A few days ago I found myself fishing a medium sized lake with a thriving population of water lotus and other emergent weeds.
The water qualityof this bow is as good as it gets in Indiana, and due to the extreme clarity of the water, the pads grow out
toa depth of about 15 feet or so. I have had great success fishing with a 32 inch ice fishing rod with an old 050 series
shimano reel. I loop a drooper about 18 inches above a drop shot sinker and, with a beemoth for bait drop the rig into
holes in the pads. I fish out of a canoe which I let passively drift into the bed of pads This lets me keep my presentation
guiet and vertical. It's an effective technique and nearly all by touch. Well I was running it up on the eater gills and redear
when something big hit on the surface about 30 ft away. I placed my small rig atop my cooler and reached for a more
traditional spinning rig to tempt whatever it was with a swim bait. I shifted my feet to make a cast which caused the extra paddle
to slide into the cooler which slid into a thwart which caused the small rod to flex then catapult out of the canoe and into the
water. I grabbed for it, even touched it as it sank, but alas it went to the bottom. Fortunately my canoe held its position and
from the pads surrounding I had a good fix on where it went down. I took the other rod and put on a 2 inch blade bait that
had two serious treble hooks. I lowered it down to the bottom and kind of stirred the area with the pole. After a dozen or so
attempts I gave in to the fact that a favorite rig had taken a dunking. "One more time." I told myself. Down went the lure and
when I began to repeat the motion, I felt a hesitation... I slowly reeled up and when the rig was about 10 feet down I saw my
deepsea diving ice pole! Best catch of the day, yes sir......
fish on,
rivereddy
