akaShag

I forgot we used to catch smelt on our lines back in the 80s in Simcoe. Some of them were real dandies, like 10 or 11 inches. Smoked smelts, yum! Doug

Remember folks, back in the 50s, ice fishing was invented by the Department of Health to give heavy drinkers some fresh air in the winter time! Doug

What are all them VEGGIES going there!!!!????? 😲

I would have stayed in the shelter rather than bailing out!!!!

But what we ended up with was this:

This was what we were after.

Please tie more of the reds and check your e-mail. 😉 Doug

Thanks buddy!

It was this part that made me ask the question. I DID think that you were fishing the bugs bare, then I saw the word maggot. Doug

OK you guys have convinced me. Looks like these are $179 now (online). Anybody know if major retailers (CTC, etc) stock them? Doug PS) Anybody find them TOO WARM?

So you are fishing those with a maggot on them? Have you tried a perch eyeball? (and yes, folks, it IS legal to use a perch eyeball for bait here in Ontario.) Doug

according to my computer, that was written on 28 Feb 2015. Yep, time flies when you're having fun! Doug

What the heck, let's run it again for the memories

A reprint from the archives, first published in 2015. And still true.......... DEATH MARCH ON CHARLESTON LAKE So “out4trout” and I have been chatting about where we might lay a beating on some mid-winter perch. Both of us are hungry for a fresh feed of perch fillets, and generally we can do exactly that on some lakes we know. EXCEPT those lakes are under a ton of snow and neither of us owns a snowmobile. O4t is pretty fit and could walk a mile in snowshoes, but me, not so much. And plus, when he tried out his snowshoes a couple days ago on a local lake it was worse than wearing no snowshoes at all. So we had to find a lake with EASY access and not so far to walk to the hot spot. I remembered that a fellow I know had been on Charleston Lake two years ago and just slayed the jumbos. I also recalled him saying that they were right close to a road. So I called him up and asked him if he would share that spot with me, which he did. (Trusting soul, isn’t he!) So we made plans to meet this morning close to the honey hole and from there find a good spot to park where we would not impede traffic. As a bonus, 04t’s young lad would be joining us, and he is a strong young man who could possibly be used as a pack mule…. Met up this morning and a brisk walk confirmed a decent access point, so we loaded up the sleds and headed out onto the lake. Now it is worth mentioning here that o4t is six foot thirteen, and his son is taller by a couple inches. I am a short-ass older man with arthritis in my neck and back, and carrying about twenty pounds that I did not have when I wore a younger man’s clothes. The snow was about knee-deep, and had no body, so each step your foot would slide out sideways. And even though those guys were breaking trail, it took two of my steps for every one of theirs, so I was breaking the “half-trail” and pulling my sled. You know, when you look at “Google Earth” and estimate the distances based on their handy little “SCALE” that they provide, you get a fairly good guess as to actual distances on the ground. HAH!!!!!!!! The evil folks at Google Earth probably deliberately make their scale appear to be much bigger than it is. And for example they probably don’t calculate the curvature of the earth, which over distances like this adds many hundreds of yards to the ACTUAL distance to be travelled. Evil machines and their “FREE” programs, eh? They are just softening us up for the robocalypse. Anyways, MULTIPLE stops later, we got out to a fine-looking drop-off that the Navionics was showing. Of course, when we actually drilled the holes, the water was somewhat deeper than we had been intending to fish. We were aiming at 20 but got 24 FOW. And so we started fishing. For perch. With ultralights and micro-sized baits. About an hour into this adventure, when my breathing had returned more or less to normal, and my pulse was finally below 100, I saw the young lad fighting a fish. It was abundantly clear that this was NOT a perch, and sure enough up came a nice lake trout which was returned down the hole immediately. Not long after that, the scene was repeated but this time a very nice lake trout came topside and straight back down the hole. I was fishing with a 1/16 oz Ice Worm on 2 lb test and a very light rod and BOOM! That’s no perch………….and after quite a tussle another laker came up and right back into the water. Then o4t caught a laker and of course released it, there being no open season on lake trout in Charleston Lake in the winter time. Clearly we had to move, so we pulled up our lines and loaded the sleds for another trudge through that cursed snow and drilled holes in 18 to 15 FOW. I had a bump, and missed it, then o4t caught another laker. OK, so now we decided to head REAL shallow and got onto some green cottontail down about 8 feet. Should be good, right? NOPE. Another hour or two, nada, so once again we moved camp, but at least this time we were headed back towards our vehicles. (Maybe because I suggested that was the direction I was going to go…) 15 to 16 FOW, fish on the flasher, and FINALLY the young lad landed a gigantic perch. Well, five inches anyways. By now the wind had picked up considerably and I was convinced that the perch had lockjaw, so we called it a day. Of course, there remained the death march BACK to shore, and our tracks heading out had already been obliterated by blowing wind. I think I stopped twelve or maybe even fifteen times to catch my breath, but hallelujah finally got back on a plowed road! Five hours, five OOS lakers, one perch, and another tale to tell. I am looking forward to getting back out there once the snow has melted (or after the ICE has melted this spring!) The spot has promise for sure, and I suspect it holds perch – we just did not unlock the secret today, or maybe they were just not interested in feeding. And no pictures accompany this little report, given that the lakers went right back down the holes………… Doug

and no DEATH MARCHES on Charleston, either!!! I should replay that one, it was a classic......... Doug

So Brian was strolling behind some guy that set up an ice shelter only 20 yards away from him. He thought maybe it was some guy he knew, or maybe the guy had no freakin idea that it is RUDE to set up that close. And when he went to knock on the door of the shelter, he stepped into an ice brownie.........😲

yep............😉

Nice fish, buddy! Looking a bit grey on top, and what's that, a BEARD!!!!! 😁 Doug

Thanks. Doug

Good video. Yesterday, fishing for perch, buddy beside me was fishing a dropper above his bottom lure (usually a Buckshot), and I was fishing with a Buckshot, or a Forage Minnow, and no dropper. I would say that I outfished him for numbers, and we were about even for larger perch. No jumbos hit the top hook, which was interesting. We were inside a shelter and able to sight-fish for the most part. The perch were mostly coming in as singles and doubles, rather than in schools. I think if we had been seeing schools of fish, the dropper would have been more successful. Doug

maybe tomorrow............😉

A buddy of mine reported using a dropper about a foot above his jig for jumbo perch, and doing well with it. I have not tried it. Yet..... Doug

Yep. It cost me about $1500 on a trade-in value. When I wanted a new pickup, the sales guy said the only one they could find was TEAL. I said I did not care what colour it was. But when it was time for a new truck, it turned out that people DID care about colour. Oh well, live and learn...............🙄 Doug

Thanks for adding to my education. I did not know they made pants in "teal" colour. 😁 I had an F-150 that colour.............. Doug

Fresh perch here tonight, NO PICTURES, but just Fish Crisp and oil. YUM YUM. And I ain't slappin' my mama! 😉 Doug