Bluegill Ice Fishing

Wingfoot Lake State Park a new hot spot for bass, bluegill and the Goodyear blimp

 SUFFIELD, OHIO
 Backing a boat trailer down the ramp at Wingfoot Lake, a fisherman can't help but notice great fishing waters. There are plenty of lily pads, shorelines dotted with fish-attracting timber and brush, weed beds, small islands - and one very large Goodyear blimp.

 It's hard to ignore the massive craft, which has been sitting outside of the Wingfoot Lake Airship Operations Balloonport most days this summer, just across the lake from the state park boat ramp. It's easy, however, to get excited about fishing a 444-acre lake that is the crown jewel of Ohio's newest state park, purchased two years ago from the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for $3.2 million.

Anglers can expect to find crappie and bluegill, and lots of them. Largemouth bass and channel catfish, too. Surprisingly, a few yellow perch and walleye are hooked here, a remnant population from the days when fish of every kind were stocked in shallow Wingfoot Lake. Catfish stockings were begun last fall to enhance shoreline fishing opportunities and should be of catchable size soon.

The lake was created in 1916, and for decades it was considered a private playground for Goodyear employees. The Goodyear Hunting & Fishing Club had trap ranges and a clubhouse here. Now it's open to the public, but with restrictions. There is a 10-horsepower limit for boat motors, and shoreline fishing is expanding, but still somewhat limited.

"It's a popular bass fishing lake, with a lot of weekend tournaments throughout the summer," said Chai Vue of Suffield, who was second in a local tournament last weekend. A five-pound Wingfoot bass is his personal best.

 "I like to work the shoreline with jigs, plastic worms and spinnerbaits," he said, showing off a purple lead-head jig with a rubber-legged skirt and purple plastic trailer that had worked well for him on a morning adventure this week.\

The narrow ramp in the Wingfoot Lake State Park is good for small boats, but most fishermen use a ramp about a half-mile west of the state park entrance on Waterloo Rd. It can handle larger boats, and the courtesy dock has been a shore fishing crappie hot spot for Ed Haines Jr., of Akron.

Perched on a cooler, Haines was casting a tiny jig tipped with a pint-sized pink twister tail and maggot toward a brush pile dimpling the lake surface a dozen yards off shore.

 Suspended under a float, the jig was too tempting for the crappie to ignore. Every few minutes, Haines was adding an 8- to 10-inch crappie to a collection of panfish in his cooler.

Top 5 Bluegill And Crappie Ice Fishing Tips

Fishing the right location for panfish may seem like a simple ice fishing tip it is critical for success and most often not given enough attention. Simply put even the best bluegill or crappie fisherman can not catch fish that aren't there. In any given body of water there will be the number one spot, number two spot, and so forth with the number one spot holding the largest group of fish. It should also be noted that these locations can also be further categorized in year classes, meaning that most often year classes do not mix. There are three methods to determine to the best fishing locations. The first method is to understand the type of habitat that bluegills or crappie prefer. The second method is the use of modern day electronics such as flashers and underwater fishing cameras . And the third method is a combination of the first and second which most anglers would probably agree is the most efficient. When fishing lakes early in the ice season panfish will typically relate to weeds that are still green. During mid winter both bluegills and crappies will seek the deeper waters of a lake, especially crappies which often suspend of over very deep water. But before coming too infatuated with any one given body of water the best ice fishing will most likely be found on lakes with the highest populations of bluegills and crappies. While this may sound elementary very few ice fishermen take the time to research state DNR data to choose the best lakes to fish. DNR net data is a gold mine of information that not only gives you the overall population density of fish, but also detailed data of the sizes of fish caught in the netting studies. Sitting by a computer to research this data is much easier than actually traveling to a lake several times just to find out that marginal fishing exists. Using this simple ice fishing tip can save you many hours of frustration sitting on the ice of an unproductive lake. Staying mobile versus fishing unproductive areas to long can often be the down fall of many ice fishermen. With modern day ice fishing equipment such as highly portable flip over ice shelters and power augers there's simply no reason not to move and find active fish. It is much easier to catch active fish than to try every lure in your box making in-active fish bite. There's only so much time in given day, it's up to you to make the most of it.

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