Glenn Highway Lake - Nov 25, 2011

[guesak]

So I decide to try somewhere other than Big Lake.  I've had success at this lake before in past years.  Though the fish don't seem to be as large as the ones in Big Lake, there typically are more of them...usually. Found ten inches of nice clear ice.

Set up the shack and in the first 7 minutes, I hook a char that I estimate to be 22 + inches...twice!  Didn't ice him though.  Both times, the hook just fell out at the hole.  I am surprised he stuck around after getting hooked and pulled all the way up into the hole the first time.

Notice in the video I posted below how interested he is in the lure but only took it in his mouth two or three times.  Keep in mind I am looking from directly above so I can tell if he has the hoochie in his mouth or not.  Except for the time I hook him and one miss, he came by and just swatted at it. I am surprised to see from the side video view that he was actually opening his mouth.  From above it just looked like he came cruising up to it and swatted it with his head.  Notice the fish didn't fight at all either.  Not sure what was going on.  The initial charge looked aggressive but after that, it just seemed super lazy.

Well after that fish, I only saw a few more fish and none were char. All the fish I saw after the char were after it got dark.   So how could I see them after dark?  I got to test my underwater LED lighting system!  Worked great...except I didn't catch anything.  In the video, you will notice all the little dots.  they looked almost like brine shrimp and as soon as I turned the light on, they were just swarming around it.  Maybe I watch too much National Geographic, but I thought for sure something would come feasting on them like small trout or even sticklebacks.  But NADDA.  It also allowed me to sight fish in another hole about 4 feet away.  That was pretty cool.

I did manage to ice a sucker on a spoon tipped with shrimp.  Kept him for lake trout and pike bait.  Cut him up into smaller strips so I can tip my jigs.  I saw a HUGE sucker after it got dark.  I was all excited thinking it was a big char but on closer inspection, it was definitely a sucker.  Did not know they got so big.  I bet it was well over 25 inches. 

I also had something else on after I tipped my spoon with a small piece of sucker meat.  Stepped outside, came back in and peered down the hole and couldn't see my spoon.  Set the hook and I saw something medium size, maybe 14 inches or so take off.  Hmmm.....   

So for 5 hours on the ice, I see one nice char, two suckers, a mystery fish, AND 5 muskrats.  Who knows it could have been the same one but it was starting to irritate me popping up in my hole so often.  I even moved my shack once into deeper water but I could still see it whizzing by my area.  First it scared me, then it was just a nuisance.  I almost forcefully relocated it, but didn't want to deal with a pissed off muskrat in the confines of my shack.  I've tried looking for it on the video but I couldn't find it.  I was surprised that it was still active after dark.


Here's the video 2:45 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OY8CUfk_Gc

[Barleydog]

Great story .  Suckers and char what a mixed bag!  One thing that will extend your night on the ice would be to light up the hole with a submerged light or car light on a deep cell.  I use a crappie light to extend my fishing into the night and the fish love it!
You know those muskrats make great mittens!      Had the same problem about 6 years back with the buggers building feeding stations in my shanty...  Moved the shack, blocked the holes etc...  Nothing worked.  Finally had enough of them and put a stop to the madness of them chasing all the fish off every time they came up or around the holes in the shack.  A couple pelts on the shanty wall followed by a nice pair of mitts!

[guesak]

Great story .  Suckers and char what a mixed bag!  One thing that will extend your night on the ice would be to light up the hole with a submerged light or car light on a deep cell.  I use a crappie light to extend my fishing into the night and the fish love it!
You know those muskrats make great mittens!      Had the same problem about 6 years back with the buggers building feeding stations in my shanty...  Moved the shack, blocked the holes etc...  Nothing worked.  Finally had enough of them and put a stop to the madness of them chasing all the fish off every time they came up or around the holes in the shack.  A couple pelts on the shanty wall followed by a nice pair of mitts!

Ooo...mittens!  Hats?  Ok, a trapping license might be in order.  This isn't the first time I had this happen. 

Has far as the underwater lights go, here's what i was using.  It draws 2.3 amps:
http://www.fishinglightsetc.com/MagnumLED.html

Here's a pic against my SUV's headlights:


I have another set that I can use while my kayak is under way but I think I can modify slightly to use as a "down the hole" set of lights.


Supposedly the equivalent of a 50watt halogen light each.  I have them set up to mount on my kayak like so:


Didn't use them this summer since I was fishing hard enough during daylight hours that well...I was sleeping during the dark hours.  I think they are going to work great though if I can ever stay awake long enough.

All powered by a 12 volt 18 amp hour sealed rechargeable battery.  A bit heavy but its what powers all my electronics on my kayak.  My fishfinder, lights, and great recharger when i am on the beach for phones and etc. 

[PikeSticker]

Yeah, those muskrats can be a problem. A friend set up his spearing shack over about 5 feet of water. Within 5 days a muskrat had deposited enough mud and weeds on the bottom in the center of his spear hole to reach the surface of the water. That is the way they make those mud/weed "push ups" you see under the snow here and there on some lakes. Its a pile of debris stacked up from the bottom of the lake to keep an air hole open. I've found a 1 1/2 jump trap hanging in the auger hole usually contributes to my friend's trap line baits rather quickly.  Kitties and coyotes love'em.

