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I am still ice fishing almost every day and probably will be for some time to come, since we are staying close to home now. I switched over from the snowmobile to the side X side this week, as my lane to the lake has lost most of it's snow. This was the first winter I have ever put the shack out in deep water to exclusively target crappie (crappie go to the deep basins on our lakes in the winter). With the permanent shack only a mile of so from my house, it was no hassle to go fishing in any weather conditions, fire up the wood stove and fish comfortably, I probably averaged going out to the shack at least half the days since mid December, plus did a fair share of lake trout fishing on other lakes also. On to lessons learned. I had always been careful to block the shack up in years past and did so again this winter, but since the shack was used constantly, even though I tried to keep the slush scooped up and thrown out, the continual hole drilling eventually was too much, the skids and joists got ice build-up around them, it was not going to be pulled off like usual. Last week I ended up having to disassemble the 8'X12" shack in order to get it off the ice, I see a new redesigned shack in my future next year, there will be some sort of tube system and the new one will be moved periodically (lesson learned).Since spending so much more time in the shack this winter, I had lots of opportunity to experiment with different baits. I have 4 holes in my shack spaced approximately 2 1/2 feet apart, the Livescope is in one of the middle holes, a set line with jig and minnow in one far hole, with a different bait on the line at the other end of the shack, the 2 lines are over 7' apart, but both can be easily seen with the Livescope. I might use straight plastic, a tungsten jig tipped with a wax worm, a jigging rap, different colors, or whatever on the one line, but was always trying different things. There were days fish would stick their nose up and swim past the minnow and go for an artificial or vice versa, any day could be different. I still think over 50% of the time a minnow is the go-to bait for crappie in our local ice fishing environment , but after a continuous comparison all winter I have much more respect for artificial than ever before and have been really been enjoying using them more than ever, another lesson learned.
I believe the"minnow issue" is identical for Lake Trout. I now usually use plastics for the simple reason they do not die or spoil. They are not ALWAYS the best, but usually they are as good as minnows.Keeping minnows alive is an issue, especially if spending a few days out at a cabin in the winter like I know we both do. My problem is I am a lazy lake trout fisherman, even though I know jigging is the key to catching more trout, I don't do enough of it. The really successful trout fisherman I know are using artificial, constantly keeping the bait moving, my catch numbers usually pale to theirs. QUESTION: How many crappies do you think that you caught this winter, all totaled?
I learned Noooothing!! (Like Schultz from Hogan's Heroes)...... Didn't have any ice in Ohio.
Same thing I learn every year...never buy into the hype...or bite into the hype. Wait, I usually do.I tried using the anchor drill attachment...well that sort of worked, but not nearly as well as expected. Ice is different from wood.I learned to use my electric drill much better this year.
You reminded of one more "learned" lesson,,,,, that the Eskimo ice anchor tool works much better than the Otter tool when using Eskimo ice anchors. Damn Otter gripped the anchor so tight that I eventually snapped the tool in half trying to get it loose. Eskimo tool provided enough play that it easily released.
perch chacer, that happened to me one time. I learned to anchor my clam if it's even a little windy and I'm on bare ice.One thing I learned this season... way too many guys don't even look at how thick or safe the ice is as they walk out onto it. Especially if they see someone else out on the ice. Made me realize that I have to be just that much more careful.
Something has to change. The ice house (6x10) is a toyhauler type that carries the wheeler to the lake. I use wheller to pull ice house onto lake. I can't drive the truck onto the lake, it's a company truck. Ice house works great early season but the snows of late January/February cannot get onto the lakes here because snow is too deep. Last year I had to 1) back up a half a mile after getting to a ramp area that was not plowed, no way for me to get on. 2) dig the truck out because I drove down a two track gravel road a mile and was 20 yards from the other end and got stuck. Had to unhook ice house turn it around, haul it out with wheeler and then go back and yank truck out with wheeler, then walk back to get truck. May sell it and stick with flipover, at least can walk out and drag the flipover....