Had two portables out in front of my place this evening. Neighbor said he had 3" of ice in front of their place last Friday. However, I will be waiting a week or so before heading out.
Had two portables out in front of my place this evening. Neighbor said he had 3" of ice in front of their place last Friday. However, I will be waiting a week or so before heading out.
I saw, who I thought to be, Charles Bronson on a metro lake yesterday. Charles Bronson cuz the guy must have a Death Wish.
Open water in the middle of the lake and he feels compelled to sit over a hole to catch stunted panfish.
Plenty of safe ice statewide.
Not for me..i've got more ducks to kill.
It just froze up last night way up here in front of my place.
I just heard there's up to 12" of ice on LOW and one resort has houses out. Fishing is hot as H3ll now.
First perm. out in front of our place now.
I've been fishing since the 19th. The fish have been kicking my butt so far. Usually, it just takes a couple of trips and I've knocked the rust off. I'm 8 trips in and haven't established anything and missing most of the fish when I do come across one. Pretty frustrated at this point, but I'll be back out on the water tomorrow.
Early ice is supposed to lights-out good fishing!
I'm headed up to Red tomorrow. Early ice up there usually fits the stereotype. It's a circus, but it's also a fair way to convince yourself that you have some skills in finding and/or catching walleye under the ice.
2011 Skeeter ZX225
225 Yamaha HPDI Series 2
Minn Kota Ultrex 112 52"
Console: HDS 16 Carbon
Bow: HDS 12 Carbon, Solix 12 G2, Mega 360, Garmin 106 SV, LVS 34
You pretty much plop down anywhere and catch a dozen in a day...if you're not completely ignorant! The real skill is pinpointing a location or 2 that you can catch 30-40.or more in a day.
Red is overrated. But...it's easy to just show up and catch a few...which is why all the morons love it so much. Me personally...i'd rather go another direction...where I can catch 100+ walleyes, perch, and crappies every day...or catch nothing!
After the last three trips, I've finally knocked the rust off. Still not catching a whole lot, but at least I'm getting more than a couple fish per trip now.
How was Red?? Any crappies or perch?Originally Posted by DrewFlu33
I'm headed up to Red tomorrow. Early ice up there usually fits the stereotype. It's a circus, but it's also a fair way to convince yourself that you have some skills in finding and/or catching walleye under the ice.
Did pretty well on the walleyes, as expected. The key as it often is was to find a very subtle break surrounded by the rest of the bottom of the frying pan. I have a few spots I've found like that in years past which helped. I will say that the first day was much easier than the second - first day just set up on top of the 6 inch break and wait them out. They came through in waves, so you needed to get back down quickly after catching one. At one point I caught 4 in 5 minutes. Buddy that was with me was 20 feet away, 6 inches deeper, and I think I caught 8 before he moved over...strange how that works. We both hit them after that.
Second day was much tougher...only caught 1 jigging, the rest on a plain hook dead stick. Moving around was very important, so that was when having a few spots helped. You'd drill a hole, and if you were going to catch one it'd be in the first 5 or 10 minutes. Generally it was 2 to 3 fish then that spot was done. Sat for an hour without another mark before I figured it out. Moved and moved and moved and ended up doing well. Was a pain having to drill 2 holes when "hole hopping," but it is what it is. Confirming you were a little bit shallower than the surrounding area before drilling the dead stick hole was helpful to avoid having to drill 2 holes at every stop when looking around.
All in all, quite a bit more difficult than most early ice trips I've taken up there, but that's still pretty easy compared to most places. The second day in particular had them acting like mid-winter fish. Caught a few perch, all dinks though I maybe could've been convinced to keep 1 of them. Caught a small drum, and a couple very small pike. No crappies, though I've never actually caught one up there (remembering that I didn't move to MN until after the crappie heyday up there).
White Lindy Rattling Flyer in the smaller size was the jig of choice by far (I think I caught one on a gold Slender Spoon and one on a pink Buckshot), and different from usual a whole minnow was very important vs just a minnow head. Plain red or pink hook on the dead stick, and dead whole minnows on the dead stick outproduced live ones on that second day where they were finicky. Walleyes sure are funny, I wasn't catching them on a red rattling flyer the first day, but they hammered the white one. Wasn't catching them on a chartreuse plain hook the first day, but they hit the red or pink. My boat probably wouldn't get on plane if bass were like that with colors...
2011 Skeeter ZX225
225 Yamaha HPDI Series 2
Minn Kota Ultrex 112 52"
Console: HDS 16 Carbon
Bow: HDS 12 Carbon, Solix 12 G2, Mega 360, Garmin 106 SV, LVS 34
I just can't get my act together this year. Breaking fish off and missing fish has been my constant M.O. this season so far.
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