tip-up

LOL Aylmer, Quebec

What a weekend it was... For the first few days at the cottage this year, we had a blast. Got to watch the sens win there first of the series too. Anthony, myself and our dad left Aylmer Friday morning at around 11 and arrived at out cottage about an hour and a half later. As soon as we opened up the place, a few major problems caught our attention. The pressure in the waterline showed that we had a leak somewhere, and because the line is underground, we feared the worst. Turned out there was a huge crack in it that needs some repairing next weekend. No water for the entire weekend made things a bit more difficult to do a few smaller things. The weatherman called for cloudy skies, rain and thunderstorms for most part of the weekend. The front brought in lot's of warm air, humid days, lightning storms, and a bit of rain. Friday night we took it easy and prepared the boats for a couple days of hard fishing. After having motor problems at the end of the season last year, we were anxious to see how they were running after bringing them into the shop over the winter. Few pulls of the cord and both started up right away and suprisingly running very smooth. After supper that night we took it easy and passed out quite early. I hoped for the rain to stop by the morning so we could stop by the camp and chat with some hawkers for a bit before heading out.. First night was rainy and foggy. Not enjoyable when you favorite walleye spot is a good little boot down the river. Oh well, were ready for the morning Talk about being in the bush. You could not walk 10 feet through here without being eatin' alive by mosquitos and black flies. Dad giving the small boat a first run. Saturday morning we awoke to the smell of bacon and eggs that dad had ready for us. The meal went down quick and anticipation to get out on the water was high. The weather was cloudy and humid. The river, calm as glass. Our breaky went down quick with high anticipation to get out on the river. After bailing out both boats and rigging a few rods, we were off to Laurention View to see of the boys were up and ready to get out. As we got to the lodge, no one was in sight. Everyone must have been out fishing so we booted back to the Black River to make our first few runs. We were looking for walleye and decided to try bottom bouncing and jigging as our first approach. For jigging we used white twistertails. The pattern of the jig head did not seem to matter. While slowly bouncing along the first break, were into our first few batches of walleye/sauger. We had our limits quick but still did not have the size. Good eating I tell ya. Anthony with a nice sauger Andrew followed up with one not too long after(How could someone be so tired with all that action) Dad signaled us on the walkie talkies not to long after saying he had caught a big fish trolling. He needed a net and tools to release him quickly and off we were to give him a hand. Both of us looked at each other and laughed thinking the fish he had caught was no bigger than 5lbs LOL. The laughing stopped as we got closer to the boat. First thing I had noticed was the big back a northern swaying slowly in the water. Getting the hooks out was easy, reviving it took a bit longer. 14 lbs of pike! Sign of good things to come. Ended up being the biggest fish 'Caught' this weekend. Beauty Dad! We also encounterd many beautiful sights and wildlife that day and today. Thought I would share a few pictures.. Big Toad Basking Turtle Swimming deer Eagles nest Seeing as though bottom bouncers were a hit a few hours earlier in the day, we decided to try the technique again in a little bay that we have caught many walleye in before. Staying shallow and in the weeds Anthony caught the first one..then a double header. They are there. We caught out limits again and called it a night..Sens were playing. No missing the game What more could you ask for, Sens on the radio, walleye in the boat. Few Scenic pictures of the areas we were fishing The night ended perfect and the Sens won..Wahoo. It started to rain a little after dark so a camp fire was out of the question..Sunday we took another run up to the resort to see of we could find the guys this time. They were not too far. Shot of the resort BTS and his partner in one boat, Hitmanhill and the others in the other. Nice new rig. Didn't want to bother them too much. Glad to hear the walleye were biting for them and a fish fry was had. Can't wait until next weekend -Andrew

