Chesterfield 12/19/07

[BrianID]

Fished Chesterfield today. I measured close to 4" of solid clear ice in all of my holes. Many areas had 1-3" of frozen slush on top of the clear ice. Where I was fishing there was 2-4" of water on top of the ice. When I was trying to release several of the fish I caught they would start swimming away in the shallow water on top of the ice. It normally wasn’t hard to redirect them back to one of the holes. Below is a picture of a fish I had to corner in some slush so I could get him back down a hole.


Fishing was a little slower than a couple weeks ago. I caught more fish this time because I fished 7 hours instead of just 4 hours. Most of the fish would bite very light. Some of the fish would only bite once very lightly and wouldn't come back and bite again. I would estimate I hooked about 1/4 of the fish I saw bite.

Most of the fish I caught were around 13" but I did catch a few larger ones. Here is a picture of the smallest fish of the day.


The smaller fish like the one below were fatter than most of the longer fish.


Here is a picture of the typical longer fish. Not the type of girth I would expect on a Chesterfield fish.


I also saw a lot of fish with the black spots again. Doesn't look like anchor worm to me. I think it is "black spot disease". I will have to research this because I would like to know exactly what it is.

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