Got to love it, a home made propulsion device on the back of a flat bottom boat using a simple Briggs and Stratton engine and some sort of icewheel. The young man driving it said he could get it going at about 15 MPH. Not bad and it looked durable as heck. Must be neat flying across the lake so close to the ice. And no, I did not ask for a ride. With my weight we probably would have just dug a hole in the ice!
Tomtom and I went out to see my buddy Jerry, and we drove out onto the 8 inches thick ice on an ATV to meet up with some friends that were already out on the ice.
The group of friends we met up with generally fish for bigger Walleye and Northern Pike, so they set up tip-ups, and when it's cold, they have a little heated trailer to sit in.
This day was rather nice. The temperature started off at maybe 30 degrees, but as the day went on the temperature rose up to about 38 degrees. Although I did bring a shanty with, we felt no need to set it up. It was just too warm. Seems crazy, but yes, when you're dressed right, even 38 degrees can feel warm.
Those that were Walleye, Bass and Northern Pike fishing, used large Shiner Minnows floating about a foot off the bottom ranging in about 4 to 12 feet of water.
We fished with tiny ice fishing jigs tipped with Spikes or Wax worms. I did not do too bad, a couple small Blue Gills and Perch, but no Crappie. This lake does have some nice Crappie in it, but today the Crappie were not biting.
A Brown Bullhead. I've actually never seen one, I've seen plenty Yellow bellied Bullhead, but not a brown one.
Nice Northern Pike......
Here are a couple other pictures I took in the past that I thought I'd share here if you have not already seen them.
A Crappie checking out the bait, and below, he rejects it and swims away. Darn.
These were taken with my iPhone of the underwater camera setup you see below.
I did not use the camera on this trip partly because we never set up the Shanty. It gets hard to see the screen in the sunshine, so you kinda need the shade in a shanty to use it. The water was very clear though today, so where we were fishing, in 8 feet of water and we could easily see the weeds down on the bottom of the lake through the ice hole. There was plenty of light down there as well because there was no snow cover on top the ice.
Couple bass go swimming by, and even poke their nose at the camera.
In this sequence you can see the fish before the bite, above, then I caught it in the pic below. Is just so much fun watching the bite.
Here's a Youtube video. It's recent, just a couple days old. Lindy just sent me the link. The shots of the semi-lethargic crappie slowly sucking in the bait after closely investigating the lure are totally awesome. You really have to check it out.
2012 has been a strange year for ice fishing, with next to no snow cover, and very little ice for most of the ice belt panfisherman have had to try new and different locations to find actively feeding bluegills and crappies. Alexandria, MN area fishing guide, Joe Scegura, and fellow guide, Bob Bohland head out to get after some of the late ice quarry.
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