IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Eelpout => Topic started by: carper34 on Jan 21, 2009, 07:14 PM
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So who all is going this year and what are the conditions on walker bay? Can we even get a house out there is it gonna be a tough year.
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The ice conditions on Walker Bay of Leech Lake
as of Jan 20, 2009:
Walker Bay ice thickness 18 inches + with plenty of snow causing some slush pockets to form.
No restrictions on ice travel.
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Ill be there again this year if the roads are good.... about scared my wife out of here mind driving back last year in near whiteout conditions near Hawley...hopefully more of a bite than last year. Sure would be cool if a Iceshanty member would win the coveted grand eelpout trophy!! I was hoping to be in the top 10 last year and didnt even make the board.....my friend from Cass co says more houses are sprouting up on the humps in front of the Chase, still some serious slush but Walker Rental has a new Bombidier to pull out stuck trucks...hehe, most are going on from Cochran's marina near 1st point.
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so any of you burbot hunters going this year? time is getting close
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ill be there! i jsut talked to Reed's today and they saud that the roads are in rough shape on the lake, but the sluch is no longer a cocern at all. so thats good. just bring your plows!!!
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The ice conditions on Walker Bay of Leech Lake
as of Feb 3, 2009:
Walker Bay ice thickness 22 inches + snow pack has settled, most slush pockets gone.
No restrictions on ice travel.
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i was out there this weekend. i got the house all set up, so i got my spot claimed! ice was 20" where i drilled right our in front of walker city beach, about .25 mile out.
i didnt see any slush. we drove out with an explorer. if you are carefull, you can avoid some spots of soft snow and not have a problem. i did see a few people who were either overconfident or unlucky and got stuck breifly. just snow, not slush at least.
cant wait, this is going to be the longest 2 weeks ever!
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going out next saturday to find my spot and check the way out. hopefully get the house out sunday if all goes well
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How deep did you set up Fishwiz? Any luck? Hope the Pout are biting more than last year!! What about you Carper where are you going to fish and what depth? I am hoping to get into Agency Bay and fish a rock hump there if there is not to much slush.
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i am sitting on the top edge of a pretty deep drop. one side of my house is at 32fow and the other side is at 40fow. it is soft bottom (looks like sand). we caught 3 walleye, one of them was 16" or so. the other two were pretty small.
you are going all the way into agency bay? that is quite the treck if you get on the lake in walker. do you have a plow? i think you might need one if you are going to go that far. be carefull in that area. in the summer i know there is often current flowing in and out of walker bay through agency. make sure to drill a few holes ahead of your truck.
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looking to fish in about 40-50 feet on a hump if i can get on it. its on walker bay, but a bit towards the opening. not sure what point that is, but its the spot i like to get to. not alot of fish, but still a few here and there.
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Fishwiz, I went off the deep end and bought a Snobear so can go anywhere sleds can. Yes I know there is current at the opening of Agency Narrows, but the North side sleds usually drive almost on the ground there no rocks. If sleds arent going there Ill stay clear. Carper sounds like you will be fishing Harry's Bucktail hump I fished there two years ago at eelpout caught 3 but no size... caught more walleyes than pout!
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Fishwiz, I went off the deep end and bought a Snobear so can go anywhere sleds can. Yes I know there is current at the opening of Agency Narrows, but the North side sleds usually drive almost on the ground there no rocks. If sleds arent going there Ill stay clear. Carper sounds like you will be fishing Harry's Bucktail hump I fished there two years ago at eelpout caught 3 but no size... caught more walleyes than pout!
will have to find out if it is that hump or not as i was on it two years ago too?
and if i get stuck i know who to call now ;D
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I had a green wheel house then., was on the north side of the hump, just north of the big group with the bonfire going all nite. The snobear is easy to id.. Id be happy to bring another shovel or give a ride to shore.. it doesnt have the engine a bombidear has to be able to pull out a stuck truck.. :(... I could have paid for it already here in ND pulling out stuck trucks and iceshantys if that was the case. Just made a lot of new friends ;) as I drove by to go fishing when they were working trying to get off the ice.
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corny:
i would love to see your snobear, and maybe go for a little ride with you if we can. i will look for you and if you dont look busy or too drunk yet ;) you can show me how it works. i will probably still be in front of the beach (i can get coords but my gps is in my truck and im lazy). i have a grey house (vinyl siding) with white trim and a HUGE window nest to the door that also has a window in it. you will recognize the house if you see it (will have a blue ice castle near it as well, and an explorer and an avalanch).
if you see me, stop on by......i will save a beer for you (or some bourbon!)
fishwiz (steve)
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well with the weather goinglike it is, who knows what to expect. kinda hoping it knocks all the sow down and then freezes solid so there are no travel problems. but this could get to be an interesting time.
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This weather should be great... will cut down the snow, water will run into cracks and then hopefully freeze. Should make 4x4 truck driving possible. Its suppose to be near 0 this weekend... ;D
Now only hope for clear driving weather for a week from Thursday...
