Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch First fish through the ice on our pond

Our first 'test run' on ice fishing on our 'new to us' pond. Gonna try and get some BCPs this weekend.

I decided to use my grand fathers old 'spoon style' hand auger to drill the hole, because he would have loved that. Wow, was that some work! The ol' power auger is looking pretty good after that...

But the best part was just walking out of the house and going fishing!! We are so blessed! Hope my fellow PB forum junkies are out there enjoying their ponds too (frozen or not)..

Very pretty fish! Also, you are very lucky to have a short walk to some good fishing! How was the action? What time of day was it? Depth?

The action was fair, given I only fished for about 45 minutes. I started with the hand auger at about 4:00 p.m., started fishing about 25 minutes later (after a couple small strokes and one heart attack) and caught that one BG about 6 inches off the bottom, in 8 feet of water. I had several other light hits, which felt like BG to me, but we have loads of BCP in our pond, and they can hit mighty lightly too. I'll probably work some deeper spots and maybe try some minnows on Saturday. Supposed to be in 30s in Iowa, so will feel like heat wave!

Congrats Dr.L! Yeah, those heart attacks are serious stuff - but the strokes simply feel like I'm at a Rush concert circa 1989...kid stuff.

I hate to even admit it, but when I came in the house that night, I looked in the bathroom mirror, and I had some light bruising on my forehead. Evidently, when trying to gain some leverage while turning your hand ice auger, you can bruise your forehead...if you are leaning it hard enough against the handle..

Between 'bull frog volcanos' and bruising my forehead with the ice auger, I'm running a little low on credibility...or common sense.

That spoon auger sure made a nice hole!!!

It sure did! But it would take Conan the Barbarian and two of his bigger buddies to drill a dozen holes with that same spoon auger without popping a vein on their forehead...or putting a large bruise on it..

Nice!

Welcome to the world of hard water fishing. Your BG looked to me like an immature male that will likely fully mature and spawn this year.

Mr Cody-
My grand father was an avid fisherman, especially for walleye and perch. We used that exact spoon auger on Devil's Lake ND back in the 80s, and caught a lot of really nice perch! I haven't been back on the ice since the 90s, and am very happy to return! I used to marvel at the swarms of freshwater 'shrimp' that came up out of the new holes we dug... Probably why those Devil's Lake perch grew so fat.

Wanted to give this a try. Came up to the pond. Ice is still too thin up here. Barely 3" thick. So, I tried drilling some holes by the dock. No luck. Might have to consider placing some structure beneath the dock.

Beautiful setting! Must be sweet to just walk out a little way and wet a line.

That's what I'm talking about.....well done!!

DrLuke - even in Iowa you could have stocked your pond for primarily YP and walleye(WE). That would have brought your memories full circle. Several ponds in my area including mine are YP-WE ponds.

I became the proud custodian of this 40 year old 2.5 acre pond last May. The previous owner was a BCP man, and stocked it accordingly. It has BG for the forage base, and a (seemingly) healthy reproducing stock of BCP. I only caught one 11 inch large mouth bass last spring, shortly after starting to fish the pond.
In my minds eye, I would love to convert the pond's fishery over to more and other species, and the search for knowledge about how to do this led me straight to the Pond Boss Forum!
I read with great interest the recent thread regarding BCP and LGB and using one to control growth of the other, or HSB, etc. I also found it very informative regarding the discussion of BCP forage sources, as well as BOW size and it's ability to support BCP growth and reproduction. I'm still learning ( and gathering data) on my pond, but I think the BCP must also consume zooplankton to some degree and not just utilize the BG for forage. I have only begun to measure and weigh our fish, but for the small sample size I took last summer, was finding relative weights above 95% consistently. Largest BCP caught was 14 inches (Mrs Perrin!) and many in the 12-13 inch range. All seemed well filled out. We did catch other sizes as well, which gave me the impression reproduction was doing ok. That last line probably made you cringe (I concede it's lack of factual support), as it's just my hunch, but I'm working on collecting the hard data so I can KNOW. :-)
Sorry for the long post. I have on my wish list to change over my fishery (to possibly include YP and WE) but am still 'doing my homework' before I attempt any changes/corrective stocking, et al.

Nice fish and congrats on getting out there!

You will need to do some searching, but I'd be willing to bet that if you got that spoon sharpened correctly you'd be able to cut a hole a LOT easier. I used one when I was younger and drilled a heck of a lot of holes, through some pretty thick ice.

The "newer" Lazer Auger works much faster even than a sharp spoon auger. The Lazer Augers shave the ice so fine that you could make a snowcone with the shavings.

With BCP in the pond specifically monitor for the LMB relative numbers. The stronger their numbers esp smaller bass (8"-13") the better the BCP sizes will improve. Consider adding several HSB per acre to help reduce small BCP.

Are HSB allowed in Iowa? (I read your other post where the letter to you from the Iowa DNR makes it clear that if they aren't 'native' they aren't allowed)

We are in the same boat as you with HSB. We have official state records for HSB caught naturally in Michigan (natural hybridization?) yet HSB are not on the approved list for unclear reasons.

I'm pretty sure HSB are okay in Iowa, as I've seen posting on PB forum from other "I-wegians" who have HSB in their ponds. But I might message one of them to confirm this is true.

I got the boss to go out and fish with me yesterday!

And some nice BCP biting now too!

"Red neck strike indicator"... Works even better than a wire bobber... :-)

Esshup, I gotta fess up, I DID out and purchase a Lazer Auger at my local hardware store. And man, did it work slick and fast! I ended up drilling about 15 holes in about 10 minutes! And no forehead bruising, and no strokes... Sure makes getting ready to fish a lot more pleasant. Now for a flasher or underwater video cam.. :-)