Ice Rod, Open-Water Bluegill

Did using an ice rod provide any real advantage? No. If the boat was still so my tiny jig went straight down I could pick up the bait a bit better on my Humminbird than with a longer rod, but I can't claim that helped me coax any fish into hitting. The truth is that it was pure novelty. We had an ice storm, so when Nathaniel and I headed went to the pond for a bit of fishing, I thought it would be fun to fish for bluegills with an ice rod. And it was.

The bite was tough. We made one lap around the pond casting for bass (with regular length rods) and got no strikes. Then we switched to vertical presentations of ice jigs tipped with worms, with only me opting to use an ice-fishing rod. For a while we didn't think we'd catch anything. We weren't marking much and were getting no bites. Eventually, Nathaniel and I each managed a single bite, and fortunately we both succeeded in converting bites into landed fish. I notched my first open-water fish on an ice rod, and we both enjoyed a bit of fishing with snowy banks.

Now we're ready for it to go away, though!