Heading out today (hopefully...)

[FrozenFinSeeker]

Well I am getting back out again today (if my wife ever gets home with the 6 cylinder slieigh). Still not sure where I am going to go though. At this stage I just want to catch some fish. Might hit up Chena again or some of the ponds on base. Seriously thinking of going up to Johnson rd ponds for pike. Anyone ever ice fish up there? I caught a couple on the softwater this summer and saw a couple hogs.  Might go to 31 mile ponds also. Saw a really nice pike come out of there this summer and saw a huge pig  up in the weeds that I couldnt get to strike (probably because I couldn't cast right to him).  Or maybe I will just go sit out on Mullins Pit. Caught a lot of pike out there this summer, plus if I get bored with the pike I can try for SS or 'bows.

As you can see I am quite indecisive today... 

Any thoughts? Like I said, I just want to ice some fish.

[Dirtofak]

Too cold for me!!!

SATURDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS AROUND 30 BELOW

[FrozenFinSeeker]

Well I ended up going to Chena lake. I figured that I could go hit the pike lakes today or tomorrow. Pretty happy that I did too. I fished around off the point from the boat landing. Lines wet at 1230, first fish at 115. I was in about 8-10 feet of water. Almost had to put the extension on the auger but broke through with an inch or two to spare.  Tried deadsticking two rods about 18" apart with no success. So I started some action on one rod with a Forager minnow tipped with shrimp. While working that rod for about 3 minutes I looked down at my bait in the other hole and couldnt see it or the Trout Magnet jig it was on. Set down the first rod and as soon as I touched the second, the rod tip bent over. Set the hook and successfully landed a 10" Silver. Happy with that I went back to deadsticking both rods for about 20 minutes. Then again picked up the first rod and started jigging. Again, looked down and couldnt see the second bait. Set the hook and landed a 10" Char.  Swapped the first bait from a forager minnow to a small swedish pimple tipped with shrimp and dropped to about 10" off the bottom. This time after about 5 minnutes of jigging I let it sit and got a light hit. Checked bait and it was gone. Retipped with shrimp and dropped to bottom again. This time I set the hook hard the instant I felt the lightest tug and landed a 15" Char.  Dropped both lines to the bottom and jigged the SP. This time I noticed that the line was moved to the edge of the hole on the second rod and set the hook and landed a 10" Rainbow.  By now it was about 3 and I had only about 30 more minutes to fish before I had to leave. I left both lines deadsticked and just watched. (I had four fish and that would feed all four of us for breakfast). It was really interesting. The fish were not taking the bait very hard. I could only tell when I had a hit because I was watching the line coming out the last rod guide. The trout magnet was light enough that the 4lb test mono didnt hang straight down from the guide. When a fish would bite, the line would straighted just enough to notice. I thought at first I was just seeing some disturbance or current but I decided to do a hookset and sure enough up comes a 8" bow, I tossed him back.  With this new knowledge I almost caught a couple more. I know they were small but I had all I needed for the table and this was just fun.  The bites were so light that I doubt that they would have even registered on a springbobber.  All in all a great time and 4 table fare into the fridge.

Learned something else, and feel free to comment on this: I have a bag of small shrimp that I bought at SW a couple weeks ago that I have been using for bait. When I get home it goes back into the freezer so that they dont spoil. Normally by the time I get my lines in the water the shrimp are still frozen solid. It seems to me that they stay mostly frozen for about 20-30 mintues after they get dunked. Usually during this time I dont get any bites. However, yesterday being so cold the shrimp stayed in a solid block the whole time I was out, so I would break off a piece and hold it over my little buddy heater to thaw it enough to get one shrimp out, then bait my hook. Now as the shrimp went into the drink they were mostly thawed and I was getting bites almost as soon as they were at depth. Is this something that others have experienced or was I just sitting in the right spot?

Gonna do the pike thing tomorrow. The whole family is sick today so I am home helping with that. It's ok though because I am tying up some new quick strike rigs


Tips down, Flags up!

[Salmonman]

I am glad you mentioned that about warm bait, I get way more fish biting using warm thawed bait. I think the scent disperses better when it is warm. This works well for all species of fish that I have tried it on. Rainbows, char, Lake Trout, Burbot.

[akdube]

I am glad you mentioned that about warm bait, I get way more fish biting using warm thawed bait. I think the scent disperses better when it is warm. This works well for all species of fish that I have tried it on. Rainbows, char, Lake Trout, Burbot.

You should try microwaving it a bit no joke..

[trekk202]

with a little cocktail sauce...

[trekk202]

Good luck on the pike fishing as well, let us know how it goes.

