Trying a new spot on a familiar lake
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:38 pm
Wanted to get out on the ice once more before we get dumped on with all this snow in the forecast. Had a look at the contours for a lake I've fished several times the past few years (first time this ice season), and found a new spot that looked like it would be worth trying out.
The spot was quite a bit farther from the access point than I usually fish, but with the lack of snow on the ice, I figured it would be an easy walk (with ice cleats). I set a waypoint on my GPS and made my way out to the spot. Got to the spot and no holes in sight, I'm the first one to fish here this ice season!
Drilled several holes (there's 16+ inches of ice) and after checking the depths, set up two tip ups in the ones that I liked. Shortly after one flag popped. Was a nice 14" walleye.
Decided to set up the pop up near this tip up, and settled in for the afternoon. About an hour went by before the next bite, got a 15.5" walleye on a rattle bait. Then a few minutes later checked my tip up and noticed the trigger was slightly turned, but not enough to pop the flag. Checked it and sure enough there was a fish on it. Pulled up a nice size, out of season smallmouth, treble hook was just in the snout took it out and sent her back down the hole quickly.
Ended up reeling in the tip up, and setup my dead stick in the shack. Caught another 14" eye on the dead stick and then had a bit of a lull in action.
Around 4:40 PM I saw a nice mark come in on my sonar and it was eying the minnow on my deadstick. I saw it take the bait and I waited a bit before setting the hook to make sure that it had it. It's a good one! After a short fight I brought in a nice 20" walleye.
Rebaited the deadstick and as I was dropping the minnow back to the bottom I see another mark come darting up. It grabs the minnow halfway up the water column (I'm fishing in 17ft), and it's another good one. After a bit longer of a fight I have a nice 18.5" walleye top side.
Here's a video of the back to back walleyes: https://youtu.be/WbWFlusCb7Q
After that I caught one more smaller eye on the dead stick, and lost another nice size one on my jigging rod. I called it a night around 6PM.
Was a great afternoon on the ice, and I'm glad I decided to try a new spot. Today the fish seemed to like the live bait presentation the most. On my dead stick I'm using 6lb mono with a 6lb fluoro leader, #8 Gamakatsu octopus hook and a split shot set 6" above the hook. Was using small to medium size emerald shiners as bait.
Cheers!
The spot was quite a bit farther from the access point than I usually fish, but with the lack of snow on the ice, I figured it would be an easy walk (with ice cleats). I set a waypoint on my GPS and made my way out to the spot. Got to the spot and no holes in sight, I'm the first one to fish here this ice season!
Drilled several holes (there's 16+ inches of ice) and after checking the depths, set up two tip ups in the ones that I liked. Shortly after one flag popped. Was a nice 14" walleye.
- PXL_20220116_184616319.jpg (3.1 MiB) Viewed 1723 times
Ended up reeling in the tip up, and setup my dead stick in the shack. Caught another 14" eye on the dead stick and then had a bit of a lull in action.
Around 4:40 PM I saw a nice mark come in on my sonar and it was eying the minnow on my deadstick. I saw it take the bait and I waited a bit before setting the hook to make sure that it had it. It's a good one! After a short fight I brought in a nice 20" walleye.
- PXL_20220116_214258361.jpg (2.66 MiB) Viewed 1723 times
Here's a video of the back to back walleyes: https://youtu.be/WbWFlusCb7Q
After that I caught one more smaller eye on the dead stick, and lost another nice size one on my jigging rod. I called it a night around 6PM.
Was a great afternoon on the ice, and I'm glad I decided to try a new spot. Today the fish seemed to like the live bait presentation the most. On my dead stick I'm using 6lb mono with a 6lb fluoro leader, #8 Gamakatsu octopus hook and a split shot set 6" above the hook. Was using small to medium size emerald shiners as bait.
Cheers!