limeyangler

Thanks Fishnwire...excellent info....i was catching crappie in the spring in a lake i can access this winter and want to try for them. After the water warmed up they dissappeared completely it seemed, i was catching lots in 2' - 7' in the weeds. I was told they suspend in the summer...but spent a lot of time cruising around glued to my sonar screen trying to locate them without success. There is only one peice of structure really in this lake, three large rock humps that never quite break the surface....i actually avoid these normally because wind makes it very difficult to navigate the boat without dents.....but on the ice this wont be an issue.....just have to make sure i dont hit them with the auger....lol. The humps are surrounded by the deepest water in the lake too, around 25-30 FOW.......thanks for helpimng to formulate my game plan. And thanks Jer for starting this thread. Simon

Thats exactly what i thought as soon as i read the title to this post Doc. Good post topic though Splash......lots of stuff to think about for me.....i was wondering whether bass 'put on the feedbag' too......might have to give it a try next year.

Good luck Cliff! what a good idea.

Done....lol lots of questions about prices and boat rentals...is this your cousin's market research?...good luck.

Its my dream also.....and i work really hard everyday to make it my reality....lol....i didn't sell up in England and move on a whim...i moved here to fish!!!!! and dammit....thats what i'm gonna do! Thanks Joey, i think you mentioned a G2G up here before...and i think i said i was ready when you guys are....someone even suggested helping build me my dock while they were up here Thanks Mike....i'm still buzzin' and grinnin' So....i'm good to go now next year with you guys?....lol....just kiddin' Ben, but we never did end up gettin' out together this year, guess w'ell have to hatch a plan for next year inbetween the roar of augers! Thanks Solo.....i think the tropical weather is done now, ice has started, and its minus temps during the day too from next week...i give it 2 weeks before my first icefishing report. Dude...come on up, there's even a tree you could tie the plane to....lol Thanks man, i think my guide for the day deserves a too. Thanks b2kptbo, i cant wait till next year now, gonna have to save some pennies for Musky gear. Definitely a lifelong memory as you say Shore Lunch Thanks Mbosh, it was a really healthy looking fish, nice and fat too.

Hi All, GOT MY FIRST MUSKY TODAY!!! The weather here is nuts for this time of year, I was ice fishing in front of the house on the 22nd November last year....lol...not this year......here is a picture taken from the yard on 21st November last year........ And here's the scene as we set sail from my house this afternoon.......... Anyway.....i have a load of pics to update my Iceman Cometh thread to show the lack of progress we are making this year as far as ice goes...but back to my first musky. We started trolling in front of the house and followed the shoreline round to the next bay over, we both knew that there is an extended rocky point that faces the main lake basin and thought we'd troll past it. We get just in front of where the point comes up and i think I’m snagged...for about 2 seconds...then the snag head shakes a couple of times ....and there she is...MY FIRST EVER MUSKY!!!!!! We got her unhooked...took piccies , high fives all over the place and Lew suggests that since we have now drifted to back where we started while unhooking we try the same path again....who said lightning doesn't strike twice? No sooner than we hit the same spot Lew is into one too!!!....we've only been fishing for 15 minutes and we get 2 musky in the boat! I'm very grateful to Lew...I’ve only been out 3 times and i've got my 1ST.....even better its right on my doorstep!!!! Better go and buy some musky tackle as i'm using Lew's......lol MY FIRST MUSKY 42"....LEW GOT ONE TOO 35" MORE INCHES FOR TEAM #3 LEW'S FISH We trolled around for another half hour but decided to run further down the lake to see if we could find the old trail that goes from Lake Wabigoon into Mile lake. We had planned to do this earlier in the fall but never got round to it and thought our chance had passed some 2 weeks ago expecting the ice to be here, but since we had got 2 musky we thought we'd head over and see if we could find it . The reason we wanted to see if we could find it is because the 2 lakes are connected by a narrow twisting channel which is not safe for snowmobiles and planned to scoot across the trail instead in search of the crappie for ice fishing this year.....well we found it!......couple of trees down blocking the way...nothing that a chainsaw and 5 minutes won't cure. OUR SEARCH FOR THE TRAIL WAS SUCCESSFUL TOO....ICEFISHING FOR CRAPPIE REPORT ON THE WAY SOON! We were gonna try to get some walleye and crappie in mile lake by taking the boat through the channel, but although the channel was clear from where the trail came out the lake was all but completely skimmed over with ice so we decided to troll for musky again, we hit a couple of bays, trolled along an ice ledge and finally hit the earlier spot again, with no luck. TROLLING ALONG THE ICE EDGE WAS COOL....REMINDED ME OF THIS SPRING TROLLING FOR BROOKIES WITH OFC MEMBER BRKYGTR We didn't get any more bites , but it was a really pleasant evening and we headed back as the sun started to set, really nice to be getting out at the house...i could not help thinking what a lucky bugger I am to live on what is obviously a good musky fishery....lol....wonder if i can shore fish for them? To be continued.................lol. REALLY PLEASANT EVENING.....EVEN BETTER BEING HOME WHEN YOU MOOR UP!

