Thomson Lake 2017/2018

[RD79]

The first time out this season wasn't much of a success.  Gave it a whirl yesterday for the first time and never had so much as a mark on the flasher.  There is 8" of good hard ice where i was fishing and after last nights -18 there should be at least another 1/2".  I went out from 1:00 to 2:30 so i wasn't all that surprised i didnt see much for fish movement.  Now that i know how much ice is around i'll be out a few times after work this week to see what I can catch.

[Mister Trout]

Hey there,

Do you know when the ice fishing tournament is going to be out there in 2018?

[RD79]

In the past it has been the free fishing weekend in February i believe.

[gyman98]

Thanks for the update!

[RD79]

I was not out myself this weekend but i do know that there were 2 camper style fishing shacks that went down on Sunday.  They were able to get them out but the ice is far from ready to be driving on.

[Mister Trout]

Good to know.  Thanks RD79!

[RD79]

One week closer to Christmas and one week closer to having the shack out on the ice finally!  I took the new-to-me Ion out on the ice for the first time Saturday and punched about 30 holes through 9-10" of solid ice.  The Ion work flawlessly but the fishing was less than stellar.

Fished from 8am to 12:00pm on Saturday in 2 different spots with a tip-up in one hole and hopping around jigging with my other line.  Only marked 2 fish all morning and both happened to be about 3lb pike caught on my jigging rod.  Both hit quite aggressively but i was very disappointed with the lack of fish on the flasher. I fished in my historic places that have produced very well this time of year in the past.  Had holes from 6' out to 16.5' and everywhere in between with no luck.

The first spot drilled holes through 10" all the way out to about 100 yards with a hole every 5 yards or so.  Was pleased to have the same thickness throughout all the holes.  Can now at least have the side by side out to get to my spots.  I won't be crossing the lake until i do more exploring to ensure consistent ice on the lake

The second spot i drilled holes at I only punched about a dozen and they fluctuated from 9" to 10". 

Saw a couple other groups out on the ice, one with a quad and sleigh in tow and another group parked on shore and walked out.  There is zero snow on the ice so with this forecasted colder weather we should be able to make it to 12-14" by Christmas.

[RD79]

Well all i have to really report is that the fishing in the river has been incredibly slow!  We pulled the shack out on the 24th onto 11" of ice and caught nothing that day.

Over the holidays we likely put in about 30 hours of total fishing and there was nothing to write home about.  The best day out was on boxing day where we managed 8 pike from 8:30am to 5:30pm.  The usual 2-3 lbs sharks was all that wanted to bite.  Having the flasher is sure nice to see that there are NO FISH even swimming below the ice.  What did come by was hungry but very few and far between.

My dad was out trolling yesterday and talked with several groups and all had the same terrible results to report.  Time to move north i guess and see what we can find in new territory.

There is now from 15-18" of ice depending on the location where we have been.

[RD79]

Finally Caught Walleye!!!   Was a pretty productive weekend for the first time this year.  Went out for 3 hours on Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 and after moving the shack to a new location i was able to catch my first limit of walleye this season!  We were pretty happy to have a feed of fresh fish so we went back out on Sunday and I managed another 3 walleye in only 2 hours before we had to leave for a previous engagement. 

Ice is about 24-26" where i have been drilling, i have not accurately measured this, but the flighting on my Ion is all below the ice right as it breaks through, so its a pretty good estimate in my opinion.

This has been a pretty poor year of fishing up until this past weekend, can't even convince the usual hammer handle pike to bite which used to be almost non stop on tipups.