By Steve Weisman

(photo by Steve Weisman) Hunter Wheatley (L) and Tate Hoyer (R) hold some nice bluegills taken sight fishing last Saturday morning on West Okoboji.

What great weather we had last Friday and Saturday! After the sun burned off the early morning fog on Friday, it was an awesome morning to be on the lake. I was fortunate to find a nice bunch of bluegills along a weedline on West Okoboji, and there was no one within a ½ mile. Call it luck or whatever…I could have drilled a hole 100 yards in a different direction and never had fish under me. I guess it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good – LOL! It was clear water fishing at its best: lots of gills, a few crappies, some northern pike (that caused issues) and some pretty big largemouth bass.

Over a couple of hours, I ended up keeping a dozen 8-9” bluegills, and that was good enough. A 1/64-ounce pink Clam Drop Jig worked best. Over the last few trips, I’ve gone from using live bait to tipping the jig with plastic. My son suggested trying the red Berkley PowerBait Atomic Dogbone, and the last couple of times it has been a difference maker for me.

On Friday, I did a little testing to compare the difference between a wax worm and the Dogbone. Although the white of the wax worm really showed up, very few bluegills showed up to check things out, while they showed plenty of interest in the Dogbone.

Saturday’s fishing

Then came Saturday with a chance of morning snow that never materialized. Instead, clouds gave way to sun and another day in the upper 30s and, again, very little wind. This time I returned with my grandson, Hunter (Iowa Great Lakes Fish Cleaning) and his fish cleaning assistant, Tate Hoyer. I used my same hole as the day before, while the boys moved around a few times until they hit a spot with willing biters.

This day, though, was a little different. My jig was fine, but the fish seemed to be wary of the plastic, and after Hunter and Tate had some luck using wax worms, I changed, and it made a huge difference. Just another reminder that a day, even an hour can make a difference in the bite. Sometimes, I am just too stubborn!

Presentation

As always, the best presentation was a consistent cadence, a very subtle jiggle, jiggle, jiggle…. BUT with no change! If the fish entered the area, I had to keep doing the same thing. Any change, and the bluegill would stop a couple of inches away and just sit there and sit and sit, and then slowly back away!

I did trigger a couple of hesitant fish by keeping the same cadence and slowly dropping down the water column. After heading away, they turned and went after the bait.

That’s the fun of sight fishing for me. Even though I get frustrated when they won’t bite, it’s the price you pay for fishing the gin clear waters of West Okoboji. I know I can go other places and use my Vexilar and probably catch more fish, but that is for another time. I am mesmerized by the big Boji gills!

A sign of spring coming? Maybe!

As I enjoyed my battle with the fish amid the silence, I began to notice a change. The sound of geese, all kinds of them going over, both high flyers and lookers! It became a mixed chorus: first Canada geese, then high flying snows and blues pushing the snowline and finally the white-fronted goose, also known as the specklebelly. Such wonderful sounds on two beautiful mornings! Yes, robins are often called the harbingers of spring, but I think this myriad of geese is also a sign that spring is on the way!

Water levels of the area lakes

Yes, I know we still have ice on our lakes, but with the levels of our lakes are going up. Big Spirit Lake is now at 8 inches below the spillway, while the Okobojis are sitting about 3 inches below the Lower Gar outlet. Slowly but surely, we’re getting closer. The good news is we have a good snowpack to still melt, lots of snow to the north in Minnesota around I-90 to come down and extended forecast into mid-March shows some snowfall and rainfall coming.

The drought monitor shows our area continuing to improve. Still a ways to go, but we’re moving in the right direction!

The forecast for this week is for several inches of snow, so keep your fingers crossed that our pheasant population will be able to battle the upcoming snows and a good number will make it to spring…praying for a good hatch!