Although my ice melted off and has refrozen a couple times since my first ice fishing adventure in December, The Boss and I ventured out last week on a really too nice for January day, and found 3 solid inches of clear ice to work with. I was doing a little 'popping' and 'pinging', but I only had to change my long underwear once, so. a bit closer...
And then this happens, after a very brief discussion about 'not needing anymore crappie nibbles, because nothing is biting anyways..' :-). Famous last words.
This is one of our fall 2017 stockers. And, the first LMB we've ever caught through the ice. We also caught a few very small BG, but mostly it was slow catching, but gorgeous fishing.
I hope the rest of the Pond Boss crew has been having some luck? Whenever I see the slabs TJ hauls up through the ice, I am super envious! Have fun out there, but be careful. It's been a very thin ice year, so far.
Last edited by DrLuke; 01/11/1906:19 PM. Reason: typo
"Politics": derived from 'poly' meaning many, and 'tics' meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
I ice fish my pond as much or more than open water. Couple of weeks ago I got a pretty decent bass.
Last weekend a friend and I gave it a go.
Pretty good for an hour. One thing I’ve learned about ice fishingall ponds. Drill all your holes as soon as you get there. It often spooks the fishfor a bit.
Brad 1.5 acre pond with LMB, BG, BCP, CC, FHM and lots of crayfish, unknown type. .5 acre pond with FHM and GSF. 12 acre irrigation reservoir that I don't know what to do with. New pond, roughly 1.5 acres. Pond Boss Subscriber.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
We finally (sadly?) have some typical January midwest weather coming in (teens/sub zero temps) over the next 10-14 days. So I will be heading back out there for round 3 soon. We do have an ice shack to drag out, and I may have to put that up (and start my little heater) to get The Boss back out there with me. I also need to service all the wood duck houses from the ice while I can.
"Politics": derived from 'poly' meaning many, and 'tics' meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
10" of ice left on our pond, but day times temps will hit an amazing 60 degrees by next Thursday. No more skating this year. It is pouring rain right now.
So today for the first time I had a nephew over and his ice fishing gear and we drilled some holes. More for fun than anything else he set up his tent, turned on his propane heater, got out his fancy fish sonar and off we went.
We found that the perch were hungry for the waxworms. We caught a few large shiners too.
Could not get the RES or any of the other panfish (supposedly there should be some LES and a few pumpkinseeds, but we can't catch them summer...or winter now) to bite.
We caught one other large female, plump in the mid section. We should see egg ribbons in about 20-21 days if the last few years hold true this year. With the balmy January and polar vortex in Feb and this much ice left in March, we'll see!!
We did have a bonus 'color' species come through the ice attracted by our canned corn bait.
2 acre Pond (Northern Michigan): ~2.6 Million Gallons Fish (Natural from Creek): BG, YP, BH, Pike, Bass, plethora of minnows Fish (Planted): RBT, HBG Aeration: 1/4 HP Compressor (MPC-60A @ 2.9CFM); 2 - 9" diffusers Fed by creek ~100 GPM to 1000+GPM
