8 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

Have you seen the Youtube videos of people ice fishing for burbot in Minnesota?

I've caught burbot (eelpout), but they're more prevalent in the northern part of the state.

 

Yearly International Eelpout Festival is held on Leech Lake - not far from where I lived in Bemidji...my college girlfriend kept her 24' Ketch at Walker Bay.

 

8 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

They can grow to over 10 pounds.

State record is 19#10oz...

On 12/22/2020 at 10:21 AM, BassNJake said:

Best lesson I ever learned about golf was to count how many shots it took to get to 50 yards and then how many shots it took from 50 yards and in. 

Most people work at their long game instead of working at shaving strokes off their short game.

I bought this book Radical Golf and it changed the way I looked at the game.

My score went from 115's to mid to high 80's(public courses) as I adopted this new approach.

 

Radical Golf- Amazon

Our saying was always "Drive for show, and putt for dough."

========================

As for winter boredom, I was thinking about that during the Zoom call last night. Much of the conversation was about things people were doing in preparation for fishing once the water softens up.

 

I'm actually really excited to be going fishing tomorrow because this time of year has been (at times) really good for catching big fish. There was a time when I thought bass fishing in the winter was terrible, but not so anymore. My PB was caught in December (many years ago) in about 10' of water. And, this year, I have still been consistently getting bit and catching fish without having to fish deeper than 25' (something I have struggled with in other years) and both bodies of water I am fishing have plenty of water deeper than that. I see others fishing deep water and catching some fish. I know how to jig vertically, but I'm just not interested in doing it for deep water bass.

 

Because:

• All bass don't do the same things.
• Some go deep, but others don't if they don't have to.
• And, they still have to eat.

My challenge is to figure out how to consistently get them to bite what I am able to present to them.

 

My goal going forward into 2021 is to not fish deeper than 30' and still catch fish. If I can't do that, I plan to go into 'winter mode' until mid to late February. But I don't think I'll have to. I'll just have to try to keep my tackle organized a little bit at a time.

 

So, I do indeed feel blessed to say that I am not subject to conditions that significantly restrict my options this time of year and I feel for those of us that aren't able to go.

I already have my poles rigged up and ready for my first trip of the season..... I'm in Minnesota...

2 hours ago, soflabasser said:

That sounds fun, maybe one day I will give ice fishing a try. From what I have seen on YouTube people catch muskie, walleye, pike, trout, bass, and many other species of fish while ice fishing.

Muskie and bass, not so much.  They are warmwater species that are in very low energy mode during the winter.  Muskie fishing season is actually closed here as of Dec 1 so specifically targeting one is illegal.

 

Most of the ice anglers I know don't catch much other than a buzz or a cold out there.  Its really about socializing, drinking, playing cards, or watching satellite TV if you're out there for an extended period of time.  The guys that use portables and hole hop regularly catch more fish because they're more mobile.

1 hour ago, MN Fisher said:

Yearly International Eelpout Festival is held on Leech Lake

 

That event is done.  They cancelled it last year and there is no intention of starting it again.  The reason cited is the trash and refuse people leave on the ice that the city of Walker has to clean up afterwards since its essentially just a big party out on the ice.

3 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

I've caught burbot (eelpout), but they're more prevalent in the northern part of the state.

 

Yearly International Eelpout Festival is held on Leech Lake - not far from where I lived in Bemidji...my college girlfriend kept her 24' Ketch at Walker Bay.

 

State record is 19#10oz...

I bet catching big burbot beats catching bluegills while ice fishing. 

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Muskie and bass, not so much.  They are warmwater species that are in very low energy mode during the winter.  Muskie fishing season is actually closed here as of Dec 1 so specifically targeting one is illegal.

 

Most of the ice anglers I know don't catch much other than a buzz or a cold out there.  Its really about socializing, drinking, playing cards, or watching satellite TV if you're out there for an extended period of time.  The guys that use portables and hole hop regularly catch more fish because they're more mobile.

I have seen Youtube videos of people catching big muskie, pike, bass, and other species of fish. Maybe it is in a different part of country where they allow fishing for muskie during hardwater season. Some of the ice fisherman have very nice portable ice fishing shelters with a bed, TV, and even a place to cook.

41 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

Some of the ice fisherman have very nice portable ice fishing shelters with a bed, TV, and even a place to cook.

Those aren’t what most refer to as portable shelters. Those are wheel houses or permanent shacks. They park em in one spot for a long period of time and just sit there regardless of whether they are on fish or not. Most of the time they are sitting over dead water with zero fish around.

 

Portable shelters are flip over or pop up type with canvas outers. They drill a bunch of holes and then move to where the fish are, taking their pop up tent with them.

 

If you want to catch fish regularly, you need to move often. Parking in one spot for a few days or a week will produce very few fish. Think about it. How often would you sit in a spot if you were fishing in your boat if you weren’t on fish? 10 minutes? Same concept when ice fishing.

Well with a few new rods and reels inbound and here I can’t wait til spring to throw some lures .. hopefully in next week if weather cooperates I’ll get head out to get skunked but play around a little.

Mid October to the end of January I'm chasing ducks and geese. Come February I start fishing again. The hunting has been slow, so I'm slipping into fishing mode a little early. I've bought 3 new reels this week....

Putting weed guards on some hair jigs. Hope to get them wet soon.

 

 

Well u know it’s bad when u are just taking pictures of rigs u really wanna go throw 

 

Winter shutdown lets me get my body healed and my mind into doing other things. I do strength training and focus alot on my shoulders including rotator cuffs and labrum strengthing with lots of yoga type of stretching to maintain my flexibility.

For my cardio work we have a large hill here in town overlooking the red river and rain,heat, snow and ice cold temps dont stop me as i walk up and down that hill 30 times and my lungs get to burnin and so do the legs especially in the winter wearing snowboots but i push myself. Stationary bikes or treadmills are boring and running is to hard on the knees so the hill it is.

going to sink some trees next week ?

Wanted to get out and just play around.. 25mph gusts all week have not helped. Just plain windy all week. Was stoked to get new battery for fish finder... sent wrong battery.. I can’t win lol