We arrived at Antero around 10:30. Seeing it was fairly calm out, we left the ice hut and headed out to stake our claim.
Didn’t take long and my ice rookie friend hooked up but after a well fought battle, the bow threw the hook. Right after that, I hooked up to one of those drag burning Antero trout. Great battle for at least five minutes before, snap, the 4# test Vanish broke.
Not long after, my bud landed his first ever fish ice fishing. On the way home, from our conversations, I think he’s hooked! He did tread a little gingerly this being his first time on the ice. All was well, I led the way jabbing the spud bar in every other step.
My bud took this bad boy on, and after a long drag ripping battle finally had it on the ice.
We got that one on the ice and I looked back over once more at my rods and one was missing! Gone, deep six….. We’re standing by the hole and my friend mentions there are something shinny on the bottom… my rod and reel! He goes to work with a tube jig with multiple jig heads attached and after five – ten minutes hooks my rig.
I reach down to grab it and what a surprise, the bow was still on. Unbelievable but here it is.
Little later he lands another.
And I follow suit. This was a team effort. My buddy held the reel and fed line as I hand-lined this one in on one of my poles that doesn’t have a spinning reel on it. What a blast we had landing this one.
The bite continued, but we just couldn’t get a hook set. Even watched one of them takes the jig and still missed it. The water is crystal clear and even without a hut the bottom easily visible in the 8 to 10 feet of water. Ice was about 5”, but late in the day a fissure opened to about 10 feet wide and couple hundred yards long about 100 yards from us. We were on good ice and made it easily back to shore and headed home.