Joeytier

Won't even touch the ice. The snow will all melt though, then when it freezes, we'll have TONS of hard, smooth ice.

 

Bring your rubbers!! Its gonna be wet!!!

 

Sinker

Exactly.

That one on top is HUGE! Nice going.

Alright, thanks. I think I'm going to grab one. Anyone willing to sell?

Great looking perch and very tasty. I kept a few pigs like that last year in early spring and found them full of eggs too and the fillets you get out of them end up being disappointing for the size of the fish.

 

Anyway you look at it thats a great perch, congrats.

That's just the way it goes. Every keeper size perch I've ever cleaned was stuffed full of eggs.

I don't have a hut, and I'd like to think of myself as fairly capable of withstanding cold temperatures. Thanks for the input. Did you pick it up at BPS?

I'm seriously considering getting this, since the only seat I have for ice fishing at the moment is a padded bucket, and my back gets really sore after sitting on something without a back. I like the rod holders, and even has a fish bag for your catch! Seems really nice.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...016000_100-16-0

Wow. Awesome report! Rainbows through the ice would be amazing.

Just fish for steelhead.

The small creek behind my house(pringle creek in whitby) is open in the faster. It will be entirely open after the next two days of 7-8 degree weather I'm sure. With any luck, Oshawa will be fishable Friday.

I've still yet to get any crappie through the ice.

Thanks for the report, seem that fishing is good this year.....how thick was the ice out there?

 

Maureen

I didn't measure, but I'd say at LEAST 13-14 inches, probably more.

This time around, I figured making the lengthy (to say the least) trek out to the whitie grounds from Bonnie Boats would not be my best bet, so we stuck to perch. I'm glad we made that choice.

All of our fishing was done almost straight north of the point in anywhere from 28-37 feet of water.

Our first spot was in about 28 feet of water. We probably fished there for 35 minutes, and only one school moved through during that time, producing 2-3 fish.

Pretty slow start.

We moved further north to a spot about 31 feet deep, and that is where at least 7 or 8 of our 12 keepers were taken. The action was steady for at least an hour, with most of the fishing coming off of orange buckshots with a small shiner. Even the bigger fish were not touching bigger shiners. Windlass tip-ups with shiners also went 2-for-3.

Eventually, that spot died off and we headed straight north another 300 feet or so. We didn't mark any fish or get a bite, so we decided to move about 200 feet east in about 37 feet of water. In our last 45 minutes, we had two schools move through, which produced 2 keepers and 2 other smaller ones. We headed in after that.

We ended up with 12 keepers, and released many other potential keepers early in the day expecting to catch more jumbos, but it didn't really happen. We probably caught 25-30 fish.

The ice was awful. It was slushy in the morning, but as the cold winds picked up, everything hardened, so there was 6-7 inch rock hard tire grooves EVERYWHERE, and trying to bring a sled over them on foot without tipping it is very difficult.

The shot looking north towards the whities huts:

My rig:

Buddies Rig:

Biggest Perch (for some reason I forgot to snap a shot of the bag of keepers.)

Nice looking fish. Whereabouts is Belwood Lake?

Wow, that's some red meat.

Cool story. All that talk of 35 degree humid weather reminds me of why I like winter so much.

You're allowed 3 lines per person?

I'm jealous.

Great report. Thanks for posting.

Perhaps the sheriff should take the time to consider the amount of people that go out and fish Lake Erie and lakes like it on a DAILY basis without ever encountering anything like this, as well the number of days with identical conditions with no adverse consequences. He's got his head up his ass on this on this one. It was a freak accident, and this is why the rescue operations exist. God forbid we might have to spend a little of the taxpayers money to save hundreds of lives.

I'm shocked at the multitude of startlingly ignorant comments in reply to this article. This one in particular struck me as mind-blowing:

Ice fishing is one of the most boring sports in the world, most guys use it as an excuse to get away from the wife and kids and get drunk. You would think these guys could afford to buy some fresh fish from the supermarket? I guess not, maybe its a sign just how bad the USA economy really is. At least one hundred cast aways fishing on a breakaway chunk of ice think it's worth risking their lives for.

And this one...

And of course taxpayers will pay for this error in judgment, again!

I'm at a loss for words as to how someone could legitimately feel that way.

Are white perch the same thing as white bass? They look quite similar to the ones I catch on Lake Ontario

Nice job!

Has anyone used the new HT ice fishing reels with the spool that points towards to first guide? They seem really nice.

Man I gotta get up there.

With any luck, I'll have nice bag of perch to take home tomorrow just like that one. Thanks for sharing.