Hard Water continued....

The fishing trip was a success. It was a great way to kick off the season and get me excited for a lot more ice fishing to come. With 6-8" of ice and temperatures well below freezing, there was plenty of safe fishing.
The pan fish made us work for them, but through patience and persistence, drilling lots of holes and probing the entire water column with my jigs, I was able to find a depth and bait combination that worked. I don't fish with electronics yet. Every time I go out,  I convince myself I am going to buy a flasher. I still haven't pulled the trigger on that investment. If I can find vegetation, take the time to fish the entire water column, it usually produces. Along with starting small, and eventually working my way up to the biggest bait fish willingly take.

We put  nice Bluegills, Crappie and Perch on the ice. Enough for a solid meal or two with the family.

Some of the Crappie were pushing 14 inches. Unfortunately the largest caught was lost at the hole, but it didn't matter. We got what we came for, and had a great time.

Hard Water

Well, I can't think of any better way to end the year and cap the holiday season off than an ice fishing trip with my Dad.

Tomorrow we will be headed North to Vilas County to do some much needed relaxing. Recent reports have us excited for Pike and Walleye on a strong bite as well as gills and crappie still feeding strong.

I have the tip ups ready to go, fresh line on my jigging rods, and plenty of new colors sizes and styles of jigs to try out. 

 A soldiers row of Beaver Dam tip ups ready for action.

My little box of new stuff. I assembled this one tonight.

The weather is looking pretty good for a long weekend on the ice. Reports to follow, and maybe some recipes too....

Resurrection

Things have been pretty dead here.  I've been working a lot and trying to get an m.Arch at the same time so needless to say fishing hasn't been possible.  I did get a new toy that finally arrived in late August after waiting for a few months (this was my pre-marriage final splurge).  Being limited on time and water availability due to this great drought, I hit up the Des Plaines to give it hell.  I quickly realized the Watermaster was the best fishing related purchase I've made next to a good jacket and pair of waders.  I did a solo float which meant I had to hike to get to the drop in so I would have my car where the pullout is.  Thankfully this boat fits in a large backpack and weights about 45lbs so I walked about 3 miles up river and put in.  The fishing sucked and the bass was all that I found but that has been par for the course this fall.

And I leave this post with some seagull dinner and a summation of the fall run.

Cheers