Went out to Eloika Lake and fished about 140 yards out in front of public launch. Started with Swedish Pimple with maggots and tried several holes with no luck. Decided to downsize the offering and finessing the perch with a small orange jig tipped with one maggot and started to catch some fish. Went home with 16 perch that were big enough to fillet. What was amazing was the number of grass pickerel that I caught. I caught more pickerel than perch. I did not keep the pickerel but they were really a nuisance. I'm sure that a lot of the bites that I missed (and there were a lot) were pickerel bites. There were about another half dozen fishermen out on the lake and they were catching some fish.
I met Wisconyfisherman out there and he had one of those flasher fishfinders and that is the neatest thing. The fishfinder flashes the image of your tiny jig going down to the top of the weeds and then flashes the image of the fish approaching your jig and you just watch your rod tip because you know that a bite is coming. If no bite then you jiggle the rod tip to get the fish that you know is down there to attack your offering. It's a neat toy but a bit spendy for the short ice fishing season we have around here.
All in all, it was a good day of fishing and the weather was wonderful. In fact, when the sun did come out for a short period, it was actually hot. It won't be long before we can fly fish Amber and Medical Lakes (assuming the ice comes off those lakes). In the meantime, we can still ice fish and stock the freezer with those delicious perch fillets.

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