I fished Pelican with my buddy BIGbites today. The fishing was great. I have had much faster catching on Pelican but it wasn’t any more fun than today. The catching was consistent and we caught mostly bass. That is the first time we have caught more bass than bluegill. Between the two of us we ice between 30 - 40 fish in about three hours of fishing. All fish were caught on Crazy Glow Orange 1.5" Cutter Bugs tipped with a mealworm and fished next to the bottom. Bluegills were between 8" and 9 1/2" and bass ranged from 12" to 14".
We fished off of the east side and were the only ones on the lake that I could see. I brought my chest waders along just in case and it was a good thing. Access to thicker ice required wading in chunky ice water for about 30 yards. Once we got to the main lake ice sheet the water was only knee deep. We had no problems stepping up onto the thicker ice. I kept checking the ice thickness as we went further out into the lake. I measured the ice thickness at 6" everywhere we went. There was about five inches of clear solid ice with a one inch layer of frozen slush on top. There is only a skiff of snow on the ice. Air temperature was 22 degrees when we arrived at 10:30 am and it felt a little bit cooler when we left at about 2:30 pm.
This weeks temps are expected to get down into the single digits overnight and the current inversion in the Basin will thicken ice near shore and help with access on to Pelican. It would be nice not to have to wade through ice water to go ice fishing. Today was my first time wading and then ice fishing in my chest waders. Crazy.
Access will be better this weekend (Jan. 1, 2011). Best access is from the south side at the BLM boat ramp. The access on the north side near the inlet is also likely better than accessing from the east along the highway.
Thanks for the report and pics. I love seeing the bluegill out of Pelican. The bass yall kept are the perfect eating size in my opinion. Those 12 inchers are candy. Bluegill of just about any size are candy! Looks like a good day even if you had to wade before you could ice fish.
You speak the truth. Largies that size are underrated for the plate. Yummy! They don’t taste worth a darn really after they hit about 3-4lbs. But those 12" fish have the nicest fillets.
I will release bigger bass no problem. I don’t mind harvesting a limits worth of the smaller fish though. I think it actually helps the lake. (Don’t want to get into a huge debate and arguement here - just my opinion).
Maybe with the forecasted colder temps coming the edges will freeze up nicely.
Brookie, You sound like my wife. JK. [;)] NO the fish aren’t covered in parasites. They did have a few yellow grub parasites in the fillets though. There weren’t really that many. They don’t bother me unless the fillet has a lot of them. If it does, I toss that fillet. I inspect each fillet with a light behind it and pop out any grubs I see. The grubs I don’t see, well I guess I just cook’em up and eat’em. Mmmm tasty! [:p]
The bluegill and bass at Pelican are a lot of fun to catch. The bass especially put up a good fight.
Thanks for the report. I was thinking of taking my boys up Saturday, but i wanted to make sure you could access the ice ok. Do you think there is access to the ice anywhere on the lake that doesnt require a boat or waders to get on?
rippnlips, the best access to the lake would be on the south side at or near the main boat ramp. I checked conditions there about two weeks ago along with other locations around the lake and it had the best ice next to shore of all the areas I checked. There is a rip rap pier next to the boat ramp that provides a steep bank angle. This makes for better access when the lake level is on the rise.
