Fishing Report for Panfish / Bluegill using Ice Fishing Jigs in Ice

Item: Lake Minnetonka
Author: GreaseMonkeyBassFishing | Minnesota

GreaseMonkeyBassFishing | Minnesota

Silver Ambassador

1/10/22

Lake Minnetonka

Species
Panfish / Bluegill
Season
Ice
Technique
Ice Fishing Jigs
Structure
Laydowns
Forage
Minnows

Black Lake - Night Bite Started early morning at 3am and walked onto the lake instead of driving on it due to not knowing the ice conditions before and wanted to try out the smitty sled. 1st hole drilled at 15ft, marked some fish on the bottom, switched the Livescope to forward view and started scanning and found a group of fish 8 ft in front of me. Inside Setup: Drilled two holes, 1 for livescope and 1 for the Dangler Rod Holder. Setup on the Dangler was small treble hook, split shot sinker 8" above hook and small crappie minnow. Today's jigging setup was a small gold/chartreuse 4mm, wonder bread 4mm glow and pink uv tungsten with some plastic. 3am-4:30am: The bite was consistent on the tungsten utilizing heavy jigging and making sure the glow was always luminating triggering some bluegills to come up and hit. Nothing much for size but it was consistent enough to keep you busy and had the random crappie come up. Dangler rod holder was setup around 8- 10ft, fish came from either in front or behind me suspended and automatically took the minnow drop after drop. 4:30am - 5:15am: The bite slowed down on the tungsten jig but the dangler rod holder and minnow continued to produce when a suspended fish was to come through. 5:15am - 6am: The bite started to slowly pick up on the tungsten but more followers then takers. If fish came through suspended they continued to take the minnow. Majority of the time, the crappies came in single or groups of 2. 6am - 6:30: Started jigging a 4mm pink uv tungsten jig with white copee p3 plastic 1 ft off the bottom, bluegills were not interested at all in what I had. Dead sticking the tungsten, saw a fish slowly come up to the tungsten, grabbed the pole and started to lightly jig up, the fish started to follow aggressively, paused and watched the tip. Set the hook, drag slightly pulling, it was a bigger fish, at 1st I thought was a big crappie or bluegill. Felt the head shakes, removed the livescope pole out of the way, noticed the fish tangled my other dangler setup in the hole. Keeping the rod tight, able to pull the fish through. First look of the fish, it was a walleye! Hook was on the edge of the mouth, able to hand it and land it. 6:30-7:30: Bite slowed down, got my limit on panfish and a eater walleye, packed up and headed home.