Packed up the ice house, ATV and a buddy at 630am and headed out. Remembering last years trips to OC and picking up fish on nearly very drop I was ready to say the least. Figured there wouldn’t be a lot of people on the ice as they’d probably be home watching football and the parade… duh!!! boy was I wrong. in more than one way, There were cities out there, we should have brought one of those hot dog stands, could have made a bundle. Anyway unloaded on the west side and headed for the Eagles Nest. beautiful day no wind to speak of. Got set up in 18’ of water, finder said there were fish 
we were ready. Ice was between 10 and 12" now snow or slush to speak of. Two little bumps right off the bat..knowing these had to be monster fish [crazy]. Four hours later and after going through minnows, mealies, waxies, and about every jig we owned, plus numerous little bumps, we got a nice 1.5 lb’er. He was given to one of the ice neighbors who was having as much luck as us. This guy.. has a cabin on the east side and we got the ole yesterday story “boy! you should have been here yesterday”.. hhhmmmm.
I spoke with numerous people and it was slow to waaay slow all over the lake.
Whew!!! tuff fishing but beautiful day and a great cigar [sly]. After thoughts!! still a little early in the year, later in January or February will be much better I can feel it…Piute is hot I can feel it (maybe)
Happy New Year to all. Catch a bunch but leave us a few…
Bill
Smokerdog, I found that to be exactly my case when I fished Otter Creek this week. I drove down and stayed overnight so I could fish Tuesday and Wednesday. There were alot of people down there, and the fishing was horrible. I moved around constantly, trying different depths and presentations. I just couldn’t find anything that would trip their trigger, even though sonar showed they were there. Minnows, mealworms, salmong eggs, etc. On Tuesday, I had one strike. On Wednesday I got out on the ice before sunrise thinking the morning bite would make the difference. It was better, but still very slow. I fished till noon, and caught 4. 2 of those were pretty hefty, if only I could have got into a whole mess of them like some people did in recent weeks. I didn’t see any other fish caught, and everybody was having a very tough time.
Fished it last Saturday. We caught 5 fish between the 4 of us, I caught three. Most were 2 lbs and 17-18 inches. It seemed like the bite was really light and you had to be quick to set the hook or they were gone. I broke off on a really large fish at the hole and missed quite a few bites. What worked the best for me was a Kastmaster tipped with a meal worm.