Ice Fishing Thread

[Skerpokes]

Last weekend was probably it for the ice fishing season here. Although we had a good 15-18 inches of ice on Sunday, the warmer weather and heavy rain this week will probably get rid of most of it, or at least make the conditions pretty dicey this weekend.

Pretty below average year overall. Don't think I even pulled a single bass through the ice this year. Lots of catfish, some crappie and bluegills and a few perch.

Personally I prefer to go after the bass and walleye

 

[Skerpokes]

Supposed to be heading to Colorado in 3 weeks to ice fish, but the last report on read on the lake says that most of the lake is till open and the small amount of ice on the lake is hardly safe.

WTH man. This lake is up in the Rockies, I thought for sure there would be ice by this time.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Alright, I dipped my toe in and got some ice fishing gear; there were some deals on Cabelas over the past couple weeks that tempted me in. I haven't been in probably two decades, so we'll see how I like it as an adult. I just got a Ugly Stick Gx2 ice fishing combo and a little kit of lures. Still need to grab some line and I need the lakes to ice over a little more than they currently are.

 

[Skerpokes]

Just bought a brand new Vexilar FLX-12. Excited to pop the cherry on it this year. There's about 2-3 inches of ice in spots here locally and I've seen people fishing on it, but I'll wait for 4-6 inches before I venture out.

 

[NEhomer]

Has anyone gotten a chance to use one of the new electric augers? They're expensive as fuck but what a pain in the ass it is to lug, start and run our loud old 2 stroke.

I guess I'll do some reading up on them. They start at around 4 or 5 hundred and go up from there but me and a couple of buds might split the cost.

 

[NEhomer]

Lot of help you bastards are!

Did some reading and although there are a lot of upsides, running out of battery power in extreme cold and the cost and availability of the battery pack 3 or 4 years down the line if/when they wear out gives me pause.

Ya got gas, ya got holes with our old workhorse so I pulled it out and spent some time going over it. Fresh gas and it fired up after storage for 3 years. Get this though...DOH! Where the engine attaches to the upper gear housing, it had loosened up. I feared the damn thing falling off in the dark on the ice. The only way to get to the bolts was to detach the upper gear housing held by 4 bolts, two easy, two a bitch. I got it apart and shit, the bolts holding the engine are supposed to be loose! They tighten down into the bottom of the housing and the shifting engine dampens the torque of the blade when it engages. Dumb ass and as if that wasn't enough, I attached the engine with the four gear housing bolts, two easy, two a bitch, and then I looked down on the floor...

4 bolts out, two easy, two a bitch, reassembled the handle and then 4 bolts back in.....2 of them didn't get any easier btw.

So, the fucker's runnin' strong and all systems go for when we get the ice. We had ice but it's been warm lately and gonna be warm for a few days.

 

[Skerpokes]

 

[NEhomer]

Nice pic...catch any?

 

[Skerpokes]

Nice pic...catch any?

We did. All Lake Trout and they were delicious

 

[NEhomer]

Cool.

Were they near bottom or did you find them suspended up the water column?

 

[Skerpokes]

Cool.

Were they near bottom or did you find them suspended up the water column?

Most of them we caught towards the bottom between 60-80 feet

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

I don't know about you guys but our damn lakes are still open here in SE Michigan. Crazy couple of winters two years in a row. We still don't even have snow on the ground. And of course, it's the year I purchased an ice fishing rod again.

 

[SlinkyRedfoot]

I don't know about you guys but our damn lakes are still open here in SE Michigan. Crazy couple of winters two years in a row. We still don't even have snow on the ground. And of course, it's the year I purchased an ice fishing rod again.

Yeah, this winter is sucking balls so far. I'm not an ice fisher, but I'm a skier and, similar to you, this is the year I decided to put my kids in ski club, buy myself a seasons pass, and get us new equipment. . .

Farmers Almanac said it was supposed to be a particularly cold and snowy winter. Well you know what I say? I say, "FUCK YOU, FARMERS ALMANAC! FUCK YOU RIGHT IN THE FARMERS ALMANAC ASS!"

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

Yeah, this winter is sucking balls so far. I'm not an ice fisher, but I'm a skier and, similar to you, this is the year I decided to put my kids in ski club, buy myself a seasons pass, and get us new equipment. . .

Farmers Almanac said it was supposed to be a particularly cold and snowy winter. Well you know what I say? I say, "FUCK YOU, FARMERS ALMANAC! FUCK YOU RIGHT IN THE FARMERS ALMANAC ASS!"

That's what I heard too. We got that like 11 inches of snow Nov 2nd and then we haven't had enough to shovel since, and that melted pretty quickly. I thought it was going to be a terrible winter after that, but nothing. We're a couple weeks from the end of January and the lakes aren't frozen. In the next 10 day forecast, 4 days have highs above freezing. So either two things are going to happen, we're only going to get like Feb and some of March as "winter" or spring is going to suck and we're going to get April snow showers. But I'm dumbfounded. I got a new ice sonar kit, ice fishing pole and can't even use it. And there's enough ice to prevent actual fishing.

I also ski but it's so fucking expensive to go now that I haven't gone in a couple years. Mt Brighton is right outside Ann Arbor, it used to be like $26 for a day pass until some big company bought it. Now they're treating the garbage heap that it is as some legit ski resort and charging $50/$60 for a day pass.

 

[NEhomer]

Dropped the coin for an ION 40v auger. Got a decent price on ebay of $455.00 so not too bad. Really looking forward to fishing this winter.