Get rid of the line......it tends to spring off the reel and untangling in minus temps with gloves is a pain and painful without gloves....lol. I also find the reels on these cheap combos are junk(mostly). I dont own any expensive ice rods....i believe the most expensive was a $40 combo which someone else bought me, i just take the reels off and use my summer reels spooled with ice braid. The only cheap ice combo reels that i found to be half decent were Shimano. Just my opinion folks, i'm sure there are those who will disagree, but i actually find it shocking how terrible ice combo reels tend to be, even on the more expensive combos IMO they are junk! You'd think they'd at least use a lubricant that doesnt stiffen the reel beyond use at +2 degrees C....lol. OOOOPS...RANTING...lol

Wonder if they'll extend 'cash for clunkers' to outboards

I know just about diddly squat about hunting as you know ben....but even i know those are some fine looking bucks you got......great pics....dont forget to save me a steak or two;)

Awesome slideshow Doc. i just did one too recently about icefishing...i never thought to include video clips like you did...once again...nice fish...awesome job...thanks for that. Simon

AWESOME stuff SBK! Now i definitely wish i had not put the boat away...lol.

LOL...i wanna see that project Bruce, i'll post the pics on an icefishing site i frequent! I know what ya mean, i'm sooooo impatient now, and the weather is litteraly tropical for these parts at this time of the year, last year our lake was completely iced over, i'm still casting at liquid water here and your lucky to get the guides on your rod icy so far this year....why oh why did i put the boat away so early....DOH! Come on man....get out there this year! you know ya wanna That there is one of my all time favourite ice fishing pics Ben, was a great day out too, i'm still getting crap from Lew for not bringing him some of those Tulibee i was catching for dead baiting last spring...oh well...we'll just ahve to do it again! if it acts as an inspiration my work is done here...lol, thanks for the reply. Hope to get some really nice trout this year, i have promised myself to get on the Upper Manitou Lake as often as possible this year...some really Lakers in there. Glad you liked it JB.....this day on the ice you mention sounds pretty darned good to me......as for the song...its Simon and Garfunkel, i had all the albums when i was a kid ( my brain tells me i still am a kid....my efforts at the gym tell me otherwise....lol) I think the Bangles covered that song....but the original is way better...perfect for the topic i thought.

What we do is scale and slab them on the ice. With the scales off they are less slimey when ya get the partially frozen slabs back, and your not finding whitefish scales all over the house still in July....lol. With just the slabs its easy to get the ribs out and the y bone thing that is similar to a lake trout. Hope that helps. LOL..cant tell ya about the perch....too many yummy walleye to worry about keeping perch full of worms

Hi all, was going through my assorted fishing pics, and thought i'd put together some of my icefishing pics together to whet the appetite of those among us who enjoy walking on water.

