Finally Got out Ice Fishing

[Jen]

I haven’t gotten out fishing much this hard water season; between work and running the shop to give Steve a break there have not been many opportunities. So, when Steve said lets go fishing this week I was all over it. Sunday morning came, all our gear was ready to go, the alarm went off, and out of bed only to discover the wind was something else. Back to bed, same game Monday morning… and again, it was a beautiful day however the wind would have blown us off the ice…

 

We decided to check the ice at our place…

The Marina was 14-16 inches of good solid ice and the river is tightening up with 2-6 inches… which happened to be enough for Steve and James to do a little walleye fishing… yes they are a little crazy, but with float suits, the buddy system, a spud and a lot of light footed walking they made it out there and lost 4 for 4.

 

 

Tuesday morning arrived and wind or not we were going fishing… a little bit of a late start, however we were on the lake and set up by just after 8am.

 

Line down, fish on, but small little perch and lots of smelt tap tapping our lines. Buddies beside us had been out a bit longer and were saying the same thing… we stayed in that spot for another hour or so before we decided to move with only 4 perch and 2 smelt in our bucket. Second move didn’t generate any fish however we got to watch a group of two men beside us setting the hook on huge perch every few minutes… it was killing us.

 

So third move, and a stop to talk to the men who were on the fish… They had a small auger and had decided to use a pressure crack to their advantage and boy did it ever pay off… they were catching Jumbo’s one after the other and low and behold they were heading home… we just scored a great spot… Thanks guys for deciding you had enough for the day…

 

 

 

Two lines down Steve walks off to set up the hut and move things around… wham, my line goes off, I just about have my fish in when Steve’s rod just about disappears down the hole… now I have my fish on the ice, hook still in, drop the rod and reel in Steve’s, I can not believe the size of these perch, definitely the biggest I have ever caught. Wow.

 

 

After that, setting up and settling in we fished for another hour or so and came home with 27 jumbo perch a couple of smaller ones and 20 smelt.

 

 

Two of these smelt were monsters… one at 8” and one at 10” and fat… they looked like mini barracuda’s…

 

 

A great day out on the hard water… well worth the nail biting, hair raising, heart pounding ride out onto Lake Erie…

 

(If anyone is heading out, please, please be careful, there was lots of pressure cracks and the ice was constantly shifting and moving… it sounded like thunder storms and felt like being on an airplane while experiencing turbulents.)

 

 

Cheers,

 

Bernadette

[johnnyb]

huge perch! Thanks for posting that

[GBW]

those are some nice perch for sure!

[misfish]

Perch and some bling bling.WTG.

 

Edited February 25, 2009 by misfish

[Jen]

Perch and some bling bling.WTG.

 

Awe Misfish, you notice my awesome NEW float suit, I LOVE IT!! Friends of ours Cathy and Bill gave it to me... I have never been warmer and felt safer... ( Ok I have to admit it is a sense of false safety... cause I am still terrified when I hear the ice making all those noises! )

Edited February 25, 2009 by Jen - Bernadette