On Sunday I ventured out on the ice with Chasenic in search of perch and pike.... started out with calm winds and blue skies but in typical fashion it did not take long to switch to strong winds and blowing snow.
We had steady perch action all day long hitting small jigging Rapalas and Eyeball jigs with pinhead shiners. We had to cull through lots of smaller perch, but in the end brought home some nice sized beauties for a few good meals.
The pike were active and cruising all day as well but we just did not have the knack today to put one on the ice, between the two of us we must have lost 6 or 7 pike, most at the hole.
All in all a great day on the ice...
I was back out on the ice on Monday afternoon with the goal to help my buddy Mike catch a burbot. Arrived at our location around 3 pm on a nice sunny afternoon... unloaded the gear and hooked up the Taiga Dog.... then spend the next 30 minutes talking to people in the parking lot about the Taiga Dog. lol.
Finally hit the ice and made a nice 2 mile run to our fishing spot that we had all to ourselves and set up in 9 feet of water. Of course in typical fashion when we got out there the winds pick up and the clouds start to move in, so we secure down our popup huts and start fishing. I set up my typical set up I have been using this winter a live minnow deadsticked on a Northland Eye Ball spoon and started jigging with a small Rapala Jigging Rap tipped with a minnow head.
As the sun got a bit lower I start to mark a few fish and shortly after... FISH ON.... and shortly after I pull a nice little walleye and I mean little out of my ice hole.... nothing too exciting... but at least I will not be skunked. I continue fishing but no action... I switch to jigging a small rattle bait thinking maybe I can call in a pike, since it is still early for prime walleye time...
I mark a few fish but no action, so I switch up again and drop down a Frostbite Dinner Bell spoon the spoon hits bottom... one crank of my reel and... FISH ON... another walleye comes for a visit... again not huge but getting better.
No bites for awhile so I switch up to a different Rapala Jigging Rap and send it down the hole... the bait hits the bottom... one crank of the handle and... FISH ON!!! Another walleye comes for a visit and then a few minutes after dropping my jigging Rap back down his walleye buddy comes for a visit as well.
I continue fishing jigging a different lure every 10-15 minutes if I don't get a bite and it continues to pay off as the walleye continue to come topside to say HI. lol
Around 7:30 pm a nice size mark moves in right on bottom on my sonar... I am thinking it is burbot time... it watch my deadstick rod jiggle a bit and then nothing... but I notice the line slowly moving sideways... so I carefully lift up my rod and feel weight and I set the hook!!....but I pull the bait out of the fish's mouth.
I quickly check my bait all good and send it back down... and a few minutes later same thing... a fish moves in along bottom.... one tap on my deadstick rod... line starts to move sideways... I gently lift the rod to feel weight... this time I pause a few more seconds and set the hook.. FISH ON and it feels like a nice one!!! I think here is my burbot.... but no another walleye... a nice 3 pounder or so.
Still in search of a burbot... I change strategies again... I rebait my deadstick set up with a couple minnows and started aggressively jigging a glow-in-the-dark High Caliber Lures Dive Bomberz tipped with 2 minnows letting it hit the bottom and the end of every lift... after a few minutes a fish moves in... BANG.... FISH ON.... and after a nice little battle I land a nice burbot!!! Mission accomplished.
During all this time my fishing partner had a couple bites and lost one fish on the way up to the hole... but unfortunately no luck landing any fish.... next time.
During all this action the rain is coming down... so we are in no hurry to leave but after not marking a fish for over 1.5 hours and the rain stopping we packed up around 10 pm.... started up the Taiga Dog... flipped on the headlight and headed back to shore.
No huge fish but all in all a great evening on the ice.
The photos not great quality... hard to take good photos when alone in a dark hut... I need to figure out a better camera set up for in the hut, not just my cell phone. Maybe my GoPro in the hut?
Thanks for reading.
