Ice Fishing?????

[sprucebunny]

For all you ice fishing fanatics :

http://www.yoopercrawler.com/

With a little ingenuity ( and maybe a bigger engine, ;D ) a person could grab a hitch of logs on the way home :D :D

[sawguy21]

That is the ultimate fishing shack. Does it have a little boy's room too? :D :D :D

[Coon]

It only looks big enough for one or maybe two people at the most.  Gotta have it bigger so the whole family can use it at the same time.  Heck need a couple of fold away bunk beds too and a cookstove. :D :D

[beenthere]

sawguy21
Little boys don't need a room.

[sawguy21]

They do when it's that cold. :D :D

[Mooseherder]

http://www.bangordailynews.com/news/t/outdoors.aspx?articleid=145224&zoneid=28
Here is a recent article from my old country.

[Gary_C]

I think you guys are doing it wrong. I took this picture one morning this week on the way to the woods. This is from the Hwy 77 bridge over the St. Croix river right at the MN WI State line. If you can't see clearly, there is a boat with trolling motor, depth finder, and minnow bucket froze in the ice.



I am not sure of the story, but I think it goes something like this. Everyone knows there are huge sturgeon in the St. Croix River. Back when they built the I-94 bridge at Hudson, WI they sent divers down to check the bottom for the placement of the bridge piers and they saw sturgeon so big the divers refused to go back down. When the people in Hudson fish for Sturgeon, they use a chunk of beefsteak on a cable that is attached to the concrete bridge adbutments. They check the cable every morning and if the cable is as tight as a piano wire, they know they have caught a sturgeon. Then they slip a pulley over the wire and pull the sturgeon out with nothing smaller than a one ton truck.

Obviously this ice fisherman caught a sturgeon and it pulled him from open water into the ice, piling ice up ahead of the boat until the boat would not go any more. Then the poor ice fisherman was pulled right out of the boat under the ice and the sturgeon ATE HIM!!!

I swear that's true,    or    it's true I swear!!  One or the other.    ;D


OK if it isn't true, then make up your own story cause I don't really know what happened.   

[beenthere]

Gary
That's a good story. Had me goin right along with you for a spell der. Ya shoul'nta added that last part about gettin et up.    

In the pic, I see a tip-up sittin over a hole in da ice. Not sure how it got to be dat big fishin boat (beginnin to soak in tho).  :D

[scgargoyle]

I found out that ice fishing is illegal here in FL. :D

[Tom]

I guess I was skating on thin ice.    I'll throw'em all back next time.

[farmerdoug]

Tom,

Your lucky the evidence disappeared like it did. :D :D :D

Farmerdoug

[Ron Scott]

Ice shanty palace.

http://www.richmichaels.com/Web%20Site%201-07/AnIcehutwithDetail.pps

[Tim L]

 Impressive !!! I've lived in places that weren't this nice .

[fuzzybear]

   I'm just getting ready to head out to Tattamin lake. We head out there evry year at this time to fish for the largest lake trout in the world.  Now I know it sounds like a fish tale, but we catch 40-60lb lake trout here.
   The lake is frozen around 24" thick so there is no problem driving the skidoo out on the surface. I am taking the camera with and I'll post some pictures when I get back. 
   

[sawguy21]

What do you use to cut a hole big enough for those monsters?

[Minnesota_boy]

I have a 6" hand auger that he can use to drill the holes.   :D

[isawlogs]

 I take the oil out of the chainsaw , run it for a few cuts to get the oil out and use it to cut the holes in the lake . I have a 18" bar , if the ice is too thick , I cut a hole two feet square , carve it out and step the hole down some and finish in a hurry before the hole fills up ... if not you got to use the peice of iron to finish cutting .

[jon12345]

If motorized boats are allowed on the lake I wouldn't worry about a little oil out of a saw 

I think a 4" auger would have been big enough for anything I ever caught, but I think my mom had big goals for me when she got me an 8" for christmas a few years ago  :D


What is good bait for lakers  ???

[Burlkraft]

What is good bait for lakers  ???

Blue and silver 5 of diamonds spoons........ ;) ;)

[isawlogs]

 A live minnow if the regulations let you use um .

[CHARLIE]

ICE FISHING ON UPPER RED LAKE -January 2007
This story is for you Southern Boys that have never walked on water.  ;D

Well, on the second week of January I went on a 3 day ice fishing trip with my son-in-law, Jerry, and his two friends, Terry and Al.  I never was much for ice fishing but these boys do it right so it's more tolerable. They are all very avid fishermen and have no qualms about sitting on a five gallon pail on a frozen lake staring down into a hole in the ice, but for this trip we go first class.  Or as first class as a guy can get 6 miles out on 2 feet thick ice.

