I hope to take Fri PM off and set up the house for the weekend. I should be able to fish a few hours while doing that. The granddaughters want to go out while they are here Saturday. That will last about an hour and maybe I can fish more. Then I can get Sunday PM to run and gun for a while. It sure would be nice to find some jumbos midday and hit the walleyes in the evening. Haven't had much luck yet this year. Only been out three times. Haven't been skunked yet but the eyes we've caught were far from big. 9 eaters between 12" and 19" so far.
Length of the hook on a single hook and dangling from the top on a treble hook like a forage minnow seems to work well for me.
Well guys, I've acquired some gear and more importantly wifey and I got our licenses. Picked up a couple jigging rods, 4 tip ups, and I built 6 cusk (burbot) traps. They cusk rigs were super cheap to build and very easy. We can leave them out continuously as long as they are checked once every 24 hours. Tomorrow we should hit the ice in hope of setting the 6 cusk lines, and getting on some panfish or trout. Here's what I built for lines, I think they turned out great, if any of yall fish for burbot and want a materials list or anything just ask. Oh, and I also drank a delicious NH brewed barley wine while building.
Well I went to a gravel pit ended up with 18 keepers...let at least that many small ones go....this one was the first one...15 seconds down the first hole
Well guys, maiden voyage on the ice today. It was a good one. I forgot how much running a hand auger sucked haha. Thankfully I currently only own 2 tip ups and 2 jigging rods so drilling 4 holes wasn't terrible. But, it did take me about 10 minutes per hole to get through 16" of ice. I'm hoping to add at least 4 more tip ups by next week, but hopefully my arms are in better shape at that point. All in all we caught 3 pickerel, 2 on shiners on tip ups, and 1 jigging with a forage minnow tipped with a shiner. We also caught 5 yellow perch in the 8-10" range jigging which helped pass the time between flags. The big one of the day was caught by my wife on her first drop with the jig. It didn't take but about 10 bumps on the bottom and she nailed a nice largemouth. He put up a good fight and made a few nice runs peeling drag. We're headed back out tomorrow to the same hole and hoping to get on some of the slab black crappie this lake is known for. We're gonna hit the trout hole next week when we get a few more tip ups. Good luck on the ice guys and gals!
Love that there are a lot of people here that ice fish! Figured out the plan for this weekend... Heading to Platte and Sullivan lake for sunnies. The lake is known for pike so tip ups should be fun! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I guess yesterday was beginners luck. Had three flags today, and no hook ups. The last flag was a big fish, I'm guessing a pickerel. He never stopped running and my tip up spool was getting very low. I'd guess 3/4 of my backing was out. I tried to put some pressure on the fish and it broke off. I hate losing fish! But, a bad day on the ice still beats working!
Looks like plenty of ice going around. Nothing here is to my thickness yet - though many are out on it. I just am terrified of the lakes so I must have a lot of ice, lol. Hope to get out, it's my favorite kind of fishing to do!
I agree with you! I've been sticking to smaller waters. We had two snowmobilers go through the ice over the weekend on one of the bigger lakes. It's thick in some places but I usually wait a week or two after I see plenty of people on the big lakes.
Mnhunter, have you ever fished camp lake? Im interested in knowing how decent of a lake it is being right off hwy 10 eye <3 peanutbutter
