Rich

Dude, I just took a week's vacation time to ice fish. LOL I totally hear ya! Yeah, prepare for months on end, spend a ton of cash so you can fly somewhere, spend more cash and drink a lot on a beach. I'd rather spend a little more on fishing for a week and come home and get drunk every night for 1/80th the price LOL

I wouldn't be angry about a closed season during winter on such a small lake. Especially when you go to that small lake and see 300 huts as if it's Lake Simcoe. You're telling me that everyone in Hamilton and their brothers from out of town fishing that reservoir all winter is good for any fish populations?

Why does anyone even go there?! Stunted, rare crappies and nothing else. Wow. 20 bucks a line for the derby, if you dont pay for 2 rods then you cant use a hut, cuz you could be "cheating" with 2 lines in your hut. lmao what a joke!

Dave Mercer is the best.. the only TV show that keeps my attention for a full half hour!

Generally, a square bill is better for running through brush and rocks, so I imagine they'd be pretty nice 'heavy cover' crankbaits.

I'm sure your show will be much better. :-)

Hmm. Thanks for the info guys.

The best low profile baitcaster on the market. Buy one, buy two, buy three! lol

I understand it's a pay-to-play reservoir, I understand there's small pike and small crappies to be caught. I'm just looking for info on if it's worth the drive for pike action, if not, any better suggestions? Just looking for a change of scenery. Chances are, I won't be back for another year... and I wont keep anything more than a half dozen eater crappies (not big ones or little guys). PM if you'd rather!

lol You could stick 300 of those birds of Long Point Bay and they aren't nearly so harmful as the human locals.

Thank you sir! I've definitely considered it but there's bigger things on the horizon ;-) Thanks everyone for your comments. Seems at least there's no dislikes or bashing so it must have been written pretty well. LOL

I want to cut 15x15 foot hole in the ice, with a chainsaw and not mark it. Cuz my hobby is cutting giant holes in the ice in shapes. We should all be allowed to do what we want, we have a RIGHT.. right?! Seriously, remove huts at night? Why the heck are you riding recreationally at night?!

I wouldn't think it could be a hinderance... depends what species you're after I guess.

Absolutely not, I wish there was ice all year round!

This is the first article I've written in a while. What can I say, on vacation, stuck indoors today.. just started typing about what I was thinking about! lol Let me know what you think.

Foo Fighters - All My Life

My buddy Bottombouncer often tells the story fishing a quarry pond last year he saw a bald eagle dive and take off with like a 6lb carp in it's yap. Cool pic !

King of all fishermen IMO

Great report Dan, but.. That is the result 90% of the time, on a good day out there.. can't believe you'd waste your time on the bay but I guess to each his own. lol

If you see them, you can catch them. topwater baits with lots of treble hooks are your best bet, but I've caught them on buzzbaits with stinger hooks.

I booked 9 days off from work just to hit the ice this week as much as humanly possible. The first 2 days have been slow, but not completely unproductive. Sleded and I headed out on a local reservoir in search of perch.. unfortunately we only caught 3 perch. One of them being probably the longest I've ever caught.. the pic doesn't do it justice, really. Not fat, not heavy, but long like a walleye. It smacked a Kastmaster in a 25ft weedbed. That was the only real highlight of the day, besides the good times which really can't possibly be portrayed properly through words. I don't know what it is, but I have a real true love of ice fishing. I love everything about it. What a perfect way to spend winter days with your buddies. (This was taken in the garage after the day was over, lol) Today was different. I fished a local pond that I've always wanted to try but never have before. I was not disappointed.. in addition to 8 billion tiny thumb sized perch I managed to get a decent pike. What a great start to vacation but there's plenty more ice trips and locations to come this week!

lol, those places are so pressured the fish actually search for lures for forage, instead of real baitfish. hahaha

I tend to find the waterbodies which host some form of shad. That breeds big predators.. bass, pike, musky, walleye.. yyeeeeaaaahhhhhh!

Good stuff man. Truly jealous here.. wish I could catch a walleye around here.