We rented a 4 man ice house that was probably about 10 feet wide by 20 feet long. It had all the accommodations of home. Four bunk beds made of 2" X 4"s and plywood with a luxurious 2" or 3 " thick vinyl covered mattress that was probably 1970's vintage.  A 1950's vintage propane stove and oven, a propane furnace and propane lanterns hung on the wall. It had a plywood floor with eight trap doors that when opened revealed a hole drilled into the ice for fishing. Under one of the lower bunks, there was a card table that had seen it's better days about 10 years earlier.  An attempt had been made by someone to hold it together with electrical tape. It did OK though as long as we periodically pulled the legs back out so it wouldn't fold up as we used it.  There also were, four 1970's vintage folding chairs that had seen their sturdiest days many years prior. 

There was even an outhouse attached outside with a genuine toilet seat and a propane lantern for light. The outhouse was rather small and our knees would touch the door when we were sitting.  Its door had a spring on it, which had come loose, so we had to hold the door shut by pulling on the spring.  This outhouse was on the windy side of the ice shack, so keeping the door shut was paramount.  We kept the outhouse lantern lit all the time so it wouldn't be so cold.......it was still plenty cold though.  Not a place you'd want to sit and contemplate world problems while reading a Sears Roebuck catalog. 

We had had such good luck last year out on Upper Red Lake, found in the north part of northern Minnesota (that means....way up there!) that we decided to go back again.  Our ice shack was located about 6.2 miles out.  Roads are plowed and it is advised to pretty much stay on them or you risk breaking through.  There are always large cracks across the ice, but this year there were several pressure ridges too that were about 18 inches high.

We left about home and headed for Upper Red Lake at 5:30 a.m. and the temperature was
–10°.  The temperature kept dropping the further north we got until it read –24°.  Now normally that wouldn't be a problem in the warmth of an SUV, but a vent gasket was leaking and frigid air was coming in the passenger side and under the seat. My feet were dang near froze solid. We arrived at the little town (and I do mean little) of Waskish about noon after a 5 hour drive.  We stopped and ate lunch at a tavern and then headed for the bait shop. I'm not as avid a fisherman as the three I'm with, so I always find it amusing to watch them when they enter a bait shop.  A short description would be like watching three boys in a candy store. 

We then called the owner of the ice shacks and was told to head out on the ice for 2.3 miles to the first pressure ridge take a left at the "bridge" (a 4' X 8' sheet of plywood) and then a right at the little spruce tree and he'd be waiting for us in a blue Ford Ranger to take us to the house.  The owner is a jovial man about my age that has been doing this since he was in high school.  He or his son would periodically stop by to see how the fishing was and give us reports of how the other ice shacks were doing.  They'd also always offer to let us use any of the empty ice shacks out there if the fishing is poor in ours.  As it turned out, we were catching more than most. 

Before leaving home, I had prepared a cast iron Dutch oven full of my chili.  I had forgotten to do that last year and had to hear about it all year.  The boys seem to like my chili.  It is about 99% meat and very little beans, which is a good thing in this situation.  Jerry had prepared a big chicken pie and froze it.  He had even made the crust!  So we only had to buy groceries for breakfast and one dinner.  We had eggs, sausage and bacon, hashbrowns, toast and coffee for our breakfasts and steak with hashbrowns for one of the suppers. For lunch, if we were hungry, we'd just snack on venison sausage, cheese and crackers. 

We all settled into setting up our fishing gear. I always let the others pick their holes and I take what's left since I'm not as avid a fisherman.  The fish bit in spurts. Crappie might bite for about an hour and stop. Then we'd go several hours with nothing. Then walleye, and an occasional northern pike, would start biting for a short time.   I was doing pretty good this year and catching my fair share, but I must admit that when the fishing was slow I tended to get distracted. 

On the second day, during the late morning, we were into one of those very slow times, so I started organizing my tackle box. All of a sudden, I heard a racket going on by my left foot and looked down in time to see my rod, reel and my 99¢ rod holder going down the ice hole.  It was already too deep to do anything other than watch it sink away.  What could we do but laugh.  I hated to lose that rod because Jerry gave it to me for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I decided that must have been a huge northern pike that swam by, took the bait and just kept right on going.  I borrowed a spare rod and reel from Jerry and continued fishing and talking about that huge northern pike. I was also taking abuse for losing my gear and I was complaining about my borrowed fishing gear.

