ready for some ice fishing?

[flytire 0]

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1244090/Thousands-descend-ice-fishing-festival-catch-trout-bare-hands.html

[mikechell 0]

Geezo Peezo !!!
That's a couple of nightmares wrapped up together.

I hate the cold.

I hate crowds.

 

Plus, I have no desire to "ice fish". That's just scary, right there.

[FlaFly 0]

Hope they keep their worms warm! :-)

[J-Kno 0]

Stocking 32 tons of trout daily... wow... a Purina Trout Chow imitation should do the trick... Looks like they changed the name to AquaMax...

[FlaFly 0]

By the time they drill that many holes in the ice, it'll probably break up and drown the lot! I'll stick to fishing in liquid water.

[crazy4oldcars 0]

Too hard to cut the trough to cast in.

I'm with Mike. Too many people, and too damned cold.

There is a reason I still live down here in the Piney woods. That fluffy white stuff and hard water are very rare. If it starts becoming commonplace, I'm headed South. (OK, Southwest)

 

Kirk B.

[Adam Saarinen 0]

Ice fishing is shit & booring! Trust me!

[kennebec12 0]

Haha, I was just thinking about digging my traps out and getting them cleaned up and ready to go. I'd hate to be on that lake though, I like quiet lakes with the only other people out fishing a half mile away. Ice "fishing" is boring, usually it's more about catching a buzz than fish which usually is not that boring (just don't ride or a snowmobile or you may well end up with OUI). Finding legal fishing open water in Maine in January or February is a joke, maybe a few raging rapids and dam outflows are open but that's about it (Most years the brackish water freezes too and some years the ocean). I'm usually good for 5 or 6 trips out ice fishing, and if you know how to read an icy lake the best brook trout and some very good salmon and muskies are caught. I will say that smelt fishing is one of my favorite past times, hanging out in the smelt camp with a few buddies with the little woodstove roaring, watching the lines, reaching over your buddies head and dragging the line so they grab it and pull it up and keep 'missing' fish, the old rituals like making someone bite the first smelts head off. Good times. I love the cold, especially now that I have a new job and shoveling is no longer one my tasks. If I had the money I'd buy a summer home in Alaska and never deal with the heat again.

[corney 0]

Although I agree with Mike that is ridiculous! I do have an ice shack that I set up in the lake out in front of my house. Ice fishing is about what is described above. I have a wood stove and a propane Little Buddy heater in there. We cook up deer sausage and eat smoked fish. We also may partake in a few Pilsners or whiskers!

 

It is not about the catching but is about the fishing. It becomes a little shanty town with little shacks scattered all over the lake.

[vicrider 0]

Having spent 40 years in MN, 20 of them up next to the Boundary Waters, I have many great ice fishing days behind me. WAY behind me. Used to go out on trout lake in the morning with the sun coming up and temps so cold frost flakes would form in the air. -20 was not unusual up there. You didn't spend a lot of time setting up. Drill a couple of holes, set your shack up, fire up the heat, then go out and bank the bottom of the tent up good. Break out the coffee, set up a chair and enjoy several nice hours and almost always put some nice fish on the ice. Rainbows and splake were the primary fish stocked in the trout lakes but carryover was good every year so sizes could be very nice. Normally fish from 10-20" would go home for the pan. Walleyes and northerns would be good at times and surprisingly bass and catfish were readily available on early ice.

 

Strangest trip I ever had was on a lake that had experienced heavy slushing. The smart guys stomped down a pad for their popups. I shoveled a nice pad for mine. Got it set up and water from slush kept coming up until I was fishing in about 6" of water. Not a big thing for me since I had felt lined rubber boots but the first nice fish I pulled through the hole I suddenly realized what the problem was now. Chasing a 2# fish around an ice shack full ankle deep water. Never thought I'd need a net ice fishing. I'd finally tire them out and pin them against the wall with the ice scoop and get ahold of them to toss on ice.

 

Used to fish on Lake Superior ice a lot too. It was always funny when there'd be several houses near each other and the ice would make a big cracking sound. First silence, then a dozen zippers flying open to see if we were trolling. Almost every year some guys would take a ride on the ice and Coast Guard would go get them. Just people...no gear. You'd have to go out on your own to rescue you gear or hope the chunk blew back in the next day. I had a 12' flat bottomed boat with three ice runners welded to bottom I'd pull out with us on questionable ice. Did use it once as a bridge between shore ice and lake ice when the lake ice shifted and left about a 3' gap between where we were fishing and Beaver Bay River.

 

No, I moved south to give up ice fishing and snow shoveling but actually we had a lot of good times out on the ice and Mille Lacs Lake actually had plowed roads and street signs it was so popular for perch and walleye fishing with ice shacks that rivaled many people's shore cabins...and were used as shore cabins in the summer.

[nick2011 0]

Geezo Peezo !!!

That's a couple of nightmares wrapped up together.

I hate the cold.

I hate crowds.

 

Plus, I have no desire to "ice fish". That's just scary, right there.

LOL, ice fishing is awsome, its the only place i know were you can sit on the lake covered by ice wearing pants ans a light sweater on a nice day..plus watching fish come through the hole gets your blood pumping.

[mikechell 0]

I'll take my shorts and a tee shirt on New Years day, catching bass and sunfish from my boat. Watching them splash around on good ol' soft, liquid water.