The Weekend At Last, Little Puslich

 So... Tackle Shop finished off gassing and we hit the road to pick up Dodger. The night before we had decided not to return to Puslinch Lake but it's little brother a few hundred yards to the northeast, Little Puslinch Lake. Unlike the larger lake when viewed in Google Earth, Little shows an expansive submerged island surrounded by deep water.While searching for a place to park we stumbled upon Puslinch Bait and Tackle, a fairly new establishment that offers the usual assortment of baits with a twist: portable hut rentals and guiding services. Also they will grill you up a pretty good burger.

  We walked onto the ice from the north side by the intersection and immediately started punching holes to get an idea of the lake's contours. Dodger and TS settled on a depth of 8ft between the shore and the weed bed, while I circled around it in a clockwise direction, checking depths every 30ft or so until I finally found some deeper water on the far side of the weed bed near the center of the lake. I drilled a series of holes in a letter T shape with the base toward the south, ranging in depth from 10 to 18 feet of water, and immediately marked fish. Taking my new Lightning Rods, I set up the tip up with a shiner and started working the other holes with a tiny jig tipped with a Powerbait honey maggot. The wait for the first fish didn't take long.

First ever iced Pumpkinseed

  Over the next hour and a half I played cat and mouse with schools of neutral panfish, constantly changing baits in the hope of getting the onlookers to commit.






Eventually  Dodger wandered over (out of boredom) to suggest moving on to the big lake. Just then the tip up sprang to life and instantly separated hook from the line. That was just the motivation needed to get those guys to move to my side of the lake, and more importantly, move the minnow cooler closer.

  While TS and Dodger were setting up near the center of the lake, I was stalking a large school of small crappies. After another hour Tackle Shop finally iced the first pike of the day at 18" and I had another bite off. Dodger managed a few small perch and a pumpkinseed.

  After all's said and done, Little Puslinch lake is full of a wide variety of fish, although today they seemed a little tight lipped and needed some coaxing. I'm wondering if it's named for it's diminutive size or for the size of it's fish. Either way, only further exploration will answer that question and after today's multi-species outing I'm all for a return trip.