Well, JerknperchSD aka Andy talked me into heading up north for an early ice trip. Then I talked my grandpa into making the trip with me, and we made it happen.
First morning, we decided to go to an ace-in-the-hole crappie spot before trying for what were really after, perch. Six of us ended up putting 54 black crappie, 2 big bluegills, and a walleye on the ice in about an hour and a half! Once the sun got up, they got super picky so we decided to go find some perch. Well, apparently they were biting great early and then shut off. Ended up with 13 for the day. Here's a pile shot...
The crappies were all cookie cutters... Blacks 11-12.5" and thick. Here's me with one of the bigger blacks and a nice perch.
The fish were WAY turned off sunday, and we were lucky we got these:
Crossed a few off the bucket list with this trip! Gonna have to make another to get myself a nice perch... I caught a couple keepers, but nothing impressive. The aggressive, nice blacks through the ice were awesome! We got into some dinky perch that would come 5ft off the bottom as the jig was falling to hit. Did some sight fishing! South Dakota was awesome. Definitely going back!
