Had a few hours to go out to Eloika. This is one of the closest lakes to ice fish from Spokane. It has a good amount of sizeable black crappie and a nice population of largemouth bass. It is popular, I counted 6 different groups of people. I did not find crappie but I caught a few largemouth. A guy next to me lost a 5+lb bass at the hole.

This lake has several holes at 9 ft and one skinny little stretch at 12+ feet on the upper end. Since I didn't have all day to track out to the deep hole, I concentrated on trying to find one of the 9 ft holes on the Southend. Next year I'll remember to grab some gps coordinates of those holes. This time I used my money of distance from the launch to guide me. On my 4th hole I found one.

Eloika is full of weeds, so you will be pulling out a lot with your jig at first. Once you get the hole cleaned out, it's pretty easy to start bringing them in. I used the standard 1/32 oz tungsten jig with a nymph pattern plastic. I like these nymph molds because the legs react to any movement. So when I can't keep still because of too much coffee, my little shakes still provide really good movement to those wobbly legs. For jigging patterns, I pretty much stuck with the pound method. Bouncing the jig, just off bottom, with 2 to 3 inch arcs. I was rewarded with a bite every 30 minutes, which I would consider good for a warm water predator.

As this was my first time catching bass through the ice or ice fishing in general, I had a chat with my neighbor. Here are some of the thoughts imparted on me. While most fish will have a light bite, that isn't the case with largemouth. They tend to hit it hard and run hard. They are still hungry in the winter and a wounded prey is pretty irresistible. Schools of crappie will still move around the lake foraging for limited food. This keeps the creek at the south end of the lake still relevant.

What worked:
1/32 oz jigs
Nymph plastics
A good strong cup of coffee

What didn't work:
Tiny jigging raps.... Although I did not try this in the 9 ft deep hole.
Shallow areas 6 ft or less
My dad's 40 year old "spoon" type auger.... If I continue to use this, my biceps will be a lot bigger by end of season.

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