Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Positive Thinking - Winter

We have ice at 15 inches plus. Once we have over 12 I don't measure very often because that is safe for everything we may drive out there. My ice fore casting spreadsheet (which is normally accurate to +- .5 in.) says we have 15.67 in this morning.

Supposed to be pretty cold this week so ice will continued to grow. Big snow storm forecast for Monday-Tuesday.

Happy 2023, everyone!

Thanks Dwight!

You gotta be kidding. Ice goes into tea.

Dwight - Thanks for the MN ice update. Do you have that fancy ice shanty on the ice yet? Take a picture for us of it on the pond. That will simply amaze those Texans and Floridians.

Bill up a little way back in this thread is a picture of a crappie and me inside the Ice Castle out on the ice.

Dwight's Ice Castle >>>> ice shanty!

Dwight - I know what the Ice Castle looks like inside and sittin on the garage platform. I was wanting a picture of it sitting on your frozen pond to show those warm water guys the impressive image of that thing sittin on a hard water pond. I don't think they can comprehend that concept on ice especially something the size of the "castle". Words will have difficulty accurately describing that sight of a castle on water.

Hello.

Here January 2, there is no more snow.

Tomcod season delayed, ice is too thin for the shack.

Tomcod (Channel fish) fishing is a major tourist activity in the region.

https://sadlp.ca/fr/galerie-photos/peche-aux-petits-poisson-des-chenaux/page-1
A+

Bill, can't even see it out there today with this heavy snow storm.

I am sure glad I don't need to remove some of that snow from the pond to get sunlight penetration through the ice. I would not call that a 'snow storm". It looks more like a blizzard by my Ohio standards. If that was at my house, I would be looking for some big time COMFORT food.

This an unedited two minute video that features me driving down to the Ice Castle to get ready for ice fishing.

Castle Trip

If the truck is warn, you don't even have to put on a long sleeved shirt to go ice fishing!!

Caught an NP in the 5 pound range last evening. It went for my jig. Before we got the other lines out it went for my other jig, pulled that rod down the hole, wrapped around Gail's line, wrapped around the camera. Got it off the camera then pulled my rod (with fish) up the hole where Gail had been fishing. Got my rod back using Gail's and then worked on the NP until I could gaff it. Had two jigs on him. NP in cold storage waiting for cleaning. No more fish after that, as you might imagine.

Smaller NP like this one are the absolute worst actors in ice fishing! They will attack all minnows in the area and seem to not care about a little hook in the face.

Sounds like a tense time with a lot of 'activity' going on!!

I'm assuming you don't all the stick in the shanty...

Dwight - Excellent - EXCELLENT VIDEO. A big THANKS for taking time for the production. Was there any "blue smoke" inside the Ice Castle when Ms pike created the 3 rod line tangle???. I hate it when two lines get wrapped together under the ice. Ms.pike bested that with a creative tangle among four - 3 rods and a camera cable. When you clean the NP let us know if it was a boy or girl.

Great report Dwight. Those NP can make a mess of things even without the ice. I hate to pull one that size in the boat.

Well done Dwight

Bill:
It was a boy.

Slightly different type of ice house, but you can still fish in it!

Sunil, I don't know if they have Peroni but you could ask. LOL

[video:youtube][/video]

Ice fishing has gone dead slow. We have 26 inches of ice now. There are a lot of fish down there as attested by the underwater video cam; just not biting.

Dwight, I know a guy that lives North of Duluth and he's still catching them, but he bounces around between some different lakes depending on what type of fish he wants to try and catch.

Spoke too soon. The Stick caught this 20 inch yesterday afternoon:

Gordy looks good.

Healthy looking LMB.

Ice is slightly over 27 inches.

We had a blizzard with 15 inches of snow that piled all up in our driveway and yard. 6 hours on the Kubota blowing the stuff.
There were a lot of long 3 to 4 foot drifts = slow going. Pond had about 12 inches average so that cleaned up pretty quickly.