I will start by saying GO SENS GO! This weekend marked the opener for pike and walleye in my division on the Ottawa River. Could not make it out on Friday night so I made plans to get out with a well known member from another board the following day. The invite from Seaweed to get out on Saturday was taken into consideration immediatly due to the fact he has tried to get us out many times in the past. After chatting with him on the phone the night before, we decided to fish crappie and pike in a few of his productive spots from last spring. I was pretty much game for anything so settled at that and had a good nights rest before meeting him at the launch the following morning. The time came for me to get out of bed and prepare for the day ahead. Dad woke me up..didn't take long for me to jump out of the sac. After breakfast and few rounds to the washroom, It was time to stop by my moms place and wake up Anthony who had a pretty late night the day before...After a few moans and groans, he was up and we were off to Tim Hortons to start the day.. Made our way down to the launch where Seaweed was all ready to go with the boat in the water. A quick goodbye and and few good lucks from dad and we were off. The trip down to Seaweeds fishing hole was quite a bit of a ride with the cool morning winds beaming us directly in in the face. Windburn was unavoidable but well worth it. We arrived to the spot and got set-up. We started to fish the shoreline when right off the bat a large musky spooked and darted off infront of us. I didn't get to see it but Anthong and Seaweed caught a glimpse of the beast. The three of us had spinnerbaits knotted up to our main lines and were casting them along the shore leaving no space for fish to dart off. If they were in the path of the bait, we would likely get a follow or hook up. I started off the morning breaking in the day with a nice little pike. A couple pounds or so but enough to get the blood pumping. After a few more casts I was able to hook into another rocket..Anthony was quick to the net. Seaweed had a big fish smack his lure right after that but just missed it. Not frowning upon that fish Seaweed continued our path along the shore and was able to put us into a few more fish with him getting a good number of them as well. They werent big but sure a blast. With consitant action for a good portion of the morning, we decided to do another round around the bay to try form some crappies..No crappie were caught today although we now have a pretty good idea as to where they are hiding. All morning the choosen spot showed signs of 'Big' fish so we stuck it out for a bit longer. Wakes, boils and thrashing were occuring everywhere around us. We threw a few different patterns of spinnerbaits, stickbaits and cranks. Spinnerbaits were the hot lure today with most of the fish being hooked up with the trailer hooks. Retrieving them at a slow pace proved to be the ticket today. The pike were deep into the grass mixed in the bass..Weeding them out did not seem like a problem though. Only two or three OOS bass were caught out of the many fish caught today. Very suprising for the type of water and structure we were throwing our baits in. We had many fish hooked and lost which was very weird because the three of us had trailers on our baits. At one point of the day Seaweed had a big boil on his bait that we thought was a big bass. After a second cast it turned out to be a massive pike. The pike followed his spinnerbait and swiped at it just missing the hooks. It sat infront of us just long enough for us to get a gook look at him, We guessed him at 10+ pounds. I know Chris will back soon for her. We went on to catch a few more hammers here and there before moving to our next destination. Seaweed landed the biggest pike of the day just before packing up. Around 5+ pounds. The second spot was marked on Seaweeds GPS..Good thing for that because it would have taken a little while to find the small opening we were looking out for. We were off. Arriving at the second spot Seaweed had choosen for us to fish to finish off the day we slowly drifted over a shallow flat into the channel where we planned to start our second round of the pike slaughter. Seaweed had pointed out to Anthony of a point that he catches fish on regularly and suggested him to start whipping his bait in that direction. First cast he tells us he is snagged and can't budge it. A few seconds later his rod tip starts thunping and he realized that the infact had a nice fish hooked up. After a short battle he was able to bring the fish up and I was able to net it. Turned out to be a really nice OOS ski. Carefully Anthony removed the hooks and put the fish back in the water where it thrashed and took off right away. As the day came to a finish, the trolling motor battery was slowly dying out which enabled us to keep control of the boat in the winds and currents. We decided to pack it in and head back to the launch. In all I could not tell ya how many pike were brought into the boat. That's always good LOL. I could not have a better first day on the river and I would like to thank Chris for treating Anthony and I to an awesome day out there. I hope he had just as much fun as we did. Anytime he wants to get back out I am in! Chris sure knows how to put us onto fish. Thanks again Seaweed! Can't wait to do it all over agian sometime soon! Here are a few pictures from the day. Sorry about the pictures again as I had the crappy camera. Another week the good one should be fixed. Didn't want any pictures today as the action was a bit to speratic..Only had one picture worthly fish anyway. Anthony with his first pike of the day.. Seaweed with a nice one! Nice ski Anthony..A few more weeks and you can start targeting them.. [Edited for content] Me with a windburnt face..LOL A great day in all! Thanks again Chris -Andrew

No toss up Bunk, Ottawa takes the cup this year...

