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Hi all, Got out with my neighbour for a couple hours before sunset. We missed quite a few at the hole and got a couple keepers and a couple big girls. Lots of fish swimming through that would inspect and chase without committing, frustrating, but fun.

Number one rule of fishing, dont "overthink" it. If youre attempting to ice fish laketrout without electronics...good luck If youre hiring a permanent hut from an operator at the end of the season? Good luck you say you are deadsticking minnows...but what does your presentation look like, do you have all sorts of "cheater" mechanisms all over your line, like snap swivels, too big of jigs, big hooks etc? good luck. To me at least in my experience, the devil is 100% in the details, but overthinking about fishing on this day or the next or not is a load of whatever as far as I am concerned. In my observation, the moon has impact on two things, 1 in the spring for bass, the first full moon when the water reaches 60 degrees, youre going to see a huge wave of a spawning. 2. if its perfectly clear and calm during a full moon, ive observed that the fishing can be tougher as I personally believe the fish have fed a bit more through the night than normal. as far as the moon having any impact on fish that are below ice that cant see the sky, or observe any water level change on a small lake thats not tide impacted...ehhhh the presentation of your bait, the line your using, the knot, the hook is far more important. Permanent huts are the equivalent of going and fishing in your boat on the same shoal every single day all day...Seems crazy to think that the fishing is going to be excellent all of the time for the whole year doing that no? staying mobile, adjusting depths all matters, at the end of the day though, ice fishing is a giant unproductive PITA. As far as im concerned its something to do during the winter, but the really "banner" days are few and far between no matter how hard you grind at it. Laketrout specifically, its hard to get around them, once you are, then its hard to get them to bite, then if you do, its hard to land them. Thats the name of the game, youre either in or your out. The payoff can be pretty sweet, nothing in ice fishing beats catching lakers through the ice, but holy heck id much rather target them from a boat! Ill add, im totally aware that this is a lot of complaining...but your talking to a guy that has the snowmobiles, the livescope, the huts, heaters blah blah blah and spent 12(ish) full 8 hour days out there this winter chasing lakers, caught some, skunked some, literally didnt have any "great" days all winter this year, still did it!

Yes you are right - regs say no chumming . So when you are fishing with live or dead minnows or worms - where that is allowed - you would have to be very careful when you added a minnow to your jigging spoon, or a piece of dew worm. If you were jigging it too aggressively, the minnow or part of the minnow or worm might fall off down at the bottom of the hole. Then you are just fishing with live bait, and NOT chumming, , perhaps not t(e most efficient angler in terms of how many worms or minnows you might need for an outing. Also if you are fishing with live minnows or dead ones, take a good look at them , like very closely, to see what they are. As a guide over the years in Muskoka and Halliburton m and Kawarthas , I would very often have some minnows on board purchased from various bait shops. I very carefully LOOK at every minnow before using it. The bait shops DO NOT I have purchased minnows from many different bait shops and have found all sorts of Non baitfish mixed in with them. A 5” Brown Trout, a 4” Walleye, many perch minnows, many catfish minnows, burbot , all sorts of “minnows” that are not legal baitfish - so have a good look at them before use - they kinda all look the same in a minnow bucket of a couple dozen. Re dumping “fish guts” back in the lake , make sure of 2 things. 1 - Only ever the legal game fish you catch from that lake , river. 2 - not on or along the shoreline, but out in the deepest water you can find.around the area - no one wants stinky fish guts on their shorelines, beaches . If a fish from that lake dies of old age, it doesn’t get scooped up and put in a PLASTIC garbage bag to go to a Landfill. It sinks to the bottom and decomposes and feeds the bugs, and leeches and turtles,- NATURE - sometimes it floats for a bit and the birds get at it until it sinks. So “fish guts” minus the filets, do the same when dumped back. One less plastic garbage bag goes to a landfill.

Was discussed here a few years back:

An ice angler does not NEED all that much gear. A pail to sit on and carry ice rigs and lures (and fish being brought home!), a spud or manual auger, and warm clothing will suffice. I have been ice fishing for a very long time (over 50 years) and have rarely used a shelter. When I hit some of the back lakes, I take a minimum of equipment in a small sled, and a manual auger. No tent, no heater, no power auger, no graph, and I catch fish just fine thanks. Sure, the extra bits make life more comfortable and a graph is a great thing for some fishing, but you don't NEED them. Just sayin'.... Doug

I've always run a kicker, keep those hours off the big motor and sip fuel. Salmon/walleyes/muskies/whatever. Kicker probably gets 10 times the amount of hours the big mill does. If you do a lot of trolling, you'd be crazy not to have one.

When I got her from the SPCA as an abandoned cat, 10 years old roughly, she was declawed in the front, so not quite ideal for climbing. She probably could out run a coon.

Ice fishing has definitely declined in my life...and it's just not the shorter season. As I get older, I'm becoming more of a pu$$y. My tolerance for the cold and staring down a hole for hours is declining as the years go by. I still get out on the ice a few times a season...mostly to target Crappie at the cottage as the slot sizes make a Walleye meal difficult. Lake Trout is closed in winter on my lake, but occasionally I luck into a Whitefish or Burbot.. I also do a trip on Simcoe with my grandkids for Petch...that's with an operator so it's a pretty cushy affair. However, now that I've retired I find myself (and my wife) spending more of the winter down south. We've never liked Florida (and certainly wouldn't spend our money there now, given the politics), so we rotate between renting places in Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica...as a bonus the Cdn $ still goes relatively far in these countries. We're down in Cancun right now...kids and grandkids came down to visit last week..my son and son-in-law got out on a charter to load up for some fish dinners.. By the time I return, it should be ice-out fishing season.