After a warm early winter followed by two months of liquid nitrogen like temps it finally warmed up and I made it out for the first time this winter.
I loaded up the sled to head to my favorite little laker lake but missed my turn off.
I ended up riding for a while because the trail I found myself on was just too much fun plus I need to get myself into shape for the big trip in March. I ended up putting about 110 KMs on the sled today with a lot of the riding on tight and twisty trails like this.
I eventually made my way back to the big lake and decided I would run out to some islands and see if I could find some whitefish. The wind had picked up so I took shelter behind one of the islands and checked depth through the ice with my trusty LX-5. First spot 20', nah lets look a little deeper
second spot 30' and I'm marking fish through the ice.
I start up the auger (after changing the plug because I went and flooded it
) and drill through 3 1/2 feet of clear black ice. Dropped the transducer in the hole and start marking fish, a good sign.
Start my jigging with a 3" hammered 1/2 & 1/2 williams, got a lot of looks but no takers. So I switched to a different rod with a Badd Boyz jig and crappie tube, as soon as I dropped it down the hole fish started swarming it but wouldn't commit.
I eventually tried thumping bottom with it and then slowly raised it about a foot off bottom had a follow and as I moved it up a little bit more the fish drilled it!!!!
After 4 or 5 min I get the fish close. I had visions of a sweet 24" whitefish but it wasn't to be. Ended up being a pike about 24". Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.