Very nice... A few beauty's there for sure. Thanks for sharing!

Must have been nice! Thanks for sharing every minute of your awesome adventure with us! I enjoyed it very much!

A few days late but better than never..It's been a while folks. So nice to finally be fishing again! I could not have asked for better morning. Awoke at 10a.m. to the smell of french toast and bright sunny conditions that made my eyes squint as I rolled over to the window side of my bed. Usually at this point I throw the blankets over head and flake right back into doh-doh land, but today was different...today I put a hurtin' on the crappie for the first time this year. After breakfast and watching the Senators highlights(Again ) from the game last night, I put my gear by the door, patiently waiting for my ride down to river. Noon came and and so did the car :razz: Gunned it down to the spot hoping the sun would be hitting my first spot I had planned for attack. I find it sucks fishing solo but it's also nice sometimes..Kind of helps you concentrate more on catching and besides when we get the boats in the next weekend, there will not be that much alone time. Arrived at 12:30 and was greeted by the many wildlfe that surround the local watersheds in my area..You name it, I saw it this morning. If I had my new camera then I would have been able to take some really nice quick snap-shots of the animals. Unfortunatly, I am stuck with the old Kodak for the rest of the week. Couple of the sights included raccoons, deer, a fox, and numerous species of bird and turtles. Temp- 17' C Winds- SW7 Km/h Conditions- Pure sunshine Looking good so far :!: First pond..Noticed mass number of bluegill and sunfish through-out because of how shallow it it in most spots. You can clearly tell these fish are in their beds, and will bite anything you tossed at 'em. Seen many schools of them but they were all small or very small. I continued on walking until I found structure and relitlivly deeper water knowing if that my best chances of getting a few would be in these key areas. Within a few minutes of my casting and twitching, the first crappie hit. I missed it initially but watched him dart out from unter a tree and swoop at it again. This time I made sure to impale T.H.E. jig right into the roof of the mouth and with seconds I had my first crappie of the day gripped tight between my fingers. After a quick measurment and pic, back it goes until next time. One under the belt! How many more to go? Who knows, who cares, I only started This 4lbs+ largie was kind enough to pose for the camera..Another couple of weeks and we can finally start fishing for 'em :!: Monuvering my bobber and jig in and out of the branches of fallen trees was important. The crappie were hugging the structure which it made it a bit difficult to get them..from shore at that. Every once in a while you could see them dart out from the cover and cruise slowly into the sun. Could not get those guys to bite. Caught a bunch in a time frame of 20 minutes...The fish would move..I follow. That was pretty much the game plan today. Biggest of the day was 12''. The fish were really dark in color and for the most part really aggressive. It was hard to tell who put the real show on today, the crappie or myslef You can see the crappie dart out from submerged structure. Tried to tease this guy into taking my white micro tube..it fell for it :razz: Later on in the afternoon as the bite turned off again, I walked to a nearby nearby creek to see if the action was picking up over there. Sun was hitting my side of the shore so I grabbed my rod with T.H.E. Jig tied on and fired it out to the middle. Not a minute later my bobber immediatly vanished. Set the hook and was into another 12'' slab. Waited it out a while and caught another small one. Bluegill were everywhere and constantly playing with my bait. Decided to move on to the next bay where I finished off my day. The final bay I reared a few, carbon copies of the 30 or so I caught. Made a small clip to fill up the rest of the space on my camera. Do these fish ever inhale a jig :smile: man I love it. Before taking off I snapped a quick photo of the main river in all of it's beauty. The might Ottawa's backbays proved to be a good spot of choice for today's outing. Now that I have finaly broke the ice I can get out and test all these new great products I have coming to me. A new order of the T.H.E Jig will be a must along with tensor bandage from a sore arm :wink: Still have alot of fishing ahead of me this year :razz: Can't wait for the real gamefish to open up..All the best catchers and good luck and be safe out on the water :!: Thanks for taking the time to read :razz: P.S., I will have the good camera for next weekend :!: A few more photo's from the week.. Only was able to dish out about an 1 hour worth of fishing today. Found a few small fish in the back bays and ponds of the Ottawa River. I had to be at a family supper at 5 so Anthony and I could only stay the few minutes we were walking the dog. Sunfish and bluegill bite was pretty consistent the whole time while the crappie were not hugging the shore and foraging for prey a bit deeper. They were a bit harder to get. Caught 2 around the 9'' range so far. Anthony reared a beauty first spring slab at 12''. T.H.E. Jig worked awesome :!: The slow drop of it drives them nuts. My good camera was at my dads place so I had to opt with the ol' Kodak. Snapped a few quick ones for you guys and gals. Shots were surprisingly not too bad with the 8 year old camera I have a good plan set for tomorrow :twisted: Anthony with a nice one.. -Andrew

