Lake Ashtabula

Gold Ambassador

11/14/22

Species
Yellow Perch
Season
Ice
Technique
Vertical Jigging 20'+
Structure
Rock Pile

Lake just iced over on Saturday night. Hard to get far from the ramp before the ice becomes unsafe. Lots of perch near the deeper edge at sibley crossing. Did not get any walleyes to bite.

Hotbait

Rapala Jigging Rap 2" / Pearl White

$8.99

StrikeMaster Lithium 24v Auger - EOL 8"

Out of Stock

Fishashtabula.com

Gold Ambassador

7/27/22

Species
Smallmouth Bass
Season
Summer
Technique
Texas Rigs (Pitch/Flip)
Structure
Humps
Forage
Crawfish

Smallie fishing is on fire right now!

Hotbait

Big Bite Baits 4" Craw Tube Green Pumpkin / 4"

Out of Stock

Big Bite Baits Smallie Smasher - EOL 3 1/2" / Green Pumpkin Purple Flake

Out of Stock

Fishashtabula.com

Gold Ambassador

12/8/22

Species
Yellow Perch
Season
Ice
Technique
Ice Fishing Jigs
Structure
Open Water/Basin
Forage
Minnows

Everyone’s favorite day of the week! This weekend was a good one on the lake. Saturday brought light winds and frigid temps, Sunday brought warmer temperatures with some wicked winds. Both days offered good fishing on the lake. Most of the lake is right about the 9″ of ice mark. Some spots have a little less and some have a little more, that is pretty typical for this time of the year. Lots of people out and about on the lake fishing as well. Most of the lake is snow covered with roughly 2″ of snow and if you ask me that is a perfect amount. We still have lots of cold weather coming up for this week and I wont be surprised to see a few extra inches of ice for next weekend. Water is still a little on the stained side, but clear enough cameras will work. Perch are very willing to bite right now. They were also easy to find cruising the flats looking for an easy meal. Most of the perch caught are what I consider “sorters”. If you sort through them you will end up with enough for a meal. Water depth did not really seem to matter, anything from about 8-22 foot of water seemed to have fish cruising through. Wax worms worked well, minnow heads, and whole minnows all caught fish. White or perch color seemed to be a preferred paint scheme. I also caught perch on a larger chubby darter. I did not use any types of plastics, but based on the way they were feeding I am sure they will work. I would also add all the perch caught were puking up minnows. One thing to note, I had lots of marks on the vexilar at one point, but no bites. Being curious as to why that was I decided to drop a camera down to see what was happening. It ended up being bull heads and small walleyes around the 4-5″ mark. I moved off of that location, and was thankful i had my camera along to save me the trouble. Just another tool in the arsenal that can save lots of time. Walleyes were rather active this weekend as well. Minnow heads or hard minnow baits like chubby darters, ripping raps seemed to do best. While they were not super active they were willing to bite 16-18 foot of water seemed to hold the most cruising walleyes. I also found it helpful to use a larger “noise making” bait to get their attention and then hook them on a smaller flashy spoon with a minnow. Something like a rattling flyer, or tingler spoon.