Shirley's bay 2016

[RyanW]

----

[scarkner]

Wow, great fish, did you measure it? Great to catch it before the size limits kick in on March 1.

I have been catching less and less each time out. Getting frustrated. Is it normal on Shirley's bay to catch less and less as the winter progresses? Are the fish just getting more wary?

[smitty55]

Wow, great fish, did you measure it? Great to catch it before the size limits kick in on March 1.

I have been catching less and less each time out. Getting frustrated. Is it normal on Shirley's bay to catch less and less as the winter progresses? Are the fish just getting more wary?

While numbers did seem to go down for me starting in February the biggest thing I used to notice was that we started catching a lot more small "jacks", with far fewer larger fish.

That being said, in the next couple of weeks the pike fishing should pick up as the pre-spawn period approaches and the big girls feed heavily. Plus it's a daytime bite. There are some quite good areas out there but not close to your shack. If you're interested in playing with some big baits and quick strike rigs for a change shoot me a pm and I'll point you in the right direction. I'm sure it would make Jon's winter to haul in a big toothy gal.

Cheers

[Lenny]

Just a heads up, from March 1-June 15 walleye/sauger must be under 40cm (15.7 inches) to be kept. Pretty much nobody out there knew about it last year, hopefully it's a little better this year!

[scarkner]

As I recall, conservation officers visited many huts last year to check. i haven't heard this year if they are planning the same sort of blitz.

I was fishing at Dick Bell Park when they pulled up to say hi to me (and check my lines and license, counted hooks, etc.).

[scarkner]

On Saturday a friend and his son joined us on the ice for some fishing. It was his first time ice fishing (except for about 10 minutes a few weeks ago) and his dad doesn't really fish. I really love introducing people to fishing!

It was 3:30pm so I figured he was only going to get perch and drilled a little 4 inch hole, handed him a rod, showed him how to use the flasher plus gave him a few minutes of lessons about rattling, bouncing, etc. (it was a perch-calling lure that I designed myself with a big gumball jig below that with a live minnow). Then I went to drill larger holes and generally get setup for a night of fishing.

A few minutes later, I am barely getting the second hole drilled and his dad says "he caught a fish and we cant get it through the hole". I see the rod is doubled over and casually walk over to the noobies explaining that "sometimes the hook gets snagged on the bottom of the ice, don't worry, it's no big deal". Then I looked down in the hole and see a big head looking back at me!!!

So I do what any good angler would do, reach down the hole, grabbed the fish by the mouth and HAULED it outta there. You should have seen the look on the kids face as the fish started coming through the hole, and it just kept coming and coming and coming...

24 inch Ling, 3.5 pounds. It was the only fish he caught that night... and the smile never left his face.

Got enough meat off it to feed his whole family.



Him and his dad packed up at 5:30pm, too bad they couldn't stay longer. Much to my surprise, that was the only Ling any of us caught that night, even though me and my son fished all night!!! (I'm not counting the 8 inch Ling that I caught around 2:30am... wasn't even worth getting outta bed for that one).

[RyanW]

--/-

[Peron]

Excellent Ling Steve. I really need to catch one. If I can only modify my old dude 9:00 bed time. Anyone know what time the Ling stop biting? I did one 4:45 am stint and did not get one bite although no one did too well that morning.

Rod

[scarkner]

Excellent Ling Steve. I really need to catch one. If I can only modify my old dude 9:00 bed time. Anyone know what time the Ling stop biting? I did one 4:45 am stint and did not get one bite although no one did too well that morning.

Rod

I have been catching them starting around 7:30pm. So you don't have to stay up all night to get them. Also looks like we are seeing more of a daytime bite from them.

Just get your bait right on the very bottom. I have been keeping track, found about 70% are caught on the hooks of a spreader on the bottom (live flopping minnows seem to attract better than dead). I get about 30% on a third hook that is around 3-6 inches off the bottom. The bigger fish were always on the bottom.

[Peron]

But I have my bedtime snack at 7:30.... Oh all right. I will give it a try!

[BIGEYES25]

Ling make a great bedtime snack

[scarkner]

With the warm weather coming this week, is anyone going to leave their shacks out until March 15th?

I can't take mine off this weekend and am nervous about what a whole week of +8 to +10C is going to do to the ice.

[RyanW]

---

[fishingcarpenter]

I'll be pulling my shack off next Saturday... I doubt the warm weather will make the ice unsafe. Lows will still be around 0. We must have about 20 inches out there now?

[scarkner]

I measured 20 inches today. Got a couple walleye too, just little ones that i released.

I am pulling my shack. Not worried about safety, just don't want to deal with a foot of water on the ice when i am disassembling it (disadvantage of a modular shack i guesS.

Not that i am going to stop fishing!!!