Nice Pike! They always seem to hit good when that mysterious fog moves in

Greencoachdog, depending on the body of water your fishing a 'Jumbo' perch can be anywhere from 10''-14''+....Simcoe for example(I have never fished there) has a lot of jumbo perch which I would consider to be in the 11'-12'' range and it's not uncommon to catch a 'Jalopie' perch with is considered to be 14'' +.. The lake I was fishing is very small but has a phenominal perch fishery. It was rare to find fish under the 9'' mark. On these lakes a perch 9'' plus I would conisider a jumbo! This is actually a really good question! What do you consider to be a jumbo OFC'ers? Thanks for all the reply's guys! I hate watching the ice melt..Hope I can get at least one more day ou there before the shorelines get to bad... Thanks for reading ! -Andrew

Saturday March 10, 2007 Well, I know where Anthony and I will be fishing for the rest of the march break. Saturday we fished a body of water that we have wanted to check out for quite some time. With a map of the area and our GPS we were able to find a few areas that were likely to hold good numbers of perch. Besides the howling wind and rain that came down the first hour we were there, the day turned out perfect. Anthony and I headed to our first marked spot and proceeded to punch numerous holes around the area to find active fish. Our first was in 22FOW and there were fish showing up everywhere on the vex from 2' off of bottom and down. After knotting a few teardrops to our lines, we dropped our offerings down and hoped for the best . Imediatly.....Fish-On :!: :!: I tag this little guy in hopes of a jumbo ............not what were looking for. Anthony then followed with this little guy...Time to move deeper. A good walk to spot B proved to be the ticket. I walked around a bit and found some activity in 35-40FOW. Signaled to Andrew to pack up the sled and gear and make his way over to the location where I was. We found what we were looking and LOTS of them...We went on to catch over 150+ Perch with the average size being 10'' and smallest were around 8''-9''. Biggest was caught by Anthony at 13 1/2'' and I beat my PB 4 times that day with a few at 12''. Anthony, not being a big fan of ice fishing had one of his best days on the ice ever. Had our last day at Petrie Islands last weekend for a while :wink: We did keep a few in the 9-12'' size and released the big mommas for next year :wink: Anthony with a couple of 13'' Jumbo Perch... Myself with a few 11'' fatties :wink: Scoop of perch :wink: Here is a video to show you just how aggressive these fish were...Anthony brought this guy up almost 15 feet and still got him to nail it.. Me laying the hooks into one of the smaller perch Tuesday March 13, 2007 I am very glad Anthony and I were able to get on the ice today as tomorrow it will be impossible to get on. I thought the slush was bad Saturday. Today was twice as bad...we could have went for a swim. There was a half inch of snow with almost 8'' of water underneath it on the surface of the ice...Not fun at all to be walking threw. On and off rain did not help either. Before we left I made sure to be prepared for the worst of the slush ..You laugh now but it worked.. The rain came down a few times through out the day. Fortuantly, it did not affect the fishing. Infact I think it helped. We drilled many holes trying to find active perch...It took a while but payed off. We ended up moving spots and tried fishing a completly new area. Did not take long for them to show up. Thought I might add we released all fish today. Anthony with a nice one... followed by myself landing this nice perch.. Standing in water half way to the tip of the boots sucked..Garbage bags were the make and break of this outing. More Jumbos... Water build up on the ice forced us to pack up and leave earlier than expected. I was very disapointed today was the last day I fish this area until next ice season. Between the two of us we landed to many to count. Also both of us beat out PB jumbo yet again. It's sad to see the ice leaving so quickly. I can only look up to spring crappie, walleye and pike now. Hope I can get on Petrie once or twice again this week before it's all gone. Thanks for taking the time to read. Short clip of the frenzy.. -Andrew

Trying to get as much in to make up for the short seaon Mike..So far I have not had a bad outing!

