Muskie Matt
12-26-2009, 10:52 AM
82238224
Hope everyone had a great time with their families yesterday. This week should bring good snowmobiling/fishing conditions to our area. I did get out yesterday evening for a bit and had a few flags for the effort. Hooked a big Northern, 35/36in, but it cut me off at the hole. I did get the one walleye I was looking for,... a nice 21in that gave me a couple beautiful boneless fillets... my Christmas dinner. Damn, they're good fresh like that.
Here's the scoop on ice conditions... Found that our recent snowfall did indeed push exsisting ice down creating some very slushy areas, tough to tromp through and hate it when slush sticks to the bottom of the sled I'm dragging. We're finding 3-5 inches of good ice with some thinner areas to watch for, especially current areas if present. I'm not going to suggest four-wheeler use yet but guys are beginning to explore with them... could turn into a pricey exploration. They've been dropping a lot of stuff through this year, use common sense and caution.
Setting tip-ups using either small shiners or sucker minnows has been the usual approach for pike and walleye. Which bait kind of depends on the lake you choose to fish, one usually works better than the other on different lakes... go figure.
Bottomline... Slower than normal ice formation this season due to early/recent snowfall dictates caution but we are beginning to get the ice we need to begin icefishing in earnest. Good luck out there.
Hope everyone had a great time with their families yesterday. This week should bring good snowmobiling/fishing conditions to our area. I did get out yesterday evening for a bit and had a few flags for the effort. Hooked a big Northern, 35/36in, but it cut me off at the hole. I did get the one walleye I was looking for,... a nice 21in that gave me a couple beautiful boneless fillets... my Christmas dinner. Damn, they're good fresh like that.
Here's the scoop on ice conditions... Found that our recent snowfall did indeed push exsisting ice down creating some very slushy areas, tough to tromp through and hate it when slush sticks to the bottom of the sled I'm dragging. We're finding 3-5 inches of good ice with some thinner areas to watch for, especially current areas if present. I'm not going to suggest four-wheeler use yet but guys are beginning to explore with them... could turn into a pricey exploration. They've been dropping a lot of stuff through this year, use common sense and caution.
Setting tip-ups using either small shiners or sucker minnows has been the usual approach for pike and walleye. Which bait kind of depends on the lake you choose to fish, one usually works better than the other on different lakes... go figure.
Bottomline... Slower than normal ice formation this season due to early/recent snowfall dictates caution but we are beginning to get the ice we need to begin icefishing in earnest. Good luck out there.