tjsa

Fantastic report, glad to see I am not the only one posting ice fishing reports. Too bad with the weather recently there are not more ice reports.

Thanks TJ, and Monique, Avery, Jaden, and (cannot remember the dogs name now, lol)Musky???? Hope you and yours are well in the new year soon to be upon us, in approximately 1 hr. and 45 minutes.

YUP, its still an 18 hr. drive from T.O. Misty, no getting around those couple of big a** lakes between you and I. MEPPS, it is a nice manly touch isn't it, and I selected the flutterby colour myself,

LOL, I would have looked worse than sled if I had made it there. Thanks for the swill report. LOL, I would have looked worse than sled if I had made it there. Thanks for the swill report.

DITTO!!!!!!!

Too bad about the weatherman screwing up your plans Amo, but, there's always next time.

Seen that before, but still an impressive fish to land through a hole in the ice.

Yeah, Glen, how does a redneck know about SCTV??? Not that there's anything wrong with that..............

My goal is the same as every year. To catch at least one fish that I am targetting on the day I am fishing, big or small, kept or released, does not matter. Targetting a fish I have never landed before is fine, but if I do not get one, oh well. There is always next time.

Yeah, it is clampet, but thats' not the point of it all, never is actually. Especially speck fishing. 3 trips of nothing and one trip of great fishing is nothing out of the norm. Thats what keeps us who do it keep on trying. Thanks for all the nice responses everyone, but, come on Lew, you should embrace the winter season a bit more, One of the best things I like about winter fishing other than the comaraderie and conversation, especially when the bite is not going too well, is the open fire roasting of almost anything, sandwiches, sardines, kippers, deer and moose sausages, and my all time favorite, those small pork schneider's smokies I absolutely love these things, never eat them at home, only ice fishing. Didn't get the chance to yesterday, but soon, very soon, Didn't have a fire yesterday, but my arteries are hardening just typing this post

Shaddup Glen, lol.

Sorry Mike, I am not in charge of the ice, only the reports, lol.

Oh heck ya, the main section might be a bit stiff, but you could still use it for lake trout jigging if you have them nearby, and the 2nd section would work fine for a lot of other fish if you put a cork handle and rod seat on it. Might not be too sensitive for some species, but would work.

Mr. Knighton, you have yourself a great new year also, and also Diane, and Sheri.(goes without saying, but I said it anyways). Take care now. And to everyone else who reads or responds to this post, best wishes for the new year, one and all.

