North Frontenac Report
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2024 10:21 am
Got out yesterday on a lake that I had success on this past summer and wanted to see how it was for ice fishing.
The weather was excellent (+2, overcast, and no wind). The ice conditions at the launch were not great, with the very soft ice at the shoreline I ended up with two soakers right off the bat! (I need to invest in some proper rubber winter boots) But once past the launch the ice conditions were decent, there was a mix of slush and snow on top of the ice, but the ice itself was great (9" clear/black with another 3-4" of cloudy ice on top).
I headed out to a mid lake hump that I found in the summer (starts in about 20' and goes all the way up to 4') and started drilling holes around the area trying to find the edge (having livescope would have made that a breeze, maybe an upgrade for next year ). I ended up setting up just off the edge of the hump in 20' and had a tipup set a bit shallower in 16'.
Caught a small pike and fallfish right after setting up (around 11:30 AM) and then nothing for about 3 hours! I was marking a lot of small perch, but they weren't biting. Around 3PM I had a big mark come in and it crushed my 1/8oz VMC Tumbler spoon.
After a dragged out fight (I only have 6lb test on my finesse walleye rod) I landed this 32+ inch pike.
The pike was missing a chunk of its upper lip, maybe from a previous catch?
At 4PM I moved my tipup closer to where I had setup my pop-up in 20' and was hopeful that walleye would move in. The bite window for walleye was short lived, at about 4:45PM I caught two walleye back to back on a Frostbite Tantrum rattlebait in the Goldmine colour.
One under the slot at 15".
And the second one an 18.5" keeper
At 5:30PM my tipup flag finally went up! I landed this chunky 22" walleye. After a quick measurement and photo it went back in the water.
After that, I didn't have any other marks on my sonar. I packed up at 7PM. Even though the bite wasn't really hot, I was happy with the outing and I'll hopefully be heading back there again this season.
I'd be interested to hear if others are having luck in the area. Cheers!
The weather was excellent (+2, overcast, and no wind). The ice conditions at the launch were not great, with the very soft ice at the shoreline I ended up with two soakers right off the bat! (I need to invest in some proper rubber winter boots) But once past the launch the ice conditions were decent, there was a mix of slush and snow on top of the ice, but the ice itself was great (9" clear/black with another 3-4" of cloudy ice on top).
I headed out to a mid lake hump that I found in the summer (starts in about 20' and goes all the way up to 4') and started drilling holes around the area trying to find the edge (having livescope would have made that a breeze, maybe an upgrade for next year ). I ended up setting up just off the edge of the hump in 20' and had a tipup set a bit shallower in 16'.
Caught a small pike and fallfish right after setting up (around 11:30 AM) and then nothing for about 3 hours! I was marking a lot of small perch, but they weren't biting. Around 3PM I had a big mark come in and it crushed my 1/8oz VMC Tumbler spoon.
After a dragged out fight (I only have 6lb test on my finesse walleye rod) I landed this 32+ inch pike.
The pike was missing a chunk of its upper lip, maybe from a previous catch?
At 4PM I moved my tipup closer to where I had setup my pop-up in 20' and was hopeful that walleye would move in. The bite window for walleye was short lived, at about 4:45PM I caught two walleye back to back on a Frostbite Tantrum rattlebait in the Goldmine colour.
One under the slot at 15".
And the second one an 18.5" keeper
At 5:30PM my tipup flag finally went up! I landed this chunky 22" walleye. After a quick measurement and photo it went back in the water.
After that, I didn't have any other marks on my sonar. I packed up at 7PM. Even though the bite wasn't really hot, I was happy with the outing and I'll hopefully be heading back there again this season.
I'd be interested to hear if others are having luck in the area. Cheers!