[FrozenFinSeeker]

Well I put in 3 1/2 hours on Mullins Pit today with no fish. Temp in the car read -20 when I got there at 1230 and when I pulled up my traps at 430 it read -33. There was a bit of wind blowing across the lake so I opted to put out tipups and sit in the warmth of the car. Got some quick strike rigs tied up while I was sitting there  

Not as much ice on Mullins as I was expecting. Chena has about 36" (guestimating-- my auger almost bottomed out on Thur) but Mullins only has maybe 24-28" and it is not the dark solid stuff. Crusty on top and white, porous down about 12", then solid black. Only heard it crack once while I was there though. And it was right under my foot, gave me quite a start for a second. (better than Thur at Chena though--but I will get to that in a second)

Fished on the North end of the lake near the weed bed. about 90 minutes with some 3" shiners down about 3 feet below the ice, then the rest of the day with 8" Herring (thawed and warm) at about the same depth. This makes the first time I have been to Mullins and not caught fish


Back to Chena for a moment for an interesting story: Where I was fishing (check thur post) I had the car parked about 20 feet back towards the boat landing from my shack, and the large state shack was about 30 feet on the other side of my shack. The ice was doing quite a bit of talking that day and I was glad my wife was not with me as she really freaks out about that. Whenever a sled would go across the lake there would be pops and moans from the ice (nothing out of the ordinary). It was funny though because there some folks fishing from their truck about 100 feet away and they would get all excited whenever the ice would start making noise. I had to chuckle because I used to be the same way, but over the years have learned a lot. I still have a very heathly respect for the ice and cant think of many worse ways to meet the Lord than going under ice.  Well around 230 I hear a loud crack from the middle of the lake. Louder than normal. It got my attention and I set down my rod and stood up to look out the window. About the time I stood up I heard what I can only describe as a tearing sound that started from the direction of the shore and came towards me and passed between my shack and the state shack, then out into the lake. It was like nothing I had heard before. Once it passed me and got out into the deep water it sounded more like a normal crack so I thought little of it, must just be what it sounds like up close? I picked up my rod and started jigging again while still standing. It had been maybe a minute and all of a sudden I hear the same sound from the same area only this time it goes between me and the car really close to me. I feel the ice beneath my feet shudder hard and the water in my holes suddenly comes up about an inch above the top of the holes then drops back down about 4 inches and works back to equilibrium. I decide at this point, that being in my shack is not where I want to be if I am going through so I scoot out onto the ice real quick like. The boys over in the truck are watching with rather nervous expressions (though that may be because of the way I came out of my shack). I look around for a minute and there is a crack that came out from the shoreline and passed about 10 feet from my shack between me and the state shack. It was open about 2 inches at the top but there was no water visible. Then about halfway between my shack and the shoreline a second crack had broken off from the first and shot around the other side of my shack by about a foot, this one was open about an inch.  I took a moment or two to asses the situation and after short contemplation decided that with 3 feet of ice and about 9 feet of water I didnt have too much to worry about so I got back in the shack and caught some more fish. Some glad the wife stayed home that day. Sure enough when i told her the story I got the look that said "maybe me and the kids dont go with you anymore..." but I put that to rest after about an hour of explaining.


Well I see I have written a short novel here but with no fish to clean tonight I figured I might as well tell a story. Hope you all fared better today. Just remember, even with no fish it beats work.


Tips down, Flags up!!!

[arcticat500]

Anyone think this could have been earthquake caused?  I've been through plenty of ice popping, cracking, moaning, talking, etc, but have never seen where it separated the surface, with the exception of pressure ridges pushing up.  Always wondered what a quake would do when you're out on the ice.  Maybe that was it?!

[trekk202]

Ya, I would not know for sure, but I have wondered what reactions the ice has to some of the quakes we have around here.  I have seen some monsters like that on LL at times and when first getting into the hardwater scene things like that used to be intimidating. 

Got to love Finseekers novels 

[Barleydog]

FFF,
Don't sweat the noise or the cracks!  It's part of ice fishing and even though you may be nervous, you'll get used to it...  I was on a lake in the midwest when a 4 truck race occured not far from our shack and had little waves lap into the shack.  Lots of "booms" and "cracks", it's pretty common.  The last thing will be you falling through ice that took an extension to get through!   Get the kids used to it and tell them it's like "thunder" under the ice...  Don't show fear my friend!

Mullins is good early and extremely late, but I have never scored well this time of year.

Johnson rd?  ARe you talking the ponds up on Wainwright?  I'd be at a loss to say hammerhandles may be the biggest out of there.  Those ponds are pretty shallow and tend to freeze up in the winter which produces little O2.

Should be warm enough this weekend!  Good luck