Crane report 3-6 & 7

[EYEHUNTER]

Went out of Crane at 3 pm Fri night with a buddy and his brother from Wisconsin. Headed out to the shove ice 7 miles out west of west sister. My Vexilar transducer bit the dust this week so I felt a little lost my buddies brother had one and he was marking a few fish. I caught 2 and my buddy got 2 as well. We lost a few. The crack about 6 miles out ( guess ) was open 2' and we had to do a little searching to find a narrow spot to cross.

Sat morning we got to crane about 5 am. Lot was filling up but not the zoo I was imagining. Headed out and set up just to the north of the line of shanties that were about 4.5 miles out. Thought we were just west of A can but after sharing coordinates it turned out we were 5.3 miles out between A & B can. Plan was to fish awhile and then head further out as fisherman filled in and pushed fish further out. We got lines in about 7 am and there were already a lot of guys around us and past us at that point. I caught 1 quickly and my buddies brother got 3 real quick. 3 guys that wanted to fish the same holes they fished the night before sat right in our lap. I'm assuming that since they were no more than 50' from my buddies brother they must have caught fish there the night before. I caught number 2 and my buddies brother got number 4 & 5 very quickly after. I asked him what he was seeing on the vex and he said they wanted to chase it up off the bottom before they would hit. This was great info. In my previous trips they always wanted it down in the mud then gently lifted 4 - 6"s. I decided to drop to bottom, reel up 6-12"s then gently lift 4-6"s with a pause of 1-2 seconds between lifts. This was the ticket. It was the best day I have ever had. I have had many days where I caught a lot of fish quickly, but I have never had a day where they bit that well ALL day out of the same two holes. We were in the middle of a huge pack and it didn't alter the bite at all. My buddies brother caught a big one while a guy was drilling 50' from him.

I have caught all of my fish this year on jigging raps and have tried pimples and buckshots with no luck. I decided to fish a purple / siilver / blue pimple in one hole while fishing a blue / chrome rap in the other. I caught more on the pimple, but my buddies caught all of theirs on the raps. They inhaled the raps and often hit the pimple during the pause. We released over 20 fish that were between 7 - 11.5 pounds. You have no idea how many fish between 17" - 7 pounds we released. I'm still smiling. We got 2 jacks over 9 pounds. I got one that was 9.4 pounds and i believe it was the largest jack I have ever caught. I attached a pic of it below. The current changed numerous times through the day and the fish always hit much better in the hole up current no matter which lure I had in that hole. After a few hours in the cold wind I set up my shanty so I'm not sure what was going on around us, but i could see several guys posing for pics with big fish.

Several guys from the site texted me looking for fish. I gave many of them gps coordinates to get to us. It didn't seem right to have that kind of day while others struggled. A group of 4 guys from WI came over and texted me after a few hrs that they had their 4 man limit and had released 20 more fish. Another guy texted he was trying to get to me from G can but came to a crack he couldn't cross. Not sure where that crack is but be careful.

I lost 10 - 12 fish but this was a very small percentage of what we landed. I attribute the better landing percentage than I have had on previous trips to the fact that fish where hitting very hard. They were extremely picky to how they wanted the lure fished, but when you did it right they hammered it. They also faught really hard. I had several to the hole just to have them rip drag all the way to the bottom. It was a great way to end the ice season. I had to work today and think the slush is going to be too big of a problem this week. When we came off the ice Sat evening we hit several slushy spots and saw standing water on the ice in several other areas. I hope mother nature cooperates so I can get the boat up there in early April. Good luck to those still going out and be careful as conditions start to deteriorate.