2-2-2014 -- Handmade swiss cheese, south of the border

[Jigman13]

Met up with GetANet yesterday on a local lake in middlesex cty at about 730 AM. Traveling light, we huffed it out onto the lake carrying a back pack full of tip ups, a bucket of some the liveliest shiners I've seen in a while, a 30-lb spud bar, and 2 small jigging sets ups (which barely got used lol). We set up shop in a cove, starting somewhat "shallow" and made our way out into deeper territory as the day progressed. Now, this was only my second ice fishing excursion ever after last week's meet n greet on LH--where everyone had augers and holes were being blasted in the ice left and right. I felt like yesterday was my initiation into the ice fishing realm... My hands and shoulders are pretty sore from hand chopping who the hell knows how many holes in the ice lol. We fished 8 tips ups and prob punched close to 16 holes throughout the day--in 5-8 inch ice. Definitely a work out!

Back to the fishing... I lost count of the number of flags that went up. My guess is that we had close to 20 by the end of the day. Lots of grabs, runs and drops by the fish as well as a bunch of swings and misses by yours truly. The shiners were prob larger than what most perch could normally ingest. The largies ate em' up pretty good. When all was said and done, we landed 8 fish. 5 perch and 3 nice bass. Unfortunately, a number of the few nice runs came up empty--but thats fishing!

After seeing all the tip ups out at LH during the MNG and only one flag go up, it was crazy watching them steadily pop up yesterday throughout the day. I was even fortunate enough to watch a line go from straight down, to steadily increasing circles, to a FLAG! Pretty damn cool... I think I'm hooked! Here's a few pics. I'm sure we'll be back at it as temps begin to drop down again.

Thanks for the tip-ups Dale!

[kmaty]

Way to go guys! Jigman it truly turns into a addiction!

[iceehot6766]

Good production guys!!!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Very nice job boyz! Glad you got in on the ice action. Definately good for the mental health. Sitting around waiting for open water sucks. I said it once, I'll say it again! There is always something to catch 12 months out of the year here in our amazing little state. Great job!!!! Nice looking fish.

YEA BUDDY!!!!!:D

[GetANet]

All I can say about yesterday is , it was just one of those days were it all came together. Flags were at a pretty steady rate for the better part of the day. When it slowed a bit we would chop a hole and move a bait and BOOM the flags would start again. With the beautiful weather and the great fishing it was surely a day I won't forget soon!

Jeremy earned his ice maniac badge for sure. I set him up with some tip ups and his first official depth finder. Now he just needs a sled and an auger and he's a fully equipped ice fisherman. Always a blast when we get together!

In addition it ended up being a RECON mission as well because it's shore line access only so was great being out on the ice checking depths as well!

[kmaty]

Getanet does anybody bother you over there as far as being on the ice? I have the access but don't wana trec my thousand lbs of gear back and get kicked off!

[Mikey topaz]

Nice report guys, good looking fish too. Hey jeremy just wait u think ur hooked now wait til you get a few tip ups then a jig rod then somthing else hahah its all down hill from here buddy, good stuff guys!

[jimmythegreek]

good job boys, way to get Jeremy hooked Dale LOL.....what else u gonna do while waiting for this damn ice to melt so we can catch wipers!

[GetANet]

OH SO TRUE JIMMY!!!! LOL!

It was just one flag after another with a few near doubles. We fished from about 8 till 4 and even had another near double whistle flag. Good experience for Jigman to practice setting the hook or NOT!!!! The bait we had was like turbocharged or something. Large were LARGE and Med were large and they were kicking, when you put them in the hole they dove off taking the line right down into the hole! We missed SO many perch because they would grab the shiner and run and couldn't swallow the bait.

What's everyone's opinion on how to set the hook ?

[Mikey topaz]

Let em run and swallow it to their a$$! Throw some size 8 hooks and and drop some mousies down lol

[Jigman13]

Yea, I swung and missed a lot on Sunday. It seemed like the fish were coming up from low weed beds, taking the bait, then scurrying back down. Not many really took off. Baits would come back scaled from mid dorsal back to the tail...just missing the hook. And it's not like I was trying to fire up a chainsaw or lawn mower either when I went to set the hook lol.

Hope I can get another crack at it this wknd. Maybe flatheads on #8 hooks would help land more fish???

I'm def hooked thanks to you nut jobs. Been looking at ice gear between meetings today at work hahaha