"A CHANGE IN THE AIR…. Anglers adjust tactics, revive fishing"
Reader Note: Although 2013 ice is not yet ready, last week’s “Dick’s Trips” from the 2005 files showed the potential of deep water perch fishing on Lake Mendota. This journey was taken in 2007 and shows the equally impressive potential for Monona Bay Bluegills. To keep tabs on both fisheries, connect with D&S Bait and Tackle in Madison at 1-608-241-4225 for fishing conditions. And remember, check your current regulations before going yourself.
Monona Bay was in the path of an oncoming cold front Friday morning; fast panfish action on the lakes of the Madison Chain was falling with the barometer. In the shadow of the state capitol under cloudless skies, hundreds of anglers worked late morning to revive the bite that had still been excellent early in the day. Lock jaw on the blue gills, perch and crappies had only settled in with the rising sun.
Across Monona Bay, Lake Monona and a small block of ice referred to as “The Triangle” separating the two, hundreds of anglers sat in the open on buckets, searching for just the right motion with their small jigging rods that might turn around a good bite gone south; at least that many fishermen were tucked away, protected from the high winds in the shelters making up the vast, multi-colored shanty towns.
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| “Mike Saltzberry of Sturtevant finds the ride to the Madison Chain from Racine County worth his time on the open water and ice. Great fishing and fast action Thursday with gills to 9-1/2 inches on Monona Bay had diminished after a good bite very early Friday morning. He is shown Friday after fishing slowed.” | |
Despite the lack of action, only a few anglers were surrendering the day to the fish to pull their equipment- laden sleds back across the ice toward the parking areas. Ice anglers are a stubborn lot. Perhaps the line “a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work” was fashioned just for them. On this January 26 morning, fishermen changed the techniques used to try to entice a bite. They changed locations again and again. They changed colors and bait. But very few changed their minds that this was a day to fish.
Leonard Pochowski of Watertown had taken care of his own ice fishing customers in a Jefferson County baitshop before leading a small group of anglers and one reporter to the ice of Madison. Pochowski, his 15 year old son, Joe, Carnation retiree Alvin Miller, and Watertown police officer Dan Buskie spread out to stake their own claims on The Triangle, drilled holes, set vexilars to watch the action below, and hunkered down to somehow break the ice on bad fishing.
“The Madison Chain is one of the best chains year-round for fishing in Wisconsin,” Pochowski said.
“Mendota, Monona. Waubesa, Cherokee Marsh and the Yahara River System offer excellent gamefish and panfish action on open water or the ice. Yesterday they did really good right here with blue gills, perch and crappies. But the barometers dropping and a cold front is moving in. That doesn’t help. Fish are more active on a rising barometer.”
A Wisconsin angler works with what he’s given. With erratic weather and bad ice through the early winter, fishing in 2007 has already required a bit of creativity. Pochowski and crew had reacted to an unstable Mother Nature and put open water, spring tactics to work in mid-January for monster gills on Mendota.
With 50 degree air temperatures, ice had gone out of Mendota Park, Pochowski said. Monster bluegills averaging 10 inches reacting to rising water temperatures had stacked up in ditches typically used during spring spawning. The fishermen had fished from shore with bobbers and ice fishing jigs and enjoyed unique open water bluegill frenzy in January sweatshirts. Friday, the search began with a more typical tactics.
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| “Leonard Pochowski, owner of S&N Sports and Stuff in Watertown, keeps an eye on the vexilar as he begins to work Madison Monona Bay for panfish Friday morning. Cold weather, good ice and cooperative fish had anglers happy for several days until a dropping barometer gave fish lockjaw by mid morning Friday.” | “Watertown police officer Dan Buskie returns to Madison Friday and rekindles college day memories of fishing the Madison Chain. Here he breaks the ice with a perch before finding gills in the shadow of the state capitol. With changes in tactics and bait often, eventually his group would return home with 47 panfish.” |
“I’m going to start with a moon glitter jig with a wax worm,” Pochowski said. “This is a two-pound medium action ice fishing rod with a spring bobber that helps detect even the lightest bite. The vexilar helps you locate what areas the fish are in and then what depth they’re staging at. This is eight feet of water with weeds. Once I find the fish I shouldn’t need the vexilar.”
Alvin Miller had taken a limit of very nice bluegills and crappies the day before on Monona Bay but was finding out what a difference a day can make. Dan Buskie was returning to the fishing stomping grounds he had come to know well as a student at UW-Madison in the 1990s.
“Sometimes maybe I should have been in class when I was on the ice,” he said. “I used to ride my bike when I didn’t have a car to University Bay. After class I’d go out on the ice and talk to this blue-collar guy who would be out there every day setting tip-ups. I wouldn’t be out there more than 45 minutes and this guy would have at least one northern over 36 inches. He got a lot of big pike. I’ve found the Madison lakes are either really good or really bad. It’s never in between.”
A reporter’s stroll through Shanty Town verified it. Early risers had all done very well as the good bite continued. Any angler arriving on the ice by mid-morning arrived to find fishing grinding to a halt.
Mike Saltzberry, retired from the Racine Unified School District after 39 years as a painter and holder of fishing licenses in 2006 for Wisconsin, Montana, Alaska, Minnesota, and Illinois, said travel time from home to the Madison waters is well worth it. The day before, on January 25, Saltzberry had taken 25 bluegills on the Triangle up to a whopping 9-1/2 inches. On the ice again January 26 by 7:00 am, he had caught 16 gills in the eight inch class before watching the lock-jaw epidemic move in.
“The key,” Saltzberry said, “is to use plastics and change colors often.”
My 30 minute hiatus had given Buskie time to break the ice with a perch and gill. With warming temperatures, and changes often to find exactly what the finicky fish were looking for, the bite would eventually resume. By 4:30, this party of four would return home with 47 bluegills and perch.
“You might not think that color would matter that much,” Pochowski said. “But you might be fishing with pink with no action and switch to green ad they’ll just start hammering it. I’m not afraid to change. I changed three times today in the first 15 minutes. How often will I change? Until I find what they like. Today, I ended up just 10 feet from where I first started with a tiny orange barmuska jig when I found what the fish wanted. Change is worth the effort.”