First Ice - December 21st

[Rich]

Headed out on the ice for the first (well second but first time with fishing rods) time today after long debate of whether or not to go out. Safe ice was not the issue, we tested in Thursday night and found 3 - 4 inches in most areas under some gray crap ice. However, there were 50kph winds forecasted today which we were not looking forward to. Ended up saying let's get out there anyway and off Sugarpacket, our friend Mark and I went in hopes of pike & panfish.

 

Hit the pond and were just blasted with wind immediately. We stuck it out in this spot for about a half hour and finally decided we'd look for some shelter on the other side of the pond.

 

Packed up and headed to the other side, drilled a test hole.. it was a bit thinner here but still safe close in. Dropped our lines and I rigged up the sonar which I just put fresh batteries in this morning. Flipped it on and... it showed 574 feet of water. WOW I never thought this pond was that deep. LOL But that's okay, the fish were sitting about 360 feet down. Obviously the finder is finally pooched after 12 years of abuse. After a couple minutes it gave no reading at all. The transducer is finally worn out.

 

Anywho, we fished blindly and got into a few panfish. Bites were few and far between, especially for Mark who never landed a fish today. He was happy to get out though.

 

Had a great time on the ice despite the brutal weather, looking forward to a (hopefully) long ice season!

 

 

[waterwolf]

way to go , bravehearts . great pic's ,, especially that slab crappy,, beautiful strain .

[Clampet]

Good goin thar Rich, and yes, nice Crawpy!

[Handlebarz]

Dang to cold for me today for the bait fishing. Rich it must have been cold you did not have alot of food pics out there whats going on. Nice to see that ya got out there that wind was blowing like a mother hefer here all day and still is. Winter is just starting up and I cant wait to get out and post some reports.

[BassAsin]

congrats ont the fish and kudos to gettin out in that wind! thanks for the report!

[lunkerbasshunter]

very cool, love those colours on that crappy!

 

Cheers!

[Leecher]

Great report and pics Rich

 

That's a 12" to 13" slab you caught there and the colors are suberb

Kudos to all 3 of ya's for braving the elements did not go out today, got hit with a wicked snow storm

 

Again great job and thanks for sharing

Leechman

[fishboy]

ahh the good ol' slab crappie-nice

[irishfield]

Great stuff Rich and SP !!

[Mike the Pike]

Good to see ya out with the Mrs. Rich I can't wait to see the little guy in the reports in a couple of years.

 

Now I think you should stop losing weight the fish looks half your size.

 

Hopefully I can catch my first Crappie this winter on the Ottawa river.

 

MTP

Edited December 21, 2008 by Mike the Pike

[hammercarp]

WTG! and that is a great looking fish.

[JerseyDog]

I'd love to get one of those slabs, but for some reason, my guide can never get me on them.

[highdrifter]

Nice tuque brah!

 

Goes well with that slab crappie.

 

yeyyeeeeee

HD

[Sugarpacket]

Rich it must have been cold you did not have alot of food pics out there whats going on.

 

Lol we hit up McDs before we left and it was gone before we left the parking lot!! lol I think next time we take mark out we should make sure the ice doesn't crack every two seconds so he doesn't have another heart attack! and ps I stayed in the truck a good portion of the trip I'm a whimp lol

[sonny]

nice going guy's (and gal)...looking foward to the hard ice fishing season myself,,,hopefully we can hook up on the grand this year!

[iceslayer]

Nice job Rich.. Glad to see you finally made it out!!! It's pretty tough concentrating on little bites when the elements are soooo extreme eh!

 

 

Let me know when you wanna get together and I will show you that pond I'm allway's talking about.

 

Cheers, Jim.

[limeyangler]

Hardcore .....nice job all, %)KMH winds aint fun...but you stuck it out and got fish too, wow...those little reels must hold a lot of line considering the fish were at 300ft!

 

mmmmmmm McD's........i'm hungry now.