# Where are the Fish?



## Gooseman (Oct 24, 2004)

Three of us spent the whole day at New Johns Monday Dec 27th and cought one small pike at first light. The ice was only 4" think on the NW corner where the canal comes into the lake. We had a camera and new vexilar and did not see any fish there so we moved to the north end of the island across from the boat ramp untill sundown and did not detect any fish at all. Where are the fish at New Johns? We fished from 5-16 ft of water. The water was cleas, we tried everything we had and must have drilled over 100 holes looking for perch, crappie & walleyes. We talked to a couple of other fishermen and they did not have any bites all day. The ice on the north end of the lake was 12" think and we saw a couple of vehicles parked on the east end. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!!


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## Castmaster (Dec 9, 2004)

Fished New Johns the late afternoon and early evening of Dec. 28th. Caught 2 walleyes (16", 10"). Fished in about 20' of water. Water is very clear so the deeper you fish the better luck you might have. Ice varied between 6"-13" where we were at. Be careful driving out there yet.

This lake has stumped me the last few years. In the late 90's we would typically go out and catch a handful of perch in the afternoon and a bunch of nice walleyes after dark. Now, I go a full season w/o a perch and only a small walleye or two in the evenings. I've noticed the same trend when fishing the lake during the open water season. Something strange must be taking place biologically within the system. Not sure if the numbers of fish are down, or if the majority of fish migrate up or down the canal system.


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## Gooseman (Oct 24, 2004)

I think you may be right about migration or lower fish numbers. I recalled the ise fishing derby last January when 90 teams of ice fishermen hit the lake from 8am to 3 pm without a walleye caught. Afew northerns were turned in but not much else for the day. I think the clear water does require deeper fishing. The perplexing thing was the total lack of anything moving in the water. We did not see any bait fish (minnnows) or any small perch etc. I noticed a few more ice houses on the east end of the lake but I don't know if they had any better luck. Thanks for the honest relply and I wish you better luck on the ice in the near future. Be careful on the west end as we only had 3-4 inches of ice and after a few hours near the ice house, we were drafting about 1 inch of water on the surface as the ice began to drop. We were at the canal entrance which has a bit more of a current which thins the ice a bit. Good luck!


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