Fished a spot that has been pretty productive during the day for walleye this season. Set-up over 30 feet of water and marked nothing for a few minutes..Caught my first few sauger around 10am and continued on trying to find roaming perch and bigger walleye....Swiss-cheesed the whole area punching holes trying to follow the fish around. It payed off.. I was able to ice 17 walleye/sauger by 3:00 and a few small pike... Walleye were in the 15''- 22'' size while the few darts were no more that 25''. I made it to the bait shop at 3:25 so my fish was disqualified. I am sure it would have takes 2nd for sure.. Glad to hear you came fist in the walleye category Nighttroller...I had a gut feeling it was you !! I did not see any other known members out there...Could barely see my set-line at times...Few snow squals hit us during the day.. First fish of the day...a scrappy sauger..Probably a pounder or so.. Nice little walleye...Kept 4 over 17'' for a snack... Shot of the Clam...always snap a photo of it... Hot hole... Another good walleye from the hot hole.. On the move walter...Didn't stand a chance with the stinger hook stuck in the side of his mouth... It was another great day on the ice..I can't wait to get back out tomorrow..Thanks Yves for putting on another great derby and to the winners a big congrats...Can't wait to fish next years event.. Oh by the way, crappie have been on fire as well, -Andrew

Could not have asked for a better day. It's nice to be able to fish without the heater hissing on blast like on colder days. Weather was sunny and warm. The perfect day on the ice. Fishing was hot yet again! Had planned to get out for walleye early this morning but to our luck, the bait shop did not open till 9:30am..go figure. It was 7am when we arrived. Crappie were biting good last weekend so we decided to give it another go today. Glad we did. Set up at 7:30am and fished with small plastics until the baitshop opened for pinheads. Bite turned on just as the sun had risen' over the tree tops. For the early part of the morning I could not seem to keep 'em on the hook. Anthony was using a bigger size hook and was getting a lot more hookups than me. Moved around a bit and took a small number of fish from each hole...Lots of dinks. We also set a few tip-ups for roaming pike. No flag popping today though. Tried making a few videos with the old camera... Joco showed up bit later on in the morning and started punching a few holes around the area..His tip-up was in no more than 10 minutes and he lands this nice 32'' pike.Two weeks to late for the derby. We continued catching crappie and bluegill averaging 5''-12''. Anthony had to leave later on in the morning for work so I got him to bring the gist of the gear back to the house. Marco and I stayed a few hours later. Thanks for the jigs bud. No doubt I will have to add a few more to the arsenal. Joco with a nice pike! He also kept a few slab crappie for himself.. Left alone with only a few jigs and rods..I now wonder why I drag over 100 pounds of gear on the ice with me every outing.. The crappie and bluegill were bitting on small jigs tipped with a small CJ&S plastic tail and spoons/pinhead minnows. Pink, red and blue was the key today. Bigger slabs were cruising the the 10' in the water column over 13'. Bluegills remained glued to the bottom. It was definitely the nicest day on the ice thisyear weather wise, and I think Joco's best day of the season fishing wise. Easily over 100+ fish caught today between the 3 of us. This weekend coming up will be the hunt for big perch in Quebec..I already have a few spots in mind. Couple of 11'' crappie Concentrating.. My small snack..I rarely even keep that many..Just enough to feed myself. Thanks for reading -Andrew

Fished one of the Ottawa Rivers many back waters today in search of crappie, bluegill and pike. I reached the spot at about 1:00 and was greeted by a well known buddy Nighttroller. He was aready into the slab crappie well before I got there. After punching a quick few holes with the Jiffy(You saved my arms once again Rich), I got set up and started to mark fish right away...Fish were in about 10 - 13 Feet of water and were suspended just a few feet off of the bottom..Nighttroller was still nailing them while I was fishing over a hole filled with tiny perch..All of a sudden, I notice a red line on the vex dart up towards my small teardrop and felt a hit. After a quick battle and transducer-line tangle, I managed to plunk my first ever largemouth bass on the ice. Some battle on 2lbs fluro.. As the day went on I moved a few feet deeper and found active fish. Action was pretty steady up until I had to leave. crappie were hitting small teardrops with 2 waxies tipped on it..Bluegill hit pretty much anything..Released most, kept a few for my grandfather. Here are a few pictures from the day!

