St. Albans trip 2/17 best day so far

[ice fiend]

So I decided to go out to Saint Albans this weekend to try my luck at finding the white perch. I got there on Saturday around 5:30-6 ish and there was already a few people there so I drilled a few holes and got nothing but dink perch. I walked up to a fellow fisherman just up from me and inquired how the bite had been lately and was told that it was ok I was getting ready to fish an area when I saw a convoy of atvs trucks and snowmobiles head out towards where I was fishing. So  I decided to get away from the noise and walked away from the forming crowd and drilled a hole and popped a nice white perch and then another and another I had about 10 or so on the ice when the guy I talked to earlier walked over and said “you better be careful with all those fish on the ice or you’ll have every person on the ice within 5 feet of you drilling holes” so I said “well if you help me set up my shanty you can fish with me” so we popped up my shanty and unleashed hell on the white perch for the most of the day with intermittent dry spells here and there. let me tell you it was a blast I’ve never had so much fun around 2-2:30 I was transferring my 3rd pail to my sled at this point my fishing partner had brought his own shanty and all his gear over and was fishing in his own shack with his girlfriend when a older gentleman stopped by and said “how they biting?” I told him I’d done 3 pails and was working on my fourth when he said “do you mind if we fish with ya” I said “come on over” and met 3 of the funniest guys I’ve seen in a while it was like a real life version of grumpy old men. After a while they left along with the other guy I’d been fishing with and I’d decided to leave the shanty as I hadn’t caught anything in there for awhile. I started getting em again maybe 5 feet from my shanty when I noticed a family off to one side of me and thought “If they wanna come over and fish around me all they have to do is ask”. Sure enough I pulled my 3rd or 4th white out of a hole when I heard a voice say  “hey do you mind if we fish around ya” to which I replied “no cone on over” as they started catching em the kids father said “your a lifesaver man you just saved this trip for us” I smiled and said “hey I’ve got my fill of whites the schools here I’m about done my 4th pail and it’s fun watching kids hook up on massive whites”. Do I finished topping off my pail packed up and departed but as I left I noticed another father and son struggling to get anything so I approached and said “ya see that family right there I got all these right there and there’s plenty of holes for ya to fish” they quickly headed over and I continued my long trek back to my car which wasn’t far but 4 pails of whites certainly prolonged the walk. I ended up with 130+ pounds of white perch as I weighed them Steve set my biggest 3 aside as he wanted to weigh them  they were 1.78 lbs 1.75lbs and 1.72lbs. All in all it was a great day and enjoyed it thoroughly today however was a bit slow to put it in simple terms only managed one pail and almost lost my cool when a guy walked up and started drilling between me and a guy when we were at most ten feet apart from each other.

[Bealittletwisted]

Sounds like a great day. I would like to thank you for thinking of the kids. Wish more people did that. Today we were fishing. Had tip ups set up hitting the pike. Two family's next to us were having no luck jigging. I asked all of the kids in the other family's to come over and help my family catch pike. They loved it. And so did I.

[perch bait]

Awesome job Ice Fiend! That is definitley a successful day on the ice. Great to see the camaraderie that goes on between people when they are fishing for whites. Great job putting some families on the fish. For young kids, I'm sure it doesn't take many hard pulling whites to get them hooked on fishing for life! It's the one rare time when no one really feels like they have to keep their spots dead secret. The only other time that you see crowds of people fishing in close proximity to each other is when you're bluegill fishing and that is a tight lipped, secretive crowd. With whites though, so long as no one is trying to start up a power auger when the bite is on, everything's pretty laid back. It's pretty cool to be in the middle of a group of 25+ fishermen in a circle no bigger than 30 yards in diameter, just listening to drags click and everyone converse amongst each other. Can't wait to get out there next week when I'm on winter break! Fingers crossed that the ice makes it through the never ending warm spell.

[Light liner]

Nice write up.
I was out there we did well too.
I kept just the big ones and filled 2 buckets.
Headed back at it tomorrow.

[lowaccord66]

Nice report.  Good karma for the next trip I'm sure.

[ice fiend]

I only got one pail today very tough bite

[fishingidjit]

IF, Nice haul on the whites,it's great you shared with the other fisherman.

[mudchuck]

It was a circus on Saturday, by the time I arrived around 7:30, there were 40+ peeps all driving, drilling and jigging within feet of each other.
I moved off towards the hump behind the green can, zilch, moved back towards the crowd but along the edge of the dropoff and finally after 18 holes got a white, so setup with the flipover and got a dozen very large-almost 2# each, before I quit for the afternoon.
Sunday I could tell was going to be amazing bluebird day weather-wise, and that would make for a zoo of people, so I went to Van Everest in the afternoon after church and got half a 7gallon pail full of large/jumbo yellows...was all alone in my spot and could actually hear the ATV's/sleds all the way across the ice at Hathaway...wild how sound travels on a dead calm evening!

[Light liner]

Much harder today only hit for the first few hours of light.
We ended up chasing yellows instead.

[Smelty88]

The wind was horrendous today!

Much harder today only hit for the first few hours of light.
We ended up chasing yellows instead.

[ice fiend]

I’ll be there for a bit tomorrow morning till around noon hopefully all that snow has melted off ( thanks to that snow I couldn’t find my old holes from Saturday