You women might not understand this but when men get together, there are no serious discussions about anything.  We complain about each other, pick on each other, make fun of each other and tell jokes and stories.  Then we complain about how bad the jokes and stories are.  That evening, the bobber in the hole by my right foot went down.  I set the hook and started reeling in.  All of a sudden, the bobber that had been on the rod and reel I had lost came popping up through the hole.  I grabbed it in jubilation and pulled up my lost rod and reel with about a 12 inch long walleye on the end of the line.  So much for my story of the huge northern pike taking it.  Anyway, I figure the fish was too small to drag the rod and reel away and had just hung around the bottom finally getting tangled into my other line.  I was happy to get the gear back but then spent the time complaining about losing my 99¢ rod holder.   

At nights, Terry would set up "rattle" reels and go to bed. Jerry would stay up all night fishing, which gave us ample opportunity to complain about the light and radio being on, and Al and I would just plain go to sleep.  The best I can describe a "rattle" reel is that it is a round disk shaped cage containing jingle bells.  The line is wrapped around the outside of the disk and it's hung above the ice hole. When a fish takes the line, the line spools off the disk, ringing the bells, which wakes up the fisherman.  Terry likes to put on a huge sucker minnow with hopes of landing a large northern pike. 

In the mornings, Terry and I took turns burning our breakfasts and then everyone else would compliment how good it was.......or complain about it being burnt while they scarfed it down.  Jerry's chicken pie was absolutely delicious.  Everyone got a quarter of a pie. We were stuffed and full of compliments to the chef, though we did complain while he baked it. 

Our last full day of fishing was pretty much the same as the previous day and I took on the chore of frying up the steaks and hashbrowns, which I must admit were done to perfection.  I was walking over to get a fork out of the plastic cookgear tub and kicked my other rod and reel into the ice hole.  I immediately dropped flat on my belly and jammed my arm down into the frigid water in time to grab the bobber as it was going down.  I reckon the bobber was about 18 inches deep when I grabbed it, but I was able to pull everything back up.  Then I had to listen to the boys make fun of how fast I moved. They had never seen me move that fast in years (I'm called "old man"). I have to admit, it surprised me too. 

Now, a little bit about the fish.  This was the first year fisherman could keep walleye on Upper Red Lake, but we could only keep two each.  The walleye had to be under 17 inches in length and we could keep one that was over 26 inches in length.  We caught a lot of 18 inch and 20 inch long walleye that we released.  We kept none that were over 16½ inches because the DNR (Dept of Natural Resource) agents tend to stretch them if they can so they can get a violation. The crappie in Upper Red Lake are huge and the ones we caught ran between 14 and 14½ inches in length. That is what's called a "slab" crappie up in these parts.  We caught one 5 pound northern pike we could keep and caught a much larger one that we had to release. We also caught some fair sized perch. If I remember right, our take was 13 crappie, 8 walleye,  l northern pike and 8 perch., a good time and good memories.  Included are some pictures I took during our escapade.


Our ice shack. Home Sweet Home for 3 days and nights.


Just a picture so you can see where we fished.  My rod holder, rod & reel and ice hole. When it got dark or late afternoon, we'd need lights to see down into the holes to watch the bobbers. The LED lights that clip onto the bill of your cap is very helpful.


Me with one of my walleyes. This one measured 16 3/4 inches long. The only walleye we kept that was over 16 1/2 inches.


Me and one of my 14 1/2 inch long slab crappies.  This is a huge crappie in Minnesota.


Our total catch. Catch 'em, chunk out the door. The world was our freezer.


I took this to try and show the size of the crappies we caught. That dot in the snow to the left of the fish's tail is a quarter.


Sunrise over Upper Red Lake, Minnesota.


An afternoon sky over Upper Red Lake.


A late afternoon shot just to show how far out we were and how barren a frozen lake looks. I can't remember which picture, but you might see some other ice shacks in the distance.


Just a neat evening sky picture.


January sunset over Upper Red Lake. Temperature about -20°.

[crtreedude]

I am sorry - but just the idea of ice fishing makes me want to go hang out in the hammock to warm up.

[Tom]

shoot, Charlie.  Southern Boys can walk on water.   I see them chasing boats on the river all of the time.

[red]

Wow

Upper Red Lake

sound like a high class place..... 8)

RED

[Tom]

Probably some kin of yours, Red. :D