mountain bike ice fishin

[muskyon46]

so i was going to head up to pineview but after the reports ive been seeing theres only a couple inches at port ramp and i just didnt feel to comfortable about that since i was goin solo. decided to take the mountain bike, smallest kids sled i could fit the hand crank auger on and head for the south marina at willard seeing as how they chose to lock it back up this year (was so nice drivin in there last year and parkin right at the edge of the ice) fished around the no boat bouy and was marking a bit of fish right away just couldnt get them to cooperate so after a few change ups i managed some little bites an alot of sniffs but no hookups. was about to call it when my first iced perch of this ice season came callin. only a little dink but for me was plenty to call it a win NO SKUNK! the ice was 4-5in all over in the marina and pretty much the same in the channel.
 
tightlines

[Duneman101]

nicely done sir!  If there is 4-5 inches in the channel, that should be prime for some wally's!

[muskyon46]

Some eyes would be sweet. Just don't have the luck with them. Did rip my darter for awhile but I think all it did was bring in some lookers

[Dizzy]

Some eyes would be sweet. Just don't have the luck with them. Did rip my darter for awhile but I think all it did was bring in some lookers

Way to avoid the skunk! It is amazing how much more 1 is than 0 sometimes. 

Some food for thought on the 'eyes... I was reading here and there on these Chubby Darters and it seems that a lot of guys use a "bait & switch" approach - pull 'em in with the Darter, and then drop a spoon & bait rig down to get 'em to bite (when conditions are tough).

Glad to here Willard is building ice... I may have to try and sneak up there over the holidays.

[muskyon46]

 I have been lookin into these darters a bit myself and I'm actually using the lindy but will probably end up with a few of the salmos too. I have the smallest lindy and picked it up to try on the crappie and perch. I've been wanting to use this technic for some time now and it all started with the rapala countdowns thru the ice, Have had some awsome days on trout with them. Figured I would try and incorperate it with other species I target this time of year, I did have a bait rig down on my other rod and would switch over to it as soon as I marked bigger fish but they just didn't wanna cooperate. Hopefully with some fine tuning this technic will be productive only time will tell 

[muskyon46]

Sweet finally figured out how to upload a pic from that day sorry but I just couldn't bring myself into takin a pic of the dink perch

[Skipper]

Some food for thought on the 'eyes... I was reading here and there on these Chubby Darters and it seems that a lot of guys use a "bait & switch" approach - pull 'em in with the Darter, and then drop a spoon & bait rig down to get 'em to bite (when conditions are tough).

It works for all kinds of stuff... I use salmo chubbys to bring in crappies too. They never bite the thing, but they come to check out the ruckus. I was doing it last night, it turned a couple marks into a bunch of marks in about two minutes.

IMO, the salmo has more wiggle than the lindy and works better.

[Dizzy]

Pretty cool... this is the first time I could see the picture. Nice set-up. Do you have studded tires on that bike?

[muskyon46]

I finally set up a photo bucket acct so I was able to put that pic up a few days later. Just got me a pic app on my phone so I can downsize some pics a bit too, I think my last 2 I posted were pretty big. That bike actually went pretty good on the ice believe it or not although some studs probably would have been a bit smarter  I can only guess what the people who fished there after me were thinking.  Lol

[liv2hunt]

A mtn. bike on the ice, is something i have never seen before, pretty funny!! Looks like a trip to the ER!!

[muskyon46]

Well lucky for me no er. Lol but my boys sled sure took a gouging from dragin behind that bike across the asphalt. No more sleddin for that 1. Hope he don't notice

[Dizzy]

Well lucky for me no er. Lol but my boys sled sure took a gouging from dragin behind that bike across the asphalt. No more sleddin for that 1. Hope he don't notice

I'm picturing the "saucer" that Chevy Chase rode down the hill (and down the interstate) in Christmas Vacation. 

[muskyon46]

No sparks a flyin. But I'm sure had someone seen me goin in or riding out it woulda been more like something out of tommy boy. Lol