As per usual with me and my bud, up at 4 am, gather gear, he picks me up at 6 am. Drive to parking spot. We decided to try a put and take speck lake, was a longshot at best for one decent fish. Tried to use my pulk to haul gear in, but with low snow conditions, it kept hanging up on deadfalls, so strapped everything to my pack and off we went up a 200 ft. hill. Got to the lake and drilled holes looking for depths. Set up in 6 ft. to start, but drilled a few more down the shoreline and ended up in almost 10 ft. of water. Fished for 3.5 hrs. and not a bite. Hmmm, should have had at least one bite by this time. Couple a pics of the lake. Was a frosty morning, but only about -5C Looking down the lake, sun is still behind the hill with cloud cover. Nothing happened, other than good conversation, So, we decide to pack up and go walleye fishing to the lake we were at last weekend. Packed everything up for the walk out, leaving the lines to pack last. And what do I bring up, but a salamander engorging itself on the end of my nightcrawler , poor little thing probably could not even breath, its mouth was expanded so much on the end of the worm. Sorry, no pics of the little blighter, cameras were already packed away, so snipped off the end of the worm with him and let him back into the water. Back down the hill to the truck, retreived my pulk, stopped at a bait store for more minnows, and off we went. This is actually the first time I have used my pulk since I built it 2 yrs. ago, and it was effortless to walk the 15 minutes out to our fishing spot with my 70 lb. pack(I never pack lightly, just cannot for some reason) my auger, and the minnow bucket on it. There was a party at the launch that offered to drag it out with his quad, but I declined. Ran into him at the launch when we came out, and he was impressed that I could walk with that much weight behind me. But, since there is only about 4 inches of snow on the lake at best, it was not a difficult task. Now, onto the walleye fishing. Got set up, and started jigging around 1:45 pm, in relative sunlight with a bit of cloud. We thought that the fish would not be receptive until around dusk, or 5 pm. Well, I hit 3 within 1/2 an hour, lost 2 just below the ice, and the 3rd I landed, a small 10 inch walleye, all before 2 pm, got a skanky pike around 2:15 , not what I wanted for sure. My bud had not had a hit jigging or on the set line. Then a lull, a long lull, time to eat and drink(water only). Then around 4:30 my bud gets a nice 15 incher(no pic, I was jigging at the time)and that was the time we realized that we had no way to measure the fish. So I know my right hand hand span is 9 1/4 inches long, (used to use it to quickly determine speck size in creeks)and made up a stick as a measuring device(gonna have tape on my hand auger for next weekend, and a seamstress's tape with me next time as backup for sure). I believe the stick we chopped of was 18" bang on, but don't know for sure. So, my bud gets another on the still line exactly the length of the stick. Keeps that one, then gets 3 more carbon copies of that fish, and since we do not know "exactly" the length of that stick, he let them all go. I told him when he got home, to absolutely not measure that one fish he kept that was around the 18" mark, just in case it was 17 3/4 inches long and he could have kept 2 more, Jigging late was not producing, so I moved one line out further, and set up a 2nd set line. Paid off on the first one I moved, got one around 15 inches, and he or she tasted great this morning. Sorry for the blurry pic, it looked good on the camera at the time. My bud also got the biggest pike we have ever seen on this lake, most are 1.5-2 lbs., but this one had a bit more heft, and gave a decent fight. OK, last picture, first time I have used the flash on my camera at night, just took a pic of my pack, and my pulk is slightly in it also, we walked back to the landing in the dark, despite almost a full moon, but with the cloud cover, wasn't a lot of help. but could still see where we were going regardless, and had to wait almost 20 minutes for the other party to load their snowmobile and sleigh(no ramp, backed up to a mound and cut off the roadway from us) and because of that, I missed the entire first half of COPS!!!!!!!!!! Ah well, still better than sitting at home in front of the boob tube(or even surfing OFC for that matter, no offence meant)all day, but I gotta say, the beer tasted soooooo good when I got home and the gear was stowed, and enjoyed sleeping in until 10 am. 16.5 hr. trips are getting to my old body now.

Ummm..............yeah, I can believe that,

Yeah, I know guys are driving their trucks out on some lakes, but not me, no way. I went really, really slow last weekend on my quad, looking for soft areas(in the dark ) but no way am I gonna chance it in a truck. Probably will not take the chance at all this year. Snowmobiles are so much easier, and safer, but without the creature comforts. Gonna walk up a big hill into a speck lake tomorrow, hope to have a report late tomorrow or early sunday morning. p.s............why are some of those guys lying down on the ice???? did they slip or something???? If they did, I would think it is rather cruel of you to take pictures of them in their time of need

Yes, I have heard of that technique of putting the bottles in the freezer for refilling, but since the cost of them simply outweighs the possible danger, I figger, screw it, I just buy them.

LOL, I know that spot. Are you sure about that 14 inches though??? Wouldn't figger that much with this weather. Where I was last weekend was only 9 inches of ice, in much shallower water.

sounds like a big part of your job is already done Ed, just let "Uncle Lew" pick the date, time, place, and all you will have to do is worry about walking your daughter down the aisle,.....and the booze.

WTG Bob, thanks for sharing.

darn, nice fish, wish we had more of them up here. There are a few around, but I mean a few, have heard of them being caught up here, but not by anyone I personally know.

Geez, no dam pics, kinda looks wierd to see a report from you without concrete on either your left or right side, lol. Just kiddin Glen, nice catch there, and I am sure they are going to taste great for the next couple of days. Took me 3 days to eat my two fish from last saturday.

Very well done, I do remember most of those pictures.

Multimedia technician at our local university, covering everything from delivering equipment to classrooms, doing equipment maintenance, video conferencing, reserving videos from other ontario universities, installations of data projectors, screens, wiring, videoconferencing equipment, ordering new equipment for installations, scheduling equipment usage for classes and meetings, training profs and admins in usage of equipment, etc. etc. etc. kind of a jack of all trades sometimes. Sounds a bit wierd, but I get to meet new students, older students, professionals, industry professionals, politicians, and some famous people also(recently Gwynn Dyer, whom I have met before, and I think he remembered me, lol), I just do everything possible in my job to make the students experience in university a good experience, from the technology standpoint at least.