Great couple of days fishing there Wayne! Whats with your buddy and the white bass though? anyway, nice size eyes you got there.....so uncivilized though to have to use all that equipment to snare 'em though....gimme a jig and minnow any day.....lol Thanks for sharing, cant wait to see some of your fly in icefishing reports soon...love 'em but they make me sooooo jeeeelous of your ride...lol. Cheers Simon

Hi all, Went up the road to Eagle Lake yesterday with my buddy Lew to try for musky. It was a beautiful day , hardly a cloud in the sky, just a gentle breeze. Within 15 minutes Lew had a nice fish hooked, he got it half way to the boat....it got off....DOH! About half an hour later he got one in the boat....a nice 35" fish. It went quiet for the next couple hours until i hooked into my 1st ever Muskie.....i got it half way to the boat....it got off....DOH again Lew was trolling an 16" firetiger crankbait, i was trolling a 16" beleiver.....its meant tolook like a whitefish but i think it looks like a maniti....lol We ended the day by stopping at a point dropping of nto deeper water facing the main basin of the lake and got a few walleye for the table. There was ice at the landing, and lots of ice starting in the sheltered bays, so not long before we're out there icefishing......anyway...here's the pics from yesterday. ICE AT THE BOAT LAUNCH IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY LEW GOT ONE IN AND OUT OF THE BOAT AND WE FINISHED THE DAY WITH A FEW OF THESE I WILL GET MY FIRST MUSKIE SOON.....LOL very cool for me to actually get one on the end of my line, and not bad considering thats only my second time out trying for them.

Well guys and gals....that was simply overwhelming....thank you , thank you! I had to show my wife all your kind words and excellent advice which comes from a lot of you that have faced a similar challenge(opportunity) she thought it was amazing and made her feel much better about the situation...as did I. Its not 100%......but it looks like the axe will fall, screw them say I....lol....and with that i went Musky fishing with my buddy Lew who was made redundant when the Mill here axed another 400 jobs about 6 months ago. Once again thanks to everyone who replied to this thread

Real nice fish! thanks for posting.

Ok...sooooo, i'm trying to follow the story...lol...but this hunting stuff is a foreign language to me....anyway...CONGRATS BUD....now get'em made into sausage for our brooky fishing outing in...i say 2 weeks! Nice one Dale...good stuff!

Well, got the bad news today........i'm probably unemployed by next week. The real kicker is my wife works for the same firm and is also likely to get axed too. I actually feel a little excited because this is definitely an opportunity to explore new options/broaden horizons....hell.....might even start as a dock boy and work on becoming a fishing guide up here...DREAM COME TRUE!!! might just be the push i needed. I guess i'm just not feeling the excitement as much as i could because the reality is we are pretty screwed. Lots of folk already been laid off from the forestry industry up here.....guess i know how they all felt now. Good news is, we have a new baby...what more incentive can you get to get of yer butt and sort things out...somehow...lol...anyhow! I'm gonna be a really miserable dude for a while...lol...fishing budget will take a huge hit....and to top it off i'll have to quit smoking...HEY...another positive but boy i'll be moody...lol Wow...what a day..... Oh well, i have a wife that loves me ( we'll see if she still does after 2 weeks of not smoking), a beautifull baby, a dozen minnows in the bucket.....and a lake at the bottom of the yard to go drown them in....alls not lost! PS.....I will be taking Friday the 13th very seriously from here on out

I ate some a couple of seasons ago, best tasting fish around if ya ask me...and yes...they are absolutely related to cod...same genus or whatever the scientific word is. I researched it after tasting it because it is EXACTLY LIKE COD...did it in a beer batter...awesome! Two reasons i have not eaten more is because getting the skin off looked a bit of a chore (the guy i was with did a slit all round the head , grabbed some pliers and pulled...peeled it like a banana, the other reason was that unless you get a fairly decent size one there was not much meat to be had off it, but that might just be his skinning abilities...but mine would be worse.

average...very average

Congrats, she's a keeper for sure!

saw this on an ice fishing forum...thought i'd share with yall

WHAT!!!!!????? HEY HANG ON A MINUTE.... you dont catch walleye ever then go and do that!!! Holy crappolla batman...that was freekin awesome! Cant believe that this post has been up for 4 days and i missed the event of the year...JB CATCHING WALLEYE! Great job man...loved the write up...kinda spooky though...the shot of the jumping walleye from 2 angles at what looks exactly the same time..... ( now imagine doing that with a 1/4 jig and minnow, in 30FOW all day....actually in summer.....hint ...hint) Great job boys...hard to top like you said...but with a guide like that i'm sure it wont be an issue for long. Cheers Simon