My father was in town this weekend for a short visit. We hadn't gotten together yet this year to do some ice fishing. After spending Friday morning at Cabela's and the afternoon at the sportsmen's show in St Paul, we were more than ready to get out and drill a few holes.

Saturday we headed over to Minnetonka. I was surprised by the number of guys fishing on Grays and Wayzata bays. Portables and permanent shacks were scattered about with plenty of trucks and tip ups in between. Seems word got out that the northerns are bitting on Grays.

We had to drill a couple holes before we could locate the best available spot to set up. We put out a couple tip ups with sucker minnows and then settled into the portable with some wax worms. The blue gills were aggressive and hitting our baits as fast as we could drop them down. The Aqua Vu showed a large school of fish. They were holding beneath us from 4 feet down all the way to the bottom (12 feet).  Typically schools will move through and you end up with slow periods in between the action. Not the case this day. The fish were down there to stay and we caught them non stop for close to four hours. Most fish were medium size but we were able to land several nice fish in the 7 to 8 inch range. Dad also pulled up a nice bonus crappie (picture below). We missed one northern on a jig rod but didn't manage so much as a bite on the tip ups. The lack of Northerns probably explained the constant blue gill action.

All in all a fantastic day on the ice. Final count was well over one hundred blue gills between the two of us and the bonus crappie. Get out on the ice and give it a try.