cjohnson@tj5.ca wrote:Levitch,
I am about to get abused by the experts...LOL. God love them and I respect their opinions tremendously but I am not going to risk walking out to where there is current under the ice because Walleye prefer current! I prefer catching fish AND surviving the outing! lol
But honestly - please go to Buckham's Bay and then post your results. I absolutely guarantee that you will have more success in one trip (assuming you fish until dark) than you have had at Shirleys combined all year.
I think that some folks love the idea of turning an Ice Fishing outing into a scientific hunting expedition. Then moving around and drilling holes in multiple locations etc....I like to settle, catch fish and cook some food. There are great places to do that within a day trip.
LOL I certainly won't abuse you for your opinion, but I will take issue with some of your comments. First off, you couldn't be more wrong about current, except for the fact that Walleye love it. So long as there is enough ice, fishing in current areas is where you want to be. Back in the 80's and 90's there could be up to a hundred permanent shacks out there and once ice in the bay reached over 12" a lot of shacks were moved to current areas along structure, just like Tim does now. Many years there were even shacks out in mid river on some of those humps out there. My favourite area has a good current and generally has about 6" less ice than in the bay proper so once bay ice reaches over 12" I drive out most of the way and then walk out to check the ice there. Once I know it's good there's no issue driving out there. We've even had visitors from the QC side that walked across.
Also I think you're really over complicating things, that structure area that I pointed out always had a good bunch of shacks along it including some buds of mine and each year they simply used two shoreline features as a reference and knowing the approximate distance from shore drilled test holes until they found that ledge, no one had GPS units back then. Nowadays it's easy to go out in the summer to find that structure and mark waypoints to use in the winter too or even just spend some time exploring in the winter until you've found the structure and then mark those points like Levitch did on his trips. Once he finds that structure he'll be set for life. There really is no mystery about it like you seem to think, spending the time out there to learn the bay like you did on the Miss is all it takes. In my case I learned from spending time out on Shirleys, seeing where folks had permanent shacks each winter helped for a starting point when I first started, as there were no navionics maps back then to use for reference. Experience is what taught me to fish real close to bottom, and use a very sensitive setup because often those Walleye bite so lightly you can hardly notice it, unlike Perch that are easy to notice with the tap tap tap. Some days you also have to really wait them out too, they barely mouth the bait and there's plenty of misses and cursing.
Lastly, while I appreciate the comments, I'm not sure where you got the idea that I use professional equipment. For the most part all I use is home made tip ups and a two way spreader with longer snells attached, as I need the weight to keep my line more vertical in the current and having two minnows down there has helped catch plenty of fish after the first one was possibly stolen so I don't have to bring my line up. Sure I'll have a jigging rod too but it doesn't always get used, specially come dusk. At my favorite spot I don't even use any sonar, never did need it as by far most of my fishing is with live minnows close to bottom. Like you I have confidence in my spot so it's also a sit and wait situation, I can only recall one time I moved from it and it was still on the same structure.
One last thing, you mentioned fishing till dark. On Shirleys the worst thing you can do is not fish till well after dark, yea earlier in the season there's a good run just as the sun hits the horizon, but I still always stay at least an hour after dark. Later in the season there's still sometimes a smaller run of jacks at dusk but the larger fish are much more scattered and time on the ice well after dark is needed to catch them. That's been my experience out there anyway.
Cheers
At least it was a nice day... The weather this week looks good temperature wise though. Really cold tonight and into double digit -C every night for the week. Hopefully it will freeze up in the next couple nights. Met a couple of fellow Hawkers in the parking lot when we got off the Slush! Great to meet you two and thanks for the pop 
