Hi Y'all,
well its been a frustrating time recently fishing wise. I have been going out nearly every day and been blanking major style apart from a couple of pike here and there. I was beginning to think i had lost the ability to catch fish(very depressing) and fishing with zero confidence sucks!!! I know pike are fish and so i should not grumblebut i have been trying for walleye, guess i needed to eat some humble pie and realise i have a lot to learn about ice fishing and always will.
Today i did learn or re-learn something............K
EEP IT SIMPLE!!!!! I have sworn by this philosphy for fishing for ages but with all the new fangled tackle and styles of fishing that i have been exposed to since moving here i seem to have lost sight of that...untill yesterday when I happened upon a really helpful guy out on the ice called John . Nothing beats local knowledge and this guy tells me he has been fishing at that spot since he was 5 yrs old.
Anyhoo, today I wanted to go back to a spot a short drive from our house which is accessible down a logging road (yup, watch out for flippin great trucks piled high with trees tearing up the middle of a narrow lane, if ya have google earth punch in these co-ordinates to see where I was 49 36 10.17 N 93 03 06.58 W ).
I had been there just before Xmas with a pal as we had done well there before , but we caught nothing on our last trip there a week or so ago . I thought that it might be worth a try in the evening since we did a morning start the last time, see if it made a difference. I got down there full of hope despite recent disappointments and set up 50yrds away from this guy John who was already there. We exchanged greetings but that was about it.
Well I got there at about 1pm and by 1:30pm fish after fish was being caught….by John , not just the small ones I am used to catching , but nice fat ones, I had not even had a nibble
JOHN WITH ONE OF HIS NICE WALLEYES
I had to see what he was using on the end of his line….so I asked what type of jig he was using and he looked puzzled… “ I don’t use jigs…just a sinker and hook” he says. There I am trying all these new fangled (and expensive) jigs, trying infinite colour combinations, and here’s John with his split shot and circle hook, letting the live minnow do the work!! And what is John using as a rod?…. sticks from the woods and spools of line he brings with him….KEEP IT SIMPLE!!! I have seen lots of these sticks stuck in the ice and i thought it was just people marking their holes for the next time...lol.
JOHN WITH HIS STICKS.
Now I am not saying I will be switching to sticks but I changed quickly to the rig set up he showed me and no sooner had it gone done the hole I had a small Walleye on. However i did notice that the sticks allowed him to bend the stick towards the hole effectively giving the line slack when the slightest bite registered, I am goin to search out the lightest action rods i can find now...oh well, more money when a stick would work, but old habits die hard.
MY TITCHY WALLEYE
I was just happy to catch one after sitting not 50 yrds from someone pulling them out one after the other, he had so many fish on the ice it had attracted a Bald Eagle who was trying its best to steal some,
BALDY!!!
Well John continued to catch regularly and also managed to give the eagle a small one, i threw mine back. I was in a much better mood and watching John catch was bearable now that i was not going to skunk, when all of a sudden my closest rod flew of its little stand and up popped one of the biggest walleyes i've caught yet. I was well chuffed, not as big as the ones dood was pulling through the ice but he was pleased as punch for me, and genuinly happy that he had helped a fellow fisherman near despair. I am going back to the same spot tomorrow with my new knowledge so generously shared with me and hopefully i can practice and only get better.
AT LAST!!!!!!!
