More ice fishing with friends

[Mark Knapp 0]

The ice finally got thick enough to deploy the hard fish house.

Had a beautiful sunset the first day.

The rainbows are pretty in this lake and some of them get big. I'm hunting for a thirty incher this year.I normally fish wit one baited pole and one without bait. I catch most of my big ones on the pole with no bait. They've seen it all before.

My first double of the trip. I caught 47 fish on this day.

Other friends were in the "escape pod" close by. They've got three 18 - 20 inch rainbows outside.

One of my 18 inchers. Depending on which fins are missing, you can tell in what years these trout have been caught in a test net.

Dave with a good'n.

This one was 22 1/4 inches.

It got up to eighty degrees in the house, had to shed some clothes.

This is an average fish for this lake. My notes say we've let go about 175 of these so far this winter.

[cphubert 0]

9 hours ago, Mark Knapp said:

hard fish house.

Mark is that house homebuilt?

[feathers5 0]

How much ice do you need to support your house? Thanks for the photos.

[kerusso 0]

That looks like a lot of fun.  I've never ice fished. Sounds like you guys had a very good day with size and numbers.

[Mark Knapp 0]

6 hours ago, cphubert said:

Mark is that house homebuilt?

Yep, I built it off of my old boat trailer. When I'm ready to move I crank it up with the winch and hook it to the truck.

[Mark Knapp 0]

5 hours ago, feathers5 said:

How much ice do you need to support your house? Thanks for the photos.

I'm sure I could put it out a little earlier but I wait for a minimum of 14 inches.

[Mark Knapp 0]

2 hours ago, kerusso said:

That looks like a lot of fun.  I've never ice fished. Sounds like you guys had a very good day with size and numbers.

Yep, it's great fun. The most I've ever caught in one day is 126. The biggest ever was a 28 inch rainbow.

[skeet3t 0]

Nice! I was on Madison Lake, west of Columbus, OH, about 65 years ago. Ice was 2 feet thick. Driving cars on it. Don't recall any ice fishermen.

[niveker 0]

Nice fish & photos Mark.

[Poopdeck 0]

Again I'm envious of your ice fishing. So far I've only seen ice on my windshield in the morning. There's still hope. 

[cphubert 0]

1 hour ago, Poopdeck said:

There's still hope. 

It started to lock up the small ponds then that rain and wind killed everything, Praying for a arctic blast I don't have to go to work anymore😁

[Mark Knapp 0]

1 hour ago, Poopdeck said:

Again I'm envious of your ice fishing. So far I've only seen ice on my windshield in the morning. There's still hope. 

You might need to move north some.

[vicrider 0]

Great pics but also the reason I moved south. Gave me a good reason to sell my fish houses, my power auger, and all my ice fishing gear. You are right though that fishing in a quality house with good heat makes a huge difference. All I ever had were popups but they made things tolerable with a small propane to keep things warm. Never got into fish like you did though. Well, except for lake trout on Lake Superior. 4-12 #s was readily available when ice got safe to get out. Almost every year some fishermen took a ride on the ice and had to get rescued by CG. 

[Mark Knapp 0]

On 1/4/2021 at 5:04 PM, Poopdeck said:

Again I'm envious of your ice fishing. So far I've only seen ice on my windshield in the morning. There's still hope. 

I PM'd you