We headed down to Otter Creek Lake in search of some Yellow Bass action. Now, if it wasn't late February and the ice season winding down we probably wouldn't have made the trip, but you never know how many weekends are left to hit the ice. We made the trip knowing that the weather would ultimately rule the day and probably force us off the ice sooner rather than later, so a 70-minute trip was as far as we wanted to go. A couple more Independence anglers met us there, as well as Chad Pietig from Marshalltown...always good to see the Marshalltown boys!
With a stiff east wind predicted we knew it wasn't going to be an easy day...and it wasn't. The yellows were pretty picking on this day and small jigs had to be used to trick most of the yellows, and as usual spoons came into play as well when the bite increased from time to time. One thing that I observed today was how easy it is to find fish while working as a group. At any given time we had 4-5 guys hopping from hole to hole in search of the fish. This is made really easy when everyone can be mobile with their Vexilars to cover dozens of holes in the matter of minutes. Turning up the cone angle on the Pro-View transducers and "stirring" the hole really helped to pick up some extra fish as well on the shallow flats. The action was pretty consistent, and the Vexilars were not black much at all, triggering the fish to bite was a challenge on this day. the old saying, "Fish bite least when the wind is from the East" was certainly true today. David and I ended up with about 40 keeper yellows, released many gills and some crappies as well.
Using the group work method and the power of the Vexilars really made it a fun day on the ice, even though we had precipitation falling on us for several hours in the morning. The was solid, and will hang on for awhile there, but things will go pretty fast if we get more rain. Stay safe out there and remember to use all your ice fishing safety gear as the season winds down.
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