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Not to mention if your at one end of your spread your more than a half mile from your last tip up and couldn't see it.
Any you guys spend weekends up on the lake?
I would if I had a shanty
got 35 gills today. what a beautiful day !! except for the knucklehead that heard me catching fish. I was in my shanty, and this guy comes up , and stands next to my shanty for 5 minutes. he asked me once if I was getting any, and stood there listening. he goes back to his shanty throws everything in, and comes over dragging his shanty. he proceedes to cut a hole, and fishes 5', yes 5' from me. I said are you !@#$%%ing kidding me . " RESPECT" people !!!!!! i'm with you ice add. I'm going to come unglued soon, very soon !! Sully...
Isn't that normal for big bay? I avoid that place like the plague
Who is "you" that you are referencing there? Come on up and I'll take whatever bet you want to offer - you with whatever hand drill you want and me with my electric powered 8" Nils. I don't care if you bring along a 4" bit.
I was drilling holes faster with my nils then guys with power augers. But you get in the 30" range hand auger gets slow. How much ice is up there now? I fished 17" of two layed ice when I was up for x mass in franklin co.
We got 20 + solid black with a couple of inches of white. Just say'n if a guys got a decent power auger, you ain't gonna beat him. I use a hand auger until I get enough ice for the wheeler (about 8"), then the IceGator comes out with me.
Great stuff, Cross-Eye-Jig. Thanks for sharing it.
Awesome post Cross! What species did your family target mainly on Oneida?
hey cross eye I remember as a kid fishing out by wantry island frenchmans and the pickle hole. I remember the tree on the island also. We were called the bucket brigade,back then. You had to be mobile also carry auger and 2 buckets. Sometimes not catch a fish until noon sunday on a weekend trip and then kill them for the afternoon. How do you think todays icefishing crowd would fare back then. Couldnt afford a shanty or machine no electronics walk and fish 3- 4 miles a day WHEW beni
As i am fairly new to hard water fishing. Just wanted to say thanks for the info you guys put on here. I finally got my limit on eyes and twelve fat perch, whoo whoo. Just like you guys all keep saying keep moving and drilling .This is my first year using a flasher and wow it's amazing . Anyways good luck everyone
I don't know about anybody else, but I would not be part of the crowd. No shanty, no propane, no fishfinder = no ice fishing for me. The comfort of it is actually one of the things I find appealing. Fishing from the boat November through April is hard on my body these days. Although, right now I am itching for a nice calm 35 degree day to get back on Seneca. Haven't been out since the end of December.
Pretty much the same here but I grew up on the lake with with immediate family and relatives who were all commercial fishermen. Fishing for fun was something that I rarely had the chance to do as a kid but when you're a kid, all fishing seemed like fun ! I remember being out in weather that would keep most modern day fishermen home doing chores ! My uncles both had huge 19 foot wooden Penn Yan boats. They seemed like the Queen Mary to me. We drifted with gallon paint cans full of concrete over the side. The ropes they were tied to had knots tied in 1 foot increments. On fairly calm days, my 2 uncles and my dad would drift the lake to find drop offs, shoals etc. When those paint buckets started to drag bottom or hit something. They stopped the boat and dropped anchor. They pulled the cans and counted knots. Then, they relayed that info onto a lake map that was sealed between 2 pieces of glass using grease pencils. When we came in, that information was transferred to another paper lake map that never left the camp ! That was how we mapped the lake. My uncle Joe had a connection with one of the local school districts. He would come home with a station wagon full of old basket balls, rubber balls and footballs. He painted them yellow (using paint that came from another connection at the local highway department ! Those yellow balls would be stuffed in onion sacks and used for our buoy markers .. . Like other old timers, the landmark triangle was always used for locating our spots when the wind was blowing too hard to see the buoy markers that we set out. Another way we used to gather lake info was to follow the tug boats down the channel when they were setting buoys or setting up barges for dredging operations. They had very early sonar units on those tugs. The guys who ran them were always helpful in giving information as to depths and submerged debris, sunken boats etc. A gallon of home made wine was always given to those guys in appreciation of their free flowing information ! One of the original maps that my Uncle Nunzio made was hanging in Spruce Grove Marina for years. When Frank Tripp died, I tried to buy the map but it had been lost or given to someone When the lake froze, it was a crap shoot ! It was one of the few times when we fished for fun although it was still a priority to supply our families and friends with with enough fish to get us through the winter months. In 1968, My uncle Rocco bought a brand new Ski-Doo ! That winter was the best ever ! He built 4 small wooden wind breaks that looked like short out houses without a front door. Each one had a metal bucket that held firewood to burn when we got cold....and we did get cold back then ! The ice fishing seasons always seemed like they were 6 months long ! We liked ice fishing but prayed for springtime and the rituals that went with it. Varnishing the boats, tuning the motors, spooling new rope, repairing nets, painting basketballs, trapping bait, cleaning and respooling reels etc. Then the docks and boat hoists went in and we were ready for another open water season. From those early days growing up, I was put into a position where fishing was a job and it was a job for me for many years afterwards. To me, catching fish was a way of life and a way of making a living just as my dad and uncles had before me. On a sunny April morning in 2004, with my dad in his mid 80's, we were sitting at the boat launch waiting our turn to launch. It hit me that the time had come to relax and enjoy as much time as possible with my dad. Since that day, I haven't had the urge or desire to catch as many fish as the law allowed every time I hit the water and ice ! Matter of fact, I no longer cared if I caught any fish at all ! Fishing had finally become a fun thing to do ! To this day, almost 10 years later, I find myself using less and less of today's technology when fishing. I thank my dad and uncles for teaching me how to succeed and be innovative with a weighted paint can a rope and a yellow basketball !
Fished yesterday. Few hours in morn and last two hours before dark. Only a few perch. Oh yeah.... Drilled lots of holes by hand yesterday with my 8 inch hand screw. My 73 year old fishing partner drilled all day with his hand screw as well. Not enough ice to be buying new power augers when my 73 year old buddy is still getting we done with the hand auger...unless disabled in some way.
