Ice Fishing

[Bodeen]

Finally got out and done some ice fishing. Left my trays at home, so I had to just go after fish.

[Jason]

Massacre ! LOL

Whats a Tray ?

[Bodeen]

Ice cube tray to hold all my "ice fishing" catches

[Jason]

Midwest fishing lingo

[Bodeen]

Ummm, no, just me being a smart ass. Ice fishing, fishing for ice.....ice trays....must have lost some meaning when it crossed the Mississippi.

[cdj711]

what do you get all this fish on?
no SSR for sure.
Wolfgang

[Bodeen]

Pink head number 9 skitter pops. LOL. Check the other thread for answer. I actually had a blizzard last night. Looks like I will be taking a snow day from work. Might be why they were biting so well yesterday!!

[cdj711]

hi bodeen.

thanks for telling me your lures/baits.
no use here - see other thread.

but i have a very sucessful secret perch lure, where i caught one day, better say one afternoon, in stockholm over 100 on it.

will send some samples in your next pack.

it is NOT a rapala, but i see you sometimes use other lures too.

Wolfgang

[wallcat]

Nice saugers. Bass fishing is not allowed on our lakes in the Winter so they all must go back. I see a couple of smallies in there. Do they often bite well through the ice? I've never targeted them. Hey, couple of nice perch too.

[Bodeen]

They bite just like the largemouth I suppose. I imagine it depends on how concentrated they are or the percentage to largemouth you have in your lake. I have a lake that for the most part, only has smallies.

I got some PH days coming whenever I want them, I can make a drive for some perch. Might have to change brands of beer however

Wolfgang, I use all kinds of lures. Mainly Mepps, and Wally divers in addition to the Rapala lures. Some Rebels, a lot of homemade bucktail jigs and crawler harnesses. I also like jigging with Heddon Sonar. Trolling spoons and J plugs. My favorite plastic is a beetle spin. Yellow with the black spot, but there are some new colors out now bullfrog and coachdog to name a couple. If my wholesaler has them I can get them at 66 cents a pack!

[wallcat]

Takes about 9 hours to Windsor depending on traffic/weather. I've driven it a bunch. Maybe you'll have to come on up and I'll go out there for some Saugers and Walleyes. Beer won't change sorry. Blue or bring your own.

[Bodeen]

Lemme see, you drove 9 hours from your place for these perch?? No wonder you only fished 3 hours.

[wallcat]

LOL, vacation is the other way. I know, I know... confusing. Just giving an idea of travel time.

[Bodeen]

Thought I would post a picture of one of my walleye killer lures.



I have this bucktail in about 38 different color combinations.

[Bodeen]

I was asking Wallcat if he had a lot of white bass, since I noticed he had one with his perch. Mentioned I would post a pic, so here that one is too. Catch these on the bucktails as well.

[Bodeen]

We also have a lot of rockbass up here too.



Of course the rockbass and white bass were caught in the spring.

[Jason]

Dude that has to take for ever to clean all those
I'll stick to the big fish . Might only catch one in a day . But I hate cleaning fish , so its allright by me .

[Bodeen]

All you need is a sharp fillet knife. Preferably one with a birch handle

Cleaning fish ain't all that bad. I much rather catch a lot of 1-2 pound silvers than one 20 pound striper in a day of fishing. Might be why I haven't tried musky fishing.

[bacon]

damn man, wish i had the time to ice fish like that, im lucky if i can stay on the lake of 4 hours, hard to find the fish on a lake with few fish and no time to locate them, and even when you do, then its time to leave. you got a shack jeff, or are you portable.
either way, i much prefer walleye and pike over panfish, one they are a lot easier to clean, and i like the flavor better too. i dont mind a mess of gills or perch once and a while, but i get sick of it pretty quick when i would rather rig one of the perch back up and set up for big pike.
thats one of my best tip up baits, live perch, followed by dead smelt, then live shinners. also have had really good luck with dead perch rigged as smelt, but its hard to catch a good enough perch to use as dead bait, needs to be 7-8 inches and most of the ones in my lake are about 4-5, but they make great live bait, and its even legal here in WI. Jeff

[wallcat]

I find those electric knives make short work of a mess of panfish. I've never seen anyone eat rock bass before. Are they full of bones? I've actually seen a couple of hog Rock Bass caught, but to us they rank right below catching a stick.

[Bodeen]

No shack, I am portable. Panfish aren't too tough once you get into a rhythm. The thing I hate about the pike is the Y bones. Perch tend to have a more intensified flavor than walleye, but walleye is hard to beat. Gills have great flavor, as do silvers. Rock bass aren't any more full of bones than any other panfish. Really nice flavor too. Much better tasting than crappie.

[nathenpd]

musky fishing = catch and release no matter what

[Bodeen]

I belong to the
Filet
And
Release
Team

Is that good enough?

[bacon]

I go both ways on the catch and release theory. i do like to keep some fish for the freezer, but i dont like to spend my entire evening cleaning fish, so most the time i release them. its quite common for me to give up a mess of gill cause you never know what your going to get. ill catch on nice bull, then keep it and never catch another and one isnt enough to clean, but you already have a dead one in the bucket, so the next time you get one, you toss it back, only to keep catching some and tossing them back because each one is "the last one" but never really is. with bass, im stricly catch and release, unless im hungry and havent caught another fish all week... i.e. my honeymoon we ate a nice smallie because its the only fish i was able to catch all week, and i was a days canoe paddle from the nearest anything. i dont really care for the taste of bass anyway. ive never caught a musky, nor have i really tried to, but i have no desire to keep one. pike is much easier to catch to keep if i want esox meat. ive keep trout, but sever series of unfortunated events has kept me from eating them every time, so i release them all now because i figures maybe theres a reason, either that or its the trout thats causeing my freezer/coolers to fail. maybe some day ill deep hook another one and take it hope with me, and just fry it straight from the filet board. some day im going to make it to the east coast and go after some mahi mahi and mackeral, that should fill the freezer enough i can let go most of everything here for a while. oh crap, its starting again, time to stop. Jeff