Last winter I tried experimenting with one of those 9 inch clamp on reflector shop lights and a 14 watt fluorescent light that puts out 60 watt equivalent. Put a couple sticks across a ten inch hole, set the light on that and plugged in the extension cord to a 400 watt inverter plugged into my truck cig liter socket. After 4 hours of running the light the drawdown on the battery was so slight that when I started the engine the charge needle didn't even move to top the battery off. Really the way to go if you need to conserve battery power. And it lit up a pretty wide chunk of water. Worked great for good exposure on my UW camera. Only bad thing was it didn't help catch any lakers that night.

[guesak]

Yeah, those muskrats can be a problem. A friend set up his spearing shack over about 5 feet of water. Within 5 days a muskrat had deposited enough mud and weeds on the bottom in the center of his spear hole to reach the surface of the water. That is the way they make those mud/weed "push ups" you see under the snow here and there on some lakes. Its a pile of debris stacked up from the bottom of the lake to keep an air hole open. I've found a 1 1/2 jump trap hanging in the auger hole usually contributes to my friend's trap line baits rather quickly.  Kitties and coyotes love'em.

Last winter I tried experimenting with one of those 9 inch clamp on reflector shop lights and a 14 watt fluorescent light that puts out 60 watt equivalent. Put a couple sticks across a ten inch hole, set the light on that and plugged in the extension cord to a 400 watt inverter plugged into my truck cig liter socket. After 4 hours of running the light the drawdown on the battery was so slight that when I started the engine the charge needle didn't even move to top the battery off. Really the way to go if you need to conserve battery power. And it lit up a pretty wide chunk of water. Worked great for good exposure on my UW camera. Only bad thing was it didn't help catch any lakers that night.

I have never had any luck fishing at night throiugh the ice for anything but burbot.  We used to hit the burbot hard and in all that time, i think I've caught one char and a few small rainbows as we jigged stuff while waiting on our set lines.  I bought the light for open water applications where I know I have attracted them in with headlights of my car next to boat ramps at lakes.  I also catch trout hand over fist when it's dark during open water but like I said very very rarely through the ice. 

I don't see it working on this lake either since I did not see a single small fish come in after those copepods.  The lights definitely did the job attracting the bottom of the food chain, but I think what's supposed to happen is they in turn attract baitfish which in turn attracts the bigger fish.  Didn't happen yesterday.  Well ya got to try it to know I guess.  Still it made for good sight fishing and I still may use it just to be able to see the burbot come n when I am fishing them.  I'll try it a few more times, maybe when the trout are still active.  Maybe the light is bright enough to still attract the copepods while the small fish are still active. 

[Barleydog]

That green submersible should work nicely!!  I have caught char, salmon, rainbows, and pike in some of our local lakes at night up until 10 pm.   I don't know why 10 pm or approximately that time is closing time, but it is.  We just got tired of not being able to fish after 3 pm due to darkness, and this was the way I extended our time on the ice.  What worked best turning the dark lake around the shack into a daylight buffet was an old "Mr. Crappie" light, (which is really just an older model car light surrounded by Styrofoam to make it float with a 10 ft. cord and battery clips.)  Anyways, the light slides inside of a 10" hole, so I just cut a hole outside the shack ALMOST all the way to water leaving around 4-5" of ice left on the bottom.  Then slide the light down the hole and clamp it onto the deep cell.  You would be amazed at how bright it is down there!!!  I'm talking brighter than daylight, so after experimenting, we had to move the hole 10 ft. or so outside the shack.  Fish acted like it was daylight outside, even the pike would slide in for a peek.  I don't think it would work for deeper lakers, but I haven't tried it either...  I use a pretty big deep cell which lasts the night but it's pretty heavy! 
Give it a try.... It's a load of fun and works pretty slick. 

[guesak]

That green submersible should work nicely!!  I have caught char, salmon, rainbows, and pike in some of our local lakes at night up until 10 pm.   I don't know why 10 pm or approximately that time is closing time, but it is.  We just got tired of not being able to fish after 3 pm due to darkness, and this was the way I extended our time on the ice.  What worked best turning the dark lake around the shack into a daylight buffet was an old "Mr. Crappie" light, (which is really just an older model car light surrounded by Styrofoam to make it float with a 10 ft. cord and battery clips.)  Anyways, the light slides inside of a 10" hole, so I just cut a hole outside the shack ALMOST all the way to water leaving around 4-5" of ice left on the bottom.  Then slide the light down the hole and clamp it onto the deep cell.  You would be amazed at how bright it is down there!!!  I'm talking brighter than daylight, so after experimenting, we had to move the hole 10 ft. or so outside the shack.  Fish acted like it was daylight outside, even the pike would slide in for a peek.  I don't think it would work for deeper lakers, but I haven't tried it either...  I use a pretty big deep cell which lasts the night but it's pretty heavy! 
Give it a try.... It's a load of fun and works pretty slick.

For some reason, i didn't even think about using something like that since it isn't submersible but there is no need to cut all the way through the ice!  Brilliant!  As long as I have a tote sled, the extra weight should be manageable.  I may just have to give that a try sometime!  Does it melt the ice and then pop the bulb though?  I guess if its made to float on water, that shouldn't be an issue.  thanks for the tip!

[Barleydog]

Let me know how you do!  Good luck!!