Eric(TheFishstick) picked me up from my place and from there to Oziles to grab a bunch of minnows. The plan was WALLEYE. He was anxious to get out and give his new MarCum LX-5 it's first run and hopefully break it in with a few fish. Conditions were alright. Wind was coming from the east and was strong at some points. Also might add it was an endless day of consistant flurry's, tapering off to snow at some points.
The walk to the spot wasn't that bad
Snow was up to our knees on some drifts and the slush in others made it no better. I then realized how much of a fool I am to have packed the Trap with tons of gear
Never again..
We setup base over 31FOW right off of a point and decided to wait before getting our set-lines out. Perfect transition zone for daytime walleyes and sauger .I was out of breath..I needed to break..for a minute. Shoveled for a bit then punched some holes. Ice was 8''-10''..Eric went nuts and punched a whack load along the break for when we were to move around a bit. It payed off a bit later on in the day when we had to follow the fish. Water was coming up through the holes and made a huge puddle of water inside the Guide. I have no clue why, could have been a factor with the current. Immediately we started marking fish on the bottom. Drop my bait down..Gone..We worked the water column for a few minutes with Buckshot Rattle Spoons and Forage minnow spoons. Then more fish started coming through...wham..Fish On! What do ya know, a nice crappie inhaled my spoon and minnow
And it was no dinky spoon..slapped it on the ice for dinner and wiped the sweat off of my forehead..the day has only begun.
Eric and I continued to catch some nice crappies
and missed a few fish that were playing with our heads just picking at our offerings. They were very finicky, no doubt about that. Man, thinking about it now Eric and I missed more than a few fish with some good weight
Was it ever nice to have the heater going today...hands numbed up pretty fast with that wind. Eric moved around a bit and started picking up some of the target species. He was right on top of ' em and man were they ever aggressive. I was 10 feet away and could watch fish rise to his bait 5F off bottom to smack his rap. Man is that LX-5 ever crisp in low light conditions. Schools of fish were moving in and out faster than you can get your lure to where they were. We would pick up a few, then it would die down for a bit and pick up a few minutes later(Or in another hole)
Average size of the walleye...
When the bite died down in the trap we moved and setup more adjacent to the point. Looking for a bit shallower water we found green weeds! Perfect. We were in 26FOW on a steep drop. The walleyes were there.
There was no time to spend snapping photo's...we were onto fish. Had to take a few for you guys though
Besides the cameras were all foggered up.
Eric
Me(Wow, talk about redeye) with a real eye-popping walleye
Towards the end of our outing we started marking some strong signals..Red bars on both screens had us going for a bit..It was a big fish but nothing we had could intrigue it to bite...Same fish popped up a couple of times. Up to out lures for a whiff, then right back down to the sand bottom where he emerged from. Packed and left around 6:00. Walk back must have taken 30 or so minutes
Very exhausting. A quick stop at Timmie's to warm the soul and another day on the ice has gone by(Plenty more to come!!)
This gives you a pretty good idea as to what we had to fish in all day. It was a mess. About an inch or more of water under our feet
Actually, completely surrounding them
Got to get some rubber boots.
I would like to thank Eric a bunch for the company today. Very knowledgable angler and great all around guy. Look forward to hooking up him again hopefully this week for some more Walters. Wish there wasn't so much snow on the ice and it was a bit nicer out. We would have caught so many more fish if weren't stuck in the trap for most of the day. Two weeks of straight fishin' coming up. Should I say more?
Thanks for reading..
-Andrew Cameron