Jan ??, 2007 Got out with a small group tonight hoping to get into a few walleye...I was marking fish earlier on in the day and caught a few small perch but as soon as the time came when the ol' marble eyes are known to start on the feed, they were actually non-existent...Packed up at around 6....I will give it another go tomorrow...Will try a bit shallower though... Jan 19, 2007 I only had the chance to get out on the ice twice in the last 7 days considering I have to go to school and have other priorities as well.. I caught my PB crappie at just under 15'' on the Ottawa River. A beast in my books..unfortunately, no camera that day..bite was very slow with no more than 10 fish caught . I tried everything to get 'em to bite. Dropped every teardrop imaginable in front of there face ...d**n Lockjaw bluegills...I decided to give it a go again and did no better...Bite was still slow and only managed a few crappie, biggest at 10''.. It's finally nice to see some of the larger areas starting to freeze up, 4''-10'' in most spots around town...I cannot wait to get out for some real game tomorrow...Pike sounds good as does walleye and brookies..Hmmm. It's going to be a good weekend now that I don't have to sit in one spot. Everythings ready to go for the morning, now I just have to decide where I want to fish... Stay tuned for a report. Good luck this weekend everyone, most importantly, be safe and have fun ! -Andrew Crappie anyone? Crappie under the ice... If I caught one, there must be more right ??? :-\...no Jan 26, 2007 Fished an urban fishing spot in Quebec today hoping to set the hooks into some monster pike that are known to be caught in the area. We arrived at the bay around 9:00am and had it all to ourself(Well, the half that was frozen that is)..man was it cold...-31 with the wind rippin. Fingers numbed up pretty fast..Thank god for my buddy..Mr.Buddy that is. Unfortunately, to our luck, the spot Anthony and I wanted to get to had no ice yet. This spot had over a foot of ice last year..Water levels raised a foot or two this past week making the lack of ice we have this year even worse...Rapids and current only a few hundred meters away didn't hep either.. Anthony and I proceeded to fish the shallow weedy shore of the bay anyway and set-up base over 8 FOW. Ice was 5'' rimming the shoreline and about 1' out further..Thought I might add we were 100 yards from open water... Tip-ups were set-up along a weed-edge we found using the Marcum underwater camera. It's nice to know what kind of bottom your standing over before taking the time to set-up..I find the camera key when trying to locate that fish holding bottom and structure your looking for. Gives ya that extra edge..In no time we were into the nuisance perch that roam the basin of the bay..they are everywhere...I say this because out of the hundreds I have seen yanked from around here, only about 10 have reached the 10''+ mark. I have seen bigger on different sections of the river..again, not around where I was today.. Anthony with a typical Deschenes Bay perch... First rod to start thumping and sounding bells had a knuckle-ball jig head tipped with a small shiner.I ran, and lay ed the hooks into him...Oh yea. The winds blowing and it's freezing out there pose.. First Pike under the belt this season. I'm happy...definatly worth the wind burn and no feeling in both hands. Now, I thinking, there must be a 20 pounder lurking down there somewhere...Tossed the little dart back down the hole so he can fill in his bigger buddies about our gracious offerings. Not 5 minutes later and I noticed a flag pop up in the distance...Anthony was at the hole in seconds and alerted me that there was a fish on indeed! Hopefully this is the one were looking for...Nope. Gave this guy a few pounds, no more..Quick pic and tossed him back down the hole... As the day continued on, we got into a few more dinky perch and missed a flag...we went 2/3 on the hammer handles and I could not tell ya how many perch we caught..(Was not that many) I will be back out tomorrow with some 6'' Golden shiners...It was nice to be back out on the ice with my little bro again, a few flags made it a bit more exiting as well... Can't wait to get back out tomorrow. Will fill ya guys and gals in with a Little report when I return. -Andrew Jan 31, 2007 Fished a small shoal on the Ottawa last night in search of walleye. Action was pretty slow later on in the evening, most fish were caught around 4-5pm or so....We left around 7. Ended up with around 7 walleye and a small pike..Anthony caught his first walleye of the season a few more as well..Weekend looks good, so I am hoping to get back out Nice to see Jackel out, I think he finished off with 8 or so ??? Sorry, only a few bad pictures..tried another camera we had in the house...it will be the last time using it Batteries are crap -Andrew Feb 3, 2007 Fished Petrie again today hoping to get into a few walleye...I got down there around 10:30am, set-up and got into a few small fish immediatly..Not too long after Wallyboss strolled in on his 4wheeler and set up base over the shoal..The bite was really slow today. I managed 6 walleye/sauger and kept a few sauger around the pound, pound and a half range for a light snack ...Dan also caught a couple of walleye around the same size..He had a few on the stinger, don't know how he made out after I took off though..I left at 4:30 so I can get an early start tomorrow . The set-lines and tip-ups accounted for most of the walleye today although moving around from hole to hole looking for active fish worked well too..I didn't get to do much of that today as the wind was howling. Couple of small sauger.. Beautiful day -Andrew Good luck to everyone who is fishing tomorrow!

