge of the deeper basin. We both marked fish here, too, and some were even suspended off the bottom. We struck out on these, and it was now full darkness. We'd skunked on our target species, but we agreed it was nice to be out, regardless. We also agreed that it was better to have tried than not; although he didn't have the 150-mile round trip to consider as a factor. Oh well, it's February in Michigan. And I guess I could choose to believe that the fish we'd lost was a 40-inch pike. Landing such a fish would surely have changed my outlook on the trip. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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