UPSmallie

Nice! Yeah I usually just sit in a portable with a buddy heater since the wind plus the cold can just be straight brutal. Fishing should only be getting better.

Thanks!

It's been an interesting season on the ice so far for me. I've been out 3 times in the last few weeks and it appears to be getting better each time. Mostly just dink perch and throwback walleye, but the bigger fish are starting to move in. First trip out I only managed 5 perch. Two days ago I got 5 perch again, with four being 9+ inches and one keeper walleye. A buddy invited me to hit the bay again yesterday so I gave it another shot. Managed 5 perch with one being my new PB at 11 inches and then 3 keeper walleyes. Most of the fish I've been getting have just been on the minnow and bobber, but I've been pumped to get a couple walleyes on jigging lures. This guy hit a moonshine jigging spoon tipped with a minnow head. Fishing about 6 feet of murky water on 9-10 inches of ice. Buddy also fought a 36+ inch pike for 10 minutes yesterday before popping off at the hole. Looks to be a great 2018. Fish On.

Great Work!

It's hard to fish a jerkbait wrong. I've caught fish on straight retrieves, erratic twitch retrieves, slow-pause occasional twitch, etc. The advantage is you can cover water in a really fun way of doing it. Find the fish and see what retrieve works best for you. My personal favorite is to power-fish jerkbaits during the Spring and Fall. Right now you'd do best on a painfully slow death twitch retrieve. Best of luck.

Great story and beautiful trophy fish. Congrats!

Ice fishing bay I'll be frequenting already has reports of 2.5 inches. Will probably wait till after Christmas though before trying. Have to sort through all the perch and throwback walleyes during early ice lol.

I think your biggest concern should be mercury levels in fish. Out of all the freshwater fish I've cleaned so far I haven't run into parasites, but I've seen plenty of strange deformities. My advice would be to harvest the smaller, legal sized fish and generally speaking, throw back the larger of fish when applicable. If you only catch one walleye on the day and it's 25 inches that's up to you as an example. Fish tastes great when cooked right and with the right seasonings so I'd give it a shot. When the fishing is great, I try and limit myself to a couple meals a week of fish and the rest are usually with beef, chicken, pork, etc. When the fishing is not as good I usually just fall back on the other meats.

Last I checked, bowfin help mange rough-fish populations and are beneficial to maintaining balance. I'd recommend just throwing them back unless you're planning on eating them.

I usually fight them as fast as my drag/line can handle. When the fish isn't peeling drag I reel up until my line is close to the breaking point, while applying maximum pressure on the fish. When it runs I let it. This has worked pretty well for all species, but sometimes doing this method a fight has lasted for 45+ minutes (not on bass). It really just comes down to how strong lb test your mainline is. Still enjoyable any way you look at it.

senko

I had an incredible day of fishing yesterday. One of the youtubers I subscribe to posted a video a few days ago of catching drop-back, spawned-out atlantic salmon from shore close to where I live. Atlantic salmon, unlike other salmon, don't die after spawning so once they finish their business they try and eat as much as possible to gain enough energy to head back out to the Great Lakes. That makes them extremely vulnerable to being caught with fishing lures. I headed out the very next day upon seeing the video and got two follow-ups, but the wind was brutal and the fish weren't biting. I went back out after school yesterday and gave it a go for as long as the sun would let me. Maybe 2.5-3 hours fishing. This time the bite was on and the atlantic salmon were relentless. Multiple follow-ups, numerous strikes, and four fish landed to boot. It was a great time. Weapon of choice was a #4 Blue Fox Vibrax spinner that I custom painted with pink and glitter nail-polish. Fish On

You can buy steel wool bundles for $1-$2 bucks at the local hardware store. It will scrape off paint or rust from your lures or hooks. If they're really rusted then I would just replace them.

That first rainbow is a PIG! Nice fish

Congrats on some beautiful fish! Looks like a great trip. Not to hijack this thread in any way, but for throwing streamers you use sinking line then tie that to the sink tip and then the streamer? Sinking line like the RIO Mainstream Full Sinking Line? Looking at picking up an 8wt, leaning towards an Orvis Encounter for streamer fishing, but haven't jumped on it yet.

Yes! Hockey games are one of the only things to do on campus. Lots of fun Thanks! If you make it up here shoot me a PM and I'll try and get you on one. When they're in they are a lot of fun. Thanks for the tip also

The first 3/4 of October, life was good and the steelhead fishing was easy. Then the salmon finished spawning and the nasty fall cold-front hit. It has been a skunk-fest for the last few weeks. Looking to regroup and change tactics. Should be interesting to see what happens from here up until ice-fishing season. Temperatures look to be <40 from here on out. Did manage these two nice males 10-22 on the pre rapala short wart and magnum wart though. Smaller one was given to the neighbors and the bigger one tasted amazing on the grill. Did also manage to capture both on GoPro, although it looks like I have a scratched lense now. Fish On

PB on toast usually. The sack lunch sits out for a while not refrigerated so that rules out meat. Once had to eat a hot dog bun with peanut butter in the middle of it during ice fishing season since we were out of bread lmao.

Yes, sadly it seems to be pretty common these days. DNR caught some guys netting at the Webber Dam here in MI earlier this season. Lots of cohos gone to waste.

Dang straight from my nightmares lol. That music when you start seeing the line attached to the can

Great work! The fall run is a thing of beauty.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll look into that.

Went old school and have started buying the pre-rapala era wiggle wart sub sets. Got this magnum and have a wee wart coming any day now too. Gave it a test run at a local steelhead spot and after tuning it to run straight, had a 6+ lb male smash it but threw the hooks on the surface. Might need to replace the stock hooks.

Haven't really had any pull drag but you still do have to slug them in as they make their runs. You want to talk about no fight? Try ice-fishing for them in 4-5 feet of water. Literally have anywhere from 15-22 inch walleye on the ice in about 5-10 seconds after setting the hook. Easy landing them, difficult getting them to bite. Last winter had a walleye messing with my minnow for literally 15 minutes before I was able to get him to suck the bobber down. Got him up in all but 5 seconds.

Huddlestons and glide-baits Like others said, it's not going anywhere so just keep working and you'll get it. I would go back to where you originally hooked it and slow twitch a big bait. It just might work - or go the opposite route and slow twitch/drag a finesse style bait.