Thanks for sharing those pictures Chris That pike has a big head ...and the classic walleye on the stringer shot... ~ Ohh what I would do to be on my favorite shoal right now in the boat nailing walleye~ Good fishing -Andrew

Great stuff bud That fish is a real brute... You will get'em next time..good luck on the ice

See you at Lake and Trail soon Dave

Yea You should join us next time ..Joco and I did well the last couple of outings..No musky but a hoot on the ultra-lights..Just bring a lunch

+15 on Saturday..What the Let's just hope old man winter show's his face soon..Bring on phase 3 of ice LOL..

Nice! Those specs are sure fun through the ice..Great report. -Andrew

A monster by anyones standards..Way to go man!

Is your mouth watering Rich

Hey MistyRiver1 I have used this style of hut for three years now and love it..The concept of it doubling as an equiptment sled is what really caught my eye...As you already know, there is enough room for ALL my gear including 6 ice rods, tackle, Mr.Buddy,vex,camera..with space to spare(Not much lol)

Anthony and I made our way back down to the Ottawa River back bays again in search of pannies and to take advantage of our last day on the ice for a little while. The unusual weather has played with our heads for too long now. The temps today were +6 and there calling for +10 on Friday with rain :. Ice was a mess today as most of the shoreline made it impossible to get back to the car. After having a amazing first ice day on the river just a few days before, I had high hopes for today..Bucketmouth was out yesterday with Anthony and marked tons of fish but were only able to land a few..Don't you hate when fish are lock jaw mode > We arrived to the hole just as Bucketmouth had lost his Coleman lantern down the hole..Plunk...gone :-\ Wind was howling and the bite was slow according to the amount of fish flopping(or not ) on the ice...Again, we started to mark fish immediately after getting set up, it was getting them to bite that had us puzzled...After a few rod and lure changes Anthony managed to land the first fish of the day..Nice little bluegill with spectacular patterns on 'em.. It's amazing the number of fish that stack in this one 20 foot hole..It's rare to see your vex blank for more than a few minutes...we typically are use to seeing more crappie than bluegill here but not today...The gills have moved in and are hungry It's going to be a while before venturing deeper into the back bays in search of more deep holes and large crappie :-\ Pannies were on and off for the most part of the day..Attracting them with the spoon then downsizing to small jigs was key. Bait of choice today was one that is made locally. Tipped with a fat waxie, the pannies just inhaled these little buggers... We never really keep count or tally on how many fish we ice, but I tell ya, I have seen way better days down there..As the ice thickness began to loose inches rapidly and water pooling up everywhere(Shoreline especially), we came to the decision that it would be best to leave soon. After a few more fish it was time to pack up and head home...Safety first :tipup: I am very fortunate to have this great spot a near 5 minutes from my house...Hopefully, winter will show it's face soon so I can get back down there. Next week might be perfect to get a small boat in there and scout out a few holes for the upcoming weeks...You down Bucket ??? ;D... All the best guys, be careful and safe out there...A few more pictures from today.. Thank you for taking the time to read.. -Andrew