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yea.... this could be helpfull, but i need snow to back up my house (my floor sits about 12 inches off the ice). with no snow around, i woudlnt be able to bank up snow around the house.... unless i drill a ton of holes to mae slush (lol). but, i shoudnt complain too much cause traveling with all this snow has been very tough.
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went up there today, no problem with the way out. should be clear sailing for anybody going. only bad spot is right off the main access. the busted ice kinda makes it a rough 20 yards of so. after that, pretty much glare ice and HARD snow mounts that you can drive around.
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Sounds great! DId you have any luck fishing this weekend? Sounds like I need to get a pair of ice cleats for the Mrs. Weather looks good also! One of these years we should have a IceShanty team for most tonage. Ive got to get more consistant at catching them though.
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I have a group that i will be fishing with adn we will only have about 7-8 people. if there are some IS people that want to join our team so that we can have a little better chance at competing, let me know!
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Sounds great Fishwiz: here is link on how to sign up a team http://www.eelpoutfestival.com/register_team.html (http://www.eelpoutfestival.com/register_team.html). Looks like all you have to do is make a list and make sure everyone has a button, which you have to do to registar a fish. Then figure out how Floyd's barber shop catches so MANY EELPOUT! Ok do the norweigen fish finder and just set up next to them ;) Are you going to call your team Team IS or already have another name?
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We can be "TEAM Ice Shanty" if you and some others are interested. we have not thought of a name as of yet. maybe we can get creative if you have other ideas. one person in my group is on here (hooker19) other than that, nobody is an IS member yet ;).
if you want to do this. we would have to meet at some point before 5pm on friday to fill out the team sheet (there is no additional charge to register a team right? as long as every member has a button?) we can pm cell numbers or something to coordinate? ill send you mine right now.
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To be competative I would think we would need to have close to 20 signed up actually fishing... not just partying. Lets see how many others want to sign up. If each member caught 10-20 lbs of pout we would be in the numbers. ;D
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well im in
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Ok so who is flying the ice shanty flag ? Im going to try to come up after the du tourny on mil lacs on sat. If i dont make it il be up ealry sunday morning.
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well... one of us should take the lead and gather the names that will be on the team. i can do it if you like, or corny you can if you want to be captain. It might be better if you could because i will be leaving tommorow at noon so i will not have much time to check the forums to see if others want to join.
so... corny, let me know. if you want to take charge, i'll send you the names of my people and you can fill in the spaces. otherwise, send me the names of your people.
anyone else that wants in, send your name to corny or myself and we will fill it out. it needs to be complete friday by 5pm.
i cant wait!
.....i might have a secret for the IS team members! if you join the team, pm me and ill let you know some possibly helpfull information.
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Fishwiz:
Im heading out tommorow afternoon but will have computer access Friday if anyone else want to add on! Ill pm you with the names of the people fishing with me. Im the only official IS member but the other three are my wife and neighbors at the lake. You should be the Captain! all in favor say Aye, vote carried! ;D I dont have a IS flag but if anyone catches the biggest in our group I have a IS hooded sweatshirt and cap they can wear! What are you going to use for Bait? Fatheads or bigger suckers/shiners? What about you Carper?
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shiners and _____ on my secret pout rig ;D
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Find the biggest hand picked shiners always works 50% of the time.
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Ok so who won this year ?
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It was good to meet you Friday. I unfortunately got SKUNKED! So didnt show up for the awards to see who won and how many caught. All we caught were roughfish ( Jumbo perch and walleyes). Had found a nice school of Jumbos Sunday am and couldnt leave for the awards. Fishwiz said he was going hopefully he will report in. Did your friends at Templar point do any good?
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had trouble keeping trash fish off my line as well (damn walleyes) but i was still able to be dissapointed when they drew names. landed a 5.17 lb pout that won me nothing but dinner
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so.... we had a great time, but got skunked too. i got a pout on thursday night tho.
i dont remember the name of the winner (im sure it is posted on the poutfest site or will be soon). there were over 500 fish caught, and as expected, Floyd's barber shop team won it again (I think this was their 20th time). does anyone know where they fish?
I told my team, and a few others that i though crayfish were the bait of choice after disecting a couple hundred pout in one of my classes (from the past few years of poutfest), but they did not work for me. we disected another 75 fish that were collected from this year's tourny and only a few of them had crayfish in them. actually most of their bellies were empty. the only thing that was common, was ALOT of HUGE tapeworms. that was interesting.
hope everyone there had a fun time.
fishwiz
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Results are posted on the Eelpout page. Looks like Im not the only one with NO POUT! Only 371 pout caught. 1987 and 2004 they caught almost 1400 pout each year.
Winner Jody Smith 10.52lbs(http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t38/corny132000/winner09.jpg)
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hmmmm. I dont remember the exact # they said at the award ceremony but i know it was in the 500's. I wonder who made that mistake. anyways....i knwo that almost everyone that i talked to didnt catch a single pout, so i am not surprised to see the number of pout caught come in so low. i hope next year is a little better.
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Fishwiz, got the Walker Pilot newspaper today... they confirmed your number of 558 Eelpout caught...... I liked the lower number on [url][http://www.eelpoutfestival.com/results09.html/url]
Made me feel better about getting Skunked!