Lockjaw

[blue igloo]

Took my Grandson out to ESL to see if he could get his last 2 Masters to get his Specialist badge. A couple of friends also joined us. Things were going great until I tried going down a road they use to plow. I had no place to turn around and I couldn't back the double trailer all the way back the narrow road with a deep ditch on both sides. Had to unload the Bravo and Hunter sleigh and disconnect the trailer. Almost put the trailer tongue through the tailgate at that point as I had already prematurely disconnected the hitch latch    With the help of friends we pushed the trailer out of the way so I could make an 8-point turn to get the truck in the right direction. Made it to a new spot I wanted to try and I unloaded the sleigh so I could go back and get the rest of the load (way too much stuff nowadays when you fill an 8 foot deep sleigh and you run out of room  ). Anyways, friend starts drilling in that new spot while I'm gone and puts the auger blades on the bottom…….ruining his new auger blades. I felt really bad and responsible for his misfortune.  I had my Jiffy with me so all was not lost. Went to my favourite spot and made it home for the whole day. My friends had MarCum cameras and you could see a dozen perch below the holes at any one time yet they all had lockjaw. Our flashers were lit up all day and all we managed were a few perch and a pike or two. I did manage to land a 12.5 perch but the rest were all dinkers. Had a visit from a Snobear from South Dakota later in the afternoon. They were searching for 16 inch perch.  They were all over the lake and the story seemed the same……..lots of lookers and sniffers  Not too many people out, so I'm guessing most people were out chasing Greenbacks. It was such a bad day…….I have no pics to post 
Blue Igloo 

[gatorhunter]

Sounds like a vintage AC post Ron.

[jenndave]

The west side was hot on Saturday we managed to catch 40 perch few were masters biggest was 14" and a bunch of jacks was non stop action for us only had time to get one rod down. We only kept a few for supper that night put the rest back down the hole to swim another day. Today we went back to our spot from Saturday and only jacks were hitting caught some real nice sized ones biggest was 38.75" wish we could of landed the ones that straightened my hooks and were snapping stinger hooks.

[mikeypikey]

the good , bad and the UGLY...  better days will come my friend...

[blue igloo]

Sounds like a vintage AC post Ron.

Good one GH……probably why he doesn't post anymore  Truth be told though……his mishaps have been minimal since he got rid of the invincible (so he thought  ) "Green Beast"……..so he plays safer nowadays 

The west side was hot on Saturday we managed to catch 40 perch few were masters biggest was 14" and a bunch of jacks was non stop action for us only had time to get one rod down. We only kept a few for supper that night put the rest back down the hole to swim another day. Today we went back to our spot from Saturday and only jacks were hitting caught some real nice sized ones biggest was 38.75" wish we could of landed the ones that straightened my hooks and were snapping stinger hooks.

Congrats on solving the lockjaw problem. Curious to know how you cured the bad case of lockjaw we experienced  A PM would be nice if you don't feel like sharing 
Blue Igloo 

[blue igloo]

the good , bad and the UGLY...  better days will come my friend...

Hey Mikey…..Mother Nature was responsible for most of the "UGLY" this year 
Blue Igloo 

[40 Creek]

Another exciting adventure!! I'll take a bad day on the ice over a good day at work anytime!! 

[jenndave]

Congrats on solving the lockjaw problem. Curious to know how you cured the bad case of lockjaw we experienced  A PM would be nice if you don't feel like sharing 
Blue Igloo 
[/quote]                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Well BLUE IGLOO wasn't aware there was a lock jaw problem, friends of mine were going out during the week and hitting them everytime they went out,which I can't due to work so I took advantage of my 2 days I get to fish we were on the west side both days had rough idea where I wanted to fish so we parked and drilled holes put finder down and was only reading 2.5' of water below the ice wasn't to keen on that but dropped a line and hit bottom reeled up a couple inches and bang had one so we decided to stay there. We were using bright green & yellow jigs with a stinger hook tipped with a live minnow. That's all I can tell you I did nothing different than any other day. Maybe the depth and the wind played a factor cause the wind was blowing into the  shallows. Don't know what else to say.

[blue igloo]

Thanks  jenndave  Perhaps it was just the shallower depth or the live minnows.  We were in 4 feet of water below the ice and none of us had live minnows. 
Blue Igloo 

[fishinfirefighter]

I'm thinking the live minnows must have been the key as well. I was out on Sunday with a friend and we were fishing the west side as well. Tried a variety of depths from 3-7 ft. Used a variety of jigs and jigging spoons. Had the flasher lit up all day but they were just lookers. We managed 3 perch but nothing big. buddy got 2 nice sized pike though. for bait we were using frozen minnows, minnow heads, and night crawlers. (I thought the crawlers were going to be the magic ticket for us since it's was something a little different.) The crawlers got the least amount of action out of all the baits.
Heading back this Friday and I guess I'm going to have to pick up some live minnows this time.
If anybody is out that way we'll be going on from the east side by the church. 2 guys on a beat up old arctic cat El tigre. If you see us come by and say hi.

[dkozyra15]

Sunday was lockjaw as well still managed 1 master out of 3 fish I caught.

[jenndave]

Friends were out all this week and had nothing but luck again, were going out on Saturday and hopefully we have the same luck.

[jenndave]

Well the Saturday report was a slow start for us got out there late, we caught a few small perch at our first spot we fished there for a couple hours then we packed up and moved farther west into the bay on west side once again caught a few small ones nothing of great size. We did one final move and that was the fun one in that little snow storm we had almost lost the shack due to the winds, but that move paid off we fished spot 3 for about 1 1/2 hours caught 20 perch 4 which were masters 6 jacks. Then packed up and left once we could see the east side shore line wanted to get off lake while the getting was good. Going back on sunday for one last kick at the cat.

[blue igloo]

Another exciting adventure!! I'll take a bad day on the ice over a good day at work anytime!!

Me too bud!
Blue Igloo 

[fishinfirefighter]

We made out on Friday the the 28th as planned.
First spot we fished we managed 2 dinkers right away. Thought that was good sign so we stayed on the spot. An hour later we had had no more bites.
Packed up and moved further west and south into the bay. fished 4 ft of water and though we marked a ton of fish we couldn't get a bite.
Made a big move way to the south right on the border of East and West Shoal Lakes. Right by the big tree with the Eagles nest in it.
Fished  anywhere from 3 -6 ft there but had no bites and very few fish marked.
Our final move brought us back north but we stayed well south of the main group of anglers on the west side.
Fished 6 ft of water and around 2pm the fish started to bite.
We finished the day with 20 perch caught between 2 guys with 5 perch being masters.
3 of those masters were mine and I was able to finish off my perch specialist for this year.
All is all it was a good last day out on the ice for us.

[jenndave]

Sunday was not a good day for us moved 4 times and only ended up with a few jacks just couldn't find the sweet spot for perch that day, Oh well that's why it's called fishing not catching. Now we wait till open water season, or maybe one last ice fish